“So many local schools are having to withdraw a lot of their beautiful after-school clubs that they used to offer, things like the sports and arts clubs.
“Education always used to be the fastest route out of poverty — that change in aspirations for our families and our pupils means they can’t see a route out of poverty.
“Our children are losing their aspiration because they don’t see a value in education.”
Parents are struggling with “extreme NHS waiting lists” for paediatric and neurological services, with schoolgirls suffering from period poverty.
“When I started as a teacher it was very much about working with a child, now it’s with families,” she said.
Michael Allen, deputy headteacher at a Wiltshire primary school, said: “We are working really hard to help with child poverty… we now see that as part of our job as a teacher.
“We have become a safety net. We are happy to be that safety net because otherwise it wouldn’t be there.”
Asked about Labour’s proposed disability benefit cuts, special school headteacher Kari Anson said: “I’m really scared about the potential welfare cuts.
“That will affect a huge amount of young people within the Send [special educational needs] sector — that really worries me beause that mean things potentially can only get worse.”
The NEU survey also revealed that 74 per cent of school support staff saw pupils with poverty-related poor hygiene, in inadequate clothing or shoes (72 per cent) and pupils showing signs of hunger (69 per cent).
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Child poverty is a political choice, one that has been sustained by successive governments which have failed to get to grips with the solutions.
“It is profoundly worrying that in one of the richest countries in the world, we continue to expect schools to plug the gap.
“The reality is that child poverty is rising, not falling. Instead of reducing it, the government is making the lives of 4.5 million young people and their parents more difficult.
“Whether it’s the two-child limit or welfare cuts, the end result is the same: more suffering for the most vulnerable in society.”
The Department for Education was contacted for comment.
