Ongoing awareness raising
Regular communication about school context and the challenges families are facing can make a big difference to poverty awareness and understanding among school staff.
Margaret Johnstone, is the Support Services Coordinator at Balwearie High School in Fife:
“It's absolutely about communication. We speak at Principal Teacher meetings, and have delivered presentations at all staff meetings about Cost of the School Day, share with them our data regarding deciles 1 and 2, make them understand what that means, share the free school meal numbers with them and show how many young people we have who match that data. Explain the locality, show our catchment area maps with the levels of poverty in the local area. Now our teaching staff have really taken that information on board. I think that Covid changed that as well. We know that these kids are really struggling.”