Research and Social Policy Briefing Paper N o .11, June 2002 The Smith Family 1 Introduction As an organisation involved in assisting the disadvantaged through the promotion of social capability, The Smith Family (TSF) holds firmly to the conviction that education is critical to unlocking opportunities for disadvantaged Australians. The Smith Family’s Learning for Life (LFL) program is an intervention that provides both material and non-material support to families and children in financial disadvantage (see Zappalà & Parker 2000 for a brief history of the program). A key objective of the program is to make the educational experience of students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds more participatory and inclusive. In part, the program arose as a result of previous research and needs analysis by TSF that suggested that many students miss out on school excursions and special events because of the costs involved. Studies have consistently shown that many students choose different electives or sporting choices because their families cannot afford the cost and many parents feel anxious about not being able to provide the uniforms and ‘extras’ that other children can enjoy (Orr 1994; TSF 1997). Other research has found that parents keep children away from school because they cannot pay the required costs of school activities (Grogan 1997). This can lead to the marginalisation of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds within the school community, which may lead to exclusion and victimisation (Brew et al 1996). This can also result in negative educational outcomes, such as early school leaving and lower achievement levels (Ayers-Wearne et al 1996; Brooks et al 1997). The LFL program aims to assist students become involved in mainstream school activities by being able to participate in excursions and electives such as art, music and woodwork. The program currently supports 16,000 students with a target of 70,000 by 2004/5. A key value of the program is that by giving children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to participate more fully in the education process, their life opportunities and self-esteem will improve and they will have a better chance of not falling into a cycle of disadvantage. Our previous research on the program has focused on the relationship between financial disadvantage and educational performance (Zappalà & Considine 2001; Considine & Zappalà 2001, 2002). This paper presents new preliminary data on what students on the Learning for Life program think about its effectiveness in enhancing their ability to participate fully in their school life. This forms part of TSF’s on-going evaluation of the Learning for Life program and forthcoming papers will examine its impact on other areas such as school retention. Background to the Data The data presented in this paper were collected as part of The Smith Family’s School to adult life transitions through work and study project. This is a three-year longitudinal study of LFL and is being conducted with the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training (ACIRRT) at the University of Sydney (see Smyth et al 2002). In 2001, the first of three annual surveys was conducted with a sample of students in Years 8 and 11. It was sent to 1959 students in Years 8 and 11 in September 2001. 1 Of these, 1242 were returned, giving an overall response rate of 63 per cent, which is very high for a mail questionnaire. 2 While the majority of survey questions explored school to adult life transition issues, several questions related to how students felt about aspects of the LFL program. In particular, these questions explored students’ assessment of the impact of the program as well as how they felt it could be improved. This paper focuses on how students rated the effect of being on LFL with respect to their ability to attend school excursions, participate in school electives and their self-esteem. 3 It should be noted that these findings are preliminary, as they are not yet matched with a range of student background data, such as parental education, labour market status, health, age, school, and location. This matching and analysis will occur later in 2002. 4 No 11, June 2002 www.smithfamily.com.au everyone’s family Promoting participation and inclusion at school: A progress report on TSF’s Learning for Life program CIARA SMYTH, GIANNI ZAPPALÀ & GILLIAN CONSIDINE