ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on one group in particular: those who have been called ‘the unseen children’ – white boys eligible for free school meals. These children became the subject of a media furore at the end of 2019, when two leading private schools rejected a philanthropist’s offer of scholarships for poor white boys, on the grounds that it was discriminatory. Poverty of itself damages lives and leads to underachievement. There are many things that poor children need and often do not have in our society, whatever their ethnicity. They need shoes, a washing machine that works, a table to do homework on, the bus fare to travel beyond the estate where they live to see the wider world.
