We are delighted to welcome Nicola Garrard, author of the unmissable On the Edge, to the blog for a powerful and urgent piece discussing the experiences of rural working class children in school, and how librarians are creating an inclusive space that transforms life opportunities.
‘Teachers do not know what to do with a boy like Rhys’ On the Edge
There’s no doubt that working-class children are disadvantaged and stigmatised. In my new novel, On the Edge, I’ve tried to show what that feels like. Rhys, the hero, is excluded from school, drops out of college and can only find low-paid seasonal work. With traditional career paths eroded and second homes driving up rents, Rhys’s family faces homelessness – and he becomes dangerously radicalised.
Working-class boys like Rhys are more likely to be excluded and sanctioned, achieve lower grades and are less likely to access higher education. Amid debates on masculinity, we must acknowledge that disaffection – leading to nearly one million NEETs nationally and growing antisocial behaviour, far-right extremism and flashpoints of rioting – is seeded by the very education system that congratulates itself as the solution.
‘At school, boys like Rhys are always either too big or too small; too big when they move and too small when they open their mouths.’ On the Edge
For the 31% of UK children living in poverty, school punishments are a fact of life, in particular for uniform code breaches, like wearing trainers when school shoes no longer fit. A Year 8 I taught on an exclusion project chose detentions over the shame of wearing uniform he’d outgrown. When the education charity I work for replaced his trousers, he was back in the classroom.
Middle-class advantage is baked into the school system – in values, rewards, punishments and the curriculum. Seeking to raise aspiration, degree-educated teachers present manual and semi-skilled work as the measure of failure. I have heard colleagues utter variations of ‘You don’t want to be a cleaner or work in Tesco’s for the rest of your life’ to children whose parents do exactly that.
“The education system is designed to reward those who are already privileged, while punishing those who have the least.” David Gillborn
Children from wealthier families avoid clashing with school rules simply by being affluent; their parents wash and dry PE kit the same day, replace the third lost scientific calculator that year with a
next-day delivery, and top up lunch accounts at the ping of a text. Compare school reward data to weekend library use and you’ll see how achievement and praise correlates to having access to books,
computers, printers and paper.
Over 150,000 children in the UK are homeless. They lack a place to study, can’t own or keep books, have no quiet space; there is no incentive to join the local library or youth clubs. As a teacher, I gave
after-school detentions to a Year 7 boy for lateness – only to discover that he and his mum were living in emergency hostels and women’s shelters. At 11, he deserved an award for making it to school at all.
Participation in wider school life is also closed to rural working class young people. Unlike Scotland, there’s no free public transport for under-22s in England and Wales, so sports fixtures, after-school
clubs and staying to do homework in libraries are often impossible. Many don’t consider sixth form because transport costs over £600 a year, while affluent peers are bought cars that open doors to part-
time work – and the volunteering opportunities needed for university applications.
‘Beware of spoiling young men’s futures; ‘they will become a flapping, snapping moray on the deck, electrics firing long after they’ve been clubbed on the head.’ On the Edge
On the Edge has a white hot seam of anger running through it. It explores the world of work, housing, relationships, education, transport and tourism through the eyes of rural working class boys who are much misunderstood, often demonised and undervalued. It shows the traps that caught young people I grew up with – depression, self-medicating with drugs, risky and self-harming behaviours – and warns of tipping points into civil disobedience (see Dame De Souza’s report) when basic needs for housing, work and a sense of agency are ignored.
Fortunately, school libraries offer a vital counterbalance to increasingly ubiquitous zero-tolerance academy-chain corporate schooling. Over the course of dozens of state school author visits, I’ve met many librarians who reflect deeply on their collections, analyse the demographics of their library users and volunteers, and curate books by working-class authors. They go out of their way to create
welcoming and inclusive spaces, perhaps in part inspired by CLPE’s Reflecting Realities reports
which have given educators a framework for thinking about difference. A similar report on representations of class in YA and Children’s literature would be very welcome.
Here’s some ways school libraries are welcoming working-class and lower-income children:
1. Quirky clubs and events:
○ “Speed Dating” with books!
○ “Library Lock-in” with pizza and games for PP students
○ “Book Food” events (menus/cooking inspired by stories)
○ “Escape Room” book hunts with riddles and challenges.
○ Creative Writing/Fan Fiction clubs: NLT recently found that working class children
are more engaged in creative writing than their affluent peers.
○ Open Mic Club for budding poets and rappers, with poetry collections for them to
browse.
○ “Charge Up with a Book” Club: swap 10 minutes of device charging for 10 minutes of reading (with quick, readable titles such as Barrington Stoke and Oxford Rollercoasters)
○ “Artists in the Library” Club, make book-inspired art using paint, air-drying clay, lego, collage
○ UNO/Jigsaw Club: to get them through the door!
2. Stock:
○ Promote working class authors: Alex Wheatle, Anthony McGowan, Brian Conaghan, Natasha Carthew, Margaret McDonald, Malorie Blackman.
○ Stock comics, magazines, audio books, song lyrics, blogs, wordless books, verse novels and graphic novels.
○ Encourage ‘reading young’ by stocking picture books in secondary libraries (ostensibly to read to young siblings) to consolidate literacy without pressure.
○ Challenge students to shape the collection by finding a title to propose for their school or public library.
○ Issue post-it notes to readers to leave a message/score to the next reader.
○ Run student-led diversity and inclusion audits to check their library reflects the community
○ Partner with public libraries for family sign-up events.
○ Run a public library trip for a tour – invite parents/carers.
○ Promote the local library in school newsletters/website.
These initiatives create a real sense of belonging in schools where working-class culture and achievement is undervalued or ignored. No wonder Dav, in On the Edge, heads to his school library when he needs some answers. He knows the librarian will help him.
References:
1. Working-class pupils let down by decades of neglect:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-
committee/news/156024/forgotten-white-workingclass-pupils-let-down-by-decades-of-
neglect-mps-
say/#:~:text=GCSE%20performance%3A%20In%202019%20just,not%20achieve%20two%2
0strong%20passes.
2. School exclusions and masculine, working-class identities: Jean Kane,
www.docs.hss.ed.ac.uk/education/creid/NewsEvents/03v_BERASeminar_Paper_jk.pdf
3. Professor S Agarwal et al, Disadvantage in English seaside resorts: A typology of deprived
neighbourhoods, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517718301237
4. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-
writing-in-2025/
5. Children’s involvement in the 2024 riots, Dame R de Souza,
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/childrens-involvement-in-the-2024-riots/
A big thank you to Nicola Garrard for the blog and to Old Barn Books for the opportunity.
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