Pretty Poverty: Rural School Participation and Belonging in Cornwall with International Perspective

Abstract

School attendance crises are rarely understood through the lens of place-based disadvantage. This paper examines how rural poverty systematically undermines educational belonging and school participation, using Cornwall, England, as an exemplar case study with broader international significance. Drawing on qualitative data from the Pretty Poverty Report (Ovenden-Hope et al., 2025), I analyse how transport dependency, employment precarity, housing displacement, healthcare withdrawal, and educational isolation create cascading barriers to participation and belonging in rural contexts. I situate Cornwall's experience within international evidence, demonstrating that rural educational disadvantage is a persistent global phenomenon requiring place-sensitive policy responses. The paper argues that belonging-centred, place-based approaches offer more promising pathways to improving attendance than individualised interventions