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

Spot on

The main article is very nuanced.

The snapshot available via the OPs link has been abridged and sensationalised.

Schools are obsessed with attendance because they are judged on it and incentivised to do basically anything to increase it. In secondary the high correlation between high attendance and good results on exams, as well as low attendance and anti-social behaviour outside of school are both significant reasons why they're judged and incentivised to do so.

OFSTED and similar treat high attendance as major indicator that the kids want to be there and the school is doing things right. The difference between attendance of different demographics is used to indicate how well and fairly different groups are treated. It's a quantitative hammer used to indicate many qualitative things, some that are only loosely connected.

When I read the article this morning 70% of Times readers who had taken part in the poll agreed with him.

Is the issue kids being sent in by parents when they shouldn't, or kids being kept off by parents who are WFH so can facilitate kids being home appropriately!?

Has this guy looked at the difference?!

@Ankhmo but there’s ill and there’s ill. All of us keep our kids off school if they’re really unwell, but some people define “unwell” as having a cold. DS has a happy, sporty, bright NT friend whose mum frequently keeps him off “because he was a bit emotional last night”. She works from home.

Nope they didn't. They expected kids who were ill to stay at home. They factored in that attendance would be lower.

Oh wise up. OP is not publishing a scientific journal. She formed an opinion about an article she read, doesn't matter if it's just a snippet. She doesn't need to read the whole article to be entitled to an opinion.

Weird you are so outraged by OP sharing her thoughts yet have no issue with the opinions expressed in the initial article not being supported by any actual data.

Yes, I was agreeing that there probably is a link. I didn’t take any pleasure in sending my ill children to school, I’m much happier now they can stay off with me when they need to.

The PP above makes a good point though, that a couple of generations ago, SAHM were the norm so that contradicts the argument

I don't think he sounds resentful. He doesn't think it's unfair people are working from home, but that he views his father and his own ways of working as superior examples for children and kids seeing adults go out to work would somehow increase attendance rates. That's where his (or possibly the writer of the article) argument falls down.

It's quite possible the increase in WFH is one of many factors, particularly in the way others brought up around illnesses, but the idea that it's a major factor has little backing it up. There is no acknowledgement that children have had parents who work patterns that do not line up with the school day well before this increase. Parents who work nights & so are in bed while kids are in school, parents who work shifts or professions that for many years worked compressed hours or shorter weeks, jobs where work is more ad-hoc, as well are those who have parents or other carers who don't work at all or the opposite and the far more traditional form of work where it's in the household and there is no separation of work and the rest of life.

Having worked from home and in the last year changed careers intentionally to work outside of it, I think the refrain that those who don't work at home are resentful or jealous of those that do is unhelpful.

Shame he doesn’t mention the fact so many low income families are persistently absent

He may have mentioned that and many other things didn't make it into the article. The Telegraph has played a part in the push back to the office so we have to take the lean of the article with a few pinches of salt.

Perfectly acceptable for the school to bully the mother and reduce her to tears though. The mother gave me permission to talk to the school about her child's health after I offered to do so. I did suggest to her that she mention this to the pharmacist and see if he would speak to the school but I was served shortly afterwards and left.

Does not seem very logical...

If a parent works from home they want to do so in a quiet house without being interrupted by their kids all the time. Surely that means making sure those children are at school!

My Dad was a coal miner and worked shifts which meant I rarely saw him 'go off to work'. This had zero impact on my attendance.

The reasons for absence rates in schools vary and this new Ofsted bloke (who has already not exactly covered himself in glory with his Trumpian pronouncements) knows this perfectly well.

This does not negate that the fact that the WFH speculation is utter batshit.

Of course she hung up. He wasn't your child and she couldn't discuss his health with you.

Couldn't agree more - schools are completely OBSESSED with attendance records.
A while back, I was in a pharmacy waiting for a prescription. There was a young child there with his mother. He was ill. His face was grey and he had a very bad cough. The mother was in tears on the phone to the school trying to explain the situation. I took the phone from her, explained that I had paramedic qualifications and said that the child was ill and needed to be home in bed. I asked the woman at the school if she wanted a child with a contagious disease to come to school and infect lots of other children who would then be absent from school themselves. She hung up on me.

Schools expect what Ofsted tells them to expect.

The abstract does not refer to the other factors he speaks about including lockdown and mental health