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Teachers: Citizenship: Government Central

Last Updated: Friday December 01 2006 10:31 GMT

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Child poverty - The Wrong Trainers

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Overview

One in four children in the UK live in poverty. The Wrong Trainers animation gives six of those children a powerful voice, and helps pupils empathise with their experience.

Dealing with child poverty involves difficult decisions. There won't, in the first instance, be enough money to solve all the problems. So spending must be prioritised with winners and losers. The problems shown in the film generally require big investments from central government.

Identify problems and solutions from a video comprehension and decide on their spending priorities.

Learning aims

Some of the problems facing children in poverty
Government spending decisions are political with winners and losers

Icebreaker - video comprehension

Watch the Wrong Trainers. Can you spot the problems the children have, and suggest possible solutions?

select this link for our special section where you can watch the videos

For a structured answer sheet print the link below:

Problems and solutions worksheet

Main activity

Plan the budget for a government campaign to fight child poverty

Chantell and Keona

Working in small groups, the pupils imagine they are the politicians responsible for reducing child poverty. They must choose which of these initiatives will be funded.

They have £10 million. What is it most important to do?

Politician's shopping list

More doctors to help people with kids stop taking drugs - £3 million.
Bigger drug rehabilitation centres, so kids there don't have to share rooms - £2 million.
Nice new houses for poor families living in the countryside - £2.5 million.
Counsellors to help neglected kids like Chris overcome their behaviour problems (his were stealing and compulsive eating) - £2 million.
Money to clean up parks and streams like the one in Danielle's park - £3 million.
Help for families with disabled kids, so they can afford more of the things they need - £1 million
More new homes for people with kids so they don't have to live in overcrowded conditions - £3 million.
Funding for anti-bullying initiatives - to teach kids about the problems faced by children growing up in poverty so they help them instead of bullying them - £1 million.
Youth centres in the countryside - so people there have proper things to do and don't race cars or vandalise parks - £2 million.
CCTV in the countryside - so people there have proper things to do and don't race cars or vandalise parks - £2 million.
Advertising campaign to make politicians, business people and other adults understand that poor kids need help - £1 million.

You can print this list as the worksheet:

Politicians shopping list

When their list is finished the children should write a few sentences explaining their choices, or if there is time they can make a presentations to the class.

Extension activity

'Storyboard' an item to be shown on the local television news. The news report will put the case for tackling one problem that they think needs money spent on it urgently.

Plenary

However public money is spent there will always be winners and losers. The Government would need to supply extra money to buy everything on this list. Ask students to suggest where the government could get that money from?

Teachers' Background

select this link for our Wrong Trainers special section

Curriculum links

KS2 - PSHE

1a, 2a,2c, 2e, 2j, 3f, 4d, 5h

For hundreds more lesson plans click the links on the top right hand side of this page

The Wrong Trainers

The Wrong Trainers

Dillon