Bottom of the Class: Children’s Stories of Low Attainment in Primary School

‘Laura Quick has written a vitally important book - a humane and wise exploration of the challenges faced by children who struggle in school and their brave and creative responses. A must read for everyone engaged with and interested in our education system and our children's wellbeing.’

Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, co-authors of The Spirit Level.

‘This book brings to life the human impact of a school system obsessed with attainment through the stories of four children classed as ‘low attaining’ in primary school. Their carefully researched experiences are deftly analysed to reveal the emotional effects of being both stigmatised for low attainment and simultaneously encouraged to be positive about school. Quick has produced a book which vividly details the devastating human cost of a pressurised education system, and gives us new ways to think about how schools could operate.’

Alice Bradbury, Professor of Sociology of Education, University College London, UK.

‘At the heart of this vivid book are the experiences of four children –both ordinary and extraordinary, as Laura Quick notes – who struggle with their schoolwork. Drawing on Foucault’s work, Laura challenges our accepted notions of assessment, ability, merit, resilience, and ‘happiness’. She highlights the degree of emotional labour the children are required to do on themselves to escape the humiliation of failure, and to achieve some dignity and ease in a system that is labelling them as inadequate. This excellent study should be read by teachers, parents, policy makers and others interested in understanding - and challenging - how school experiences affect and shape children, and how they respond.’

Carol Vincent, Professor and Associate Research Director for Education and Skills at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

‘In this powerful book, Laura Quick opens out to the reader stories of four children’s experiences of our current high-pressured attainment-driven system, a system underscored by a deterministic and destructive belief in each individual’s fixed-ability and hence position in society. Labelled as ‘low-attainers’, the reader is pulled into these children’s worlds as they negotiate and make sense of what appear to be established boundaries, to understand their position and to maintain their identity either as, or running counter to, that imposed on them. Their narratives richly illustrate how our current education system allows some children to construct themselves as permanent school failures by the age of 11 and serves as an important outlet for the all too often unheard voices of children who, for whatever reason, struggle to meet the current determinants of educational success.’

Rachel Marks, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, University College London, UK.