Education Today Education Today Magazine
Stark new research has laid bare how a lack of access to hygiene products due to poverty is forcing children out of the classroom, with UK teachers reporting that it’s causing pupils to miss an average of 6.5 school days per year.
The result? Children missing out on vital learning and struggling with mental health and socialising.
As the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce prepares to publish its strategy, new research from laundry brand smol, with support from national charity The Hygiene Bank, show a 68% year-on-year surge in state school teachers reporting daily instances of pupils experiencing hygiene poverty.
Teachers believe that the millions of children in hygiene poverty are more likely to under-perform academically (75%), be bullied (85%), become socially isolated (84%) and suffer poor physical health (80%) as families in poverty struggle with prioritising hygiene amidst rising costs.
Teachers say hygiene poverty is disrupting every aspect of school life, as more than 4 in 5 (89%) say pupils facing hygiene poverty find social integration harder than their peers, with over a third of teachers (39%) witnessing children avoiding eye contact and almost half seeing them sitting away from peers (49%).
Teachers note that children in hygiene poverty are avoiding PE (48%), isolating themselves from classmates, and over half (52%) are too embarrassed to attend school at all. In fact, more than 4 in 5 (84%) teachers believe these students are more likely to miss school than their peers.
Staff also report a worrying range of emotional and behavioural signs amongst pupils affected by hygiene poverty including low self-esteem (68%), low mood and anxiety (55%), visible distress (30%) and even lashing out verbally and/or physically (28%).
The issue has been brought to life through a powerful public campaign unveiled earlier this week.
Titled “Marked Absent”, the campaign features a Back to School window display in London’s financial district with five real school uniforms worn by children living in hygiene poverty, anonymously donated for the installation.
The window aims to raise awareness and driving donations to smol’s Suds in Schools programme, which has provided free mini-launderettes to more than 100 schools in the UK.
