To not understand the fixation on attendance?

And this phenomenon where kids are told they are not allowed to attend a school prom or not allowed to attend an end of year trip because of attendance - these have to stop.

I am sick to the back teeth of hearing these policies implemented with young people being absolutely gutted, particularly where there is an academy CEO who seems unanswerable to the public and is happy to take a six figure salary from the public purse.

I agree completely. It's so much pressure on schools which schools then pass on to parents.

I'm on a board of governors and how attendance is talked about is ridiculous like children should never be ill and should come in regardless.

I've read that attendance is worse than ever. I wonder if anyone has considered that it's got worse as schools have been forced to put more and more pressure on parents creating dislike and resentment and maybe if schools were able to focus more on working with parents and students they would have betters outcomes.

The issue there is disengagement.

Being dragged into school will not necessarily improve this.

A local school recently gave a student a bike for not having a single day off for the whole of primary school, even through covid. I struggle to believe a child could go two years without having a single cough cold or raised temperature, so while other parents were abiding by the Covid rules, his parents were not.

Children cannot help being poorly, being lucky enough to not get poorly for a whole year is reward enough!

But is that mixing up cause and effect? A Sen child without support is likely to get poor grades whether they attend school or not, the issue is that they don’t have support, which can cause further issues that contribute to the poor attendance.

it’s like the other line that gets trotted out to justify putting children with high needs in mainstream rather than specialist, becuase children in main stream do better academically than children in special schools, of course they do as you are comparing apples with pears.

Attendance is easy to measure.

Things that are easy to measure are easy to set measurable targets for.

Setting targets is a mechanism for control

I agree. My DD was very unwell in years 7-9, still not great in years 10-11 but she worked so hard at home if not in school. Genuine ill health. She’s predicted top grades at GCSE, so the below 70% attendance in year 9 hasn’t affected her. The school got a bit arsey with me until I reminded them it was them calling me to pick her up constantly, so once when they rang I told them I was being sent letters about attendance so maybe best she sits quietly for 30 mins and see if she’s well enough to stay. They rang back in 5 mins saying she was upset so I went to get her

I haven't heard her speech so will have to have a listen. In my work I sometimes see families whose children have consistently low attendance eg 60%, or who don't go at all, this is often where there might be difficulties happening at home or occasionally safeguarding, and even when families are highly supported by services, attendance can remain low for children who do have lots of potential if they were to access school more. So from that perspective I'd be interested in what she said. I agree otherwise though for most families it's not relevant is it as attendance isn't an issue.

I disagree when in comes to holidays. Illness is of course different. There are plenty of holidays that can be used. In one week you can miss a whole unit of maths, all the English inputs towards an independent write as well as lessons in Science, History etc. It is almost impossible to help all those children who regularly go on holiday to catch up. They will have ongoing gaps, which parents will then blame on teachers.
I value travel and experiences highly, however most children taken on holiday in term time seem to be off to somewhere like Disneyland or to sit by a pool.

School showed us a graph with a direct correlation between lack of attendance and low grades.

Totally agree op.
It's ridiculous.

Attendance and sats.

You don’t fatten a pig by keep weighing it.

I totally agree. If I was education secretary the very first thing I would be doing is ending this stupid obsession with 100% attendance!
Especially as it's largely out of the school's power and puts unfair stress on them. And also on children who are expected to go to school whilst unwell.

Other countries do things so much better.

My family live in a European country (not especially known for being ‘progressive’) where all this over focus on attendance is just not a thing. They outperform us in league tables for academic and mental health of children.

Correlation. It's probably somewhere where parents care about education. A big slice of British parents don't. And have to be forced.