Parts of the UK are still so poor that life "mirrors the times of Dickens", a teachers' leader has said.
Children from some of the poorest communities are going to school unable to dress themselves, use a knife and fork, or without being toilet trained, Lesley Ward, the new president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said.
Some children face such deprivation that schools face a tough task to change their life chances, she said.
"There are perfectly healthy children who enter school not yet toilet-trained," she said.
"Children who cannot dress themselves, children who only know how to eat with a spoon and have never sat around a table to enjoy a home-cooked family meal.
"Children who don't know who will be at home when they get home - if anyone. Children who don't know who the father figure is in the home from month to month."
In one case a pupil watched through a classroom window as his father was led from the family home in handcuffs, Mrs Ward said. Six in 10 poor children come from families where one adult works, but they are still living in poverty.
"That's shocking isn't it - you go out to work, perhaps two or even three part-time jobs, and you are still living below the poverty line. Life mirroring the times of Dickens."
At the heart of the problem is a lack of aspiration, Ms Ward said, speaking at the ATL president's reception in London.
She said: "Shared poverty gives rise to shared attitudes, which make learning difficult. I am talking here about the worst type of poverty in education - and that is the poverty of aspiration. Attitudes like, 'Why should he stay at school? I didn't and I manage'."
