To think the Ofsted inspector who blames WFH parents for low attendance is probably just resentful?

I haven't RTFT or the article but why single out WFH parents? Parents are at home as SAHP, not working at all for many reasons or home in the day because they work shifts for example. Why single out WFH parents from all the other parents who are at home?

The issue is not WFH though! There is an issue but he’s got it totally skewed. Why does he see his dad going off to work hours before he woke up as a positive when we don’t have to do that anymore? I WFH and can’t think of anything worse than having my kids hanging about while I’m trying to juggle work, meetings and catering to their needs. I love the fact that I get to take them to school at 8.30 and then start work 15 mins later.

He goes on to say other very serious and important factors such as lockdown and mental health

but you’ve somewhat skirted over that

if this was one of my A-level pupils, who referred to an article in an essay that they’d only actually read an abstract of, I’d have been pretty disappointed. Scrap that.., if it was a year 10 I’d have been disappointed and marked them down 😆

You started a thread being disparaging about an article that you have not actually read.
Interesting approach.
1/10 try harder

You hadn't read it when you started the thread and were asking people to break the contents down for you.

Some people wanted OP to back up their position with facts and figures more than they wanted the man in the article to back up his opinion with facts and figures..

Go figure..

🤣

YABVVU to start a thread about an article you haven’t even read and write about it in such disparaging tones.

Odd. There's not enough info to know if his assumptions are true or not. Do we know for sure that the kids off are now with wfh parents?

Do school know that info? How do school know if and when Dh and I occasionally wfh?

I can't believe you give OP such a hard time! Her initial point was entirely fair. He has not used any statistical data, it's literally just his thoughts.

And typical for Ofsted, they have not based their conclusions on reality. As someone who actually works in a school and responsible for monitoring attendance I haven't noticed any link between WFH parents and child absence. I also don't know why he is blaming lack of school nurse. I have worked in schools for 15 years and not one has ever had a nurse. The article is a perfect example of how out of touch Ofsted are.

MPs leave on a Thursday night because they have constituency days on a Friday which are incredibly busy and require a lot of forward planning.

I agree with you @JandamiHash and YANBU.

My ex worked from home (before the pandemic and still does) and it didn't impact on our children's attendance. However he did have times when he was away and if I was working then, albeit on a sporadic basis, getting the kids out to school on time for me to get to work was stressful for us all.

How bizarre to say that if your parents are in their slippers that your children won't go to school.

I agree, and fear the chief inspector may have a point. However, I feel uncomfortable about the breadth of Ofsted's remit (and about Ofsted more generally). There's something judgemental and intrusive about Ofsted choosing to pronounce on this. The implication is that parents, yet again, are to blame. In some cases, they are of course. And not all of them will be working from home, especially with older pupils. There's worklessness and parents choosing to be at home to be considered too. In others, different issues will be at play - a school environment that pupils find intimidating, problems within friendship groups, bullying, poor and descending attainment. These are alluded to but as reported it still feels like finger-pointing.

This is another attempt to move the focus from the state of Ofsted, the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, the state of many of our school buildings and poorly funded system that is impacting many of our children at school.

While I agree absenteeism is a problem - there are far bigger ones like not having enough teachers in the first place.

Across all state secondary schools in England, persistent absence rose from 13 per cent in 2018-19 to 24 per cent in 2022-23.

We all know there an issue just not what the cause is.

I think blaming wfh - isn't it. Though suspect sick or possibly sick kids may stay home more than in past when went in sick or sub par.

I think it's partly covid- and breaking norm of going into school but for a variety of reasons many schools are harder places to be for many more pupils than in past.

Both DH and I WFH. I go into the office one day per week and DH’s office is our house as he’s self employed. Our two DC have 100% and 99% attendance. The last thing I want when I am WFH is the kids there all day and we have a spacious house with a study each for DH and I. Would be worse if we had a smaller house.

My brother is a teacher and our ability to WFH drives him insane. I’ve told him that he needs to get another job if it bothers him so much. Wouldn’t be suprised if this OFSTED inspector is just lashing out because he wants to be able to WFH too.

I read the article, and some of it was, I am afraid, absolutely bat shit. Apparently wfh with children during lockdowns discouraged people from getting their children back into school. As someone who had to wfh whilst attempting to home ed a young child, I can confirm that it was absolutely horrendous, and I couldn’t wait for her to be back in school!

Some schools act like we can't tell what chickenpox looks like? Ds had low attendance due to illness then he caught chickenpox from the school literally EVERY CHILD who went to that valentines disco came down with chickenpox over 3/4 of the school year were out at various points with chickenpox they sent the attendance officer around because they thought I was mistaken I was not mistaken he had chickenpox a bad case and nearly ended up in hospital they then said I should have returned him sooner I directed them to his Dr who was unimpressed listed his credentials his training and experience and said ds should be home to recover