ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION One of the key characteristics of the British system of education is that it is based on a holistic understanding of children. Despite increasing use of continuous testing and examination outcomes as the preferred ways of monitoring schools’ effectiveness, there are clearly many factors that will influence a child’s ability to learn at school, not only their intellectual capacity or the quality of their teaching. ‘Welfare’ factors may not be as evident in the Ofsted Framework as they used to be under the ‘Five Outcomes’, but they are still there, and the link between under-attainment and personal or social deprivation has to be specifically addressed, or pressures from the rest of a child’s life will inevitably impact on their learning. The best hope of reducing the impact of these wider issues is to try to address them while children are still young, if at all possible.
