Children in Need (CIN) have received little attention in education circles. These are children who are usually living at home but where there are concerns over their health or development due to abuse or neglect, or they are disabled. Like Children in Care (CIC, who mostly live away), educational attainments for CIN are lower than for the general pupil population, with higher levels of special educational needs. This article draws on additional analysis from a recently completed, mixed methods study into this educational attainment gap for CIN and CIC. The overall research involved quantitative analysis from official statistics of a whole-birth cohort of children (n = 471,688) born in 2000/2001 and tracked through to their General Certificate of Secondary Education exams in 2017. This was complemented by semi-structured interviews with 18 CIN and 23 CIC, parents and associated professionals. This article focuses on interviews with CIN, their parents and professionals. Two main themes emerged from this further analysis of the qualitative data. One concerned children’s problems with learning. Children said that they often struggled with their schoolwork and received insufficient classroom support to help. The second theme was that pupils and parents reported more positive experiences of learning and support in Pupil Referral Units compared with secondary schools. The overall conclusion is that attention should rightly address the social, emotional and mental health difficulties of CIN, but this should be coupled with adequate support for classroom learning.

中文翻译：

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贫困儿童的学校经历：学习和支持

贫困儿童（CIN）在教育界很少受到关注。这些儿童通常住在家里，但由于虐待或忽视，他们的健康或发育受到关注，或者他们是残疾的。与受照护儿童（CIC，他们大多居住在外）一样，CIN 的教育程度低于普通学生群体，具有更高水平的特殊教育需求。本文借鉴了最近完成的对 CIN 和 CIC 教育程度差距的混合方法研究的额外分析。总体研究涉及对全出生儿童队列的官方统计数据的定量分析（n = 471,688) 出生于 2000/2001 年，并通过了 2017 年的中等教育普通证书考试。此外，还对 18 名 CIN 和 23 名 CIC、家长和相关专业人士进行了半结构化访谈。本文重点采访 CIN、他们的父母和专业人士。对定性数据的进一步分析出现了两个主要主题。一是关注孩子的学习问题。孩子们说，他们经常在功课上遇到困难，并且没有得到足够的课堂支持来提供帮助。第二个主题是学生和家长在学生转介单位报告了更多积极的学习和支持经验与中学相比。总体结论是，注意力应该正确地解决 CIN 的社会、情感和心理健康问题，但这应该与对课堂学习的充分支持相结合。