Just want to know what other, parents and school staff think of this article. Is it really helpful or alarmist?

[beigebrownblue]

Hello there,

I consider myself fairly well informed and street wise especially about dangers of gangs/drugs etc. I have DD nearly 16.

We home schooled successfully although it was really hard during various lockdowns. I am single parent on low income at the moment.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/08/thousands-of-pupils-easy-prey-for-gangs-when-schools-reopen

Saw this article and really didn't find the tone of it (or the title) particularly helpful.

Please feel free to disagree if you need to, add further information and opinions I would appreciate hearing other views.

Ta.

I don't have a problem with it. It's great that you're well-informed about the dangers of street gangs, but that isn't the case for all parents and I think it's useful to increase awareness. This article doesn't include any hints that might help parents realise that their child is involved with gangs (such as the child suddenly having more money, new clothes that they couldn't have afforded themselves etc), but I don't think it's trying to be a "spot the signs your child is in a gang" sort of article. It's looking at the problem from a societal level, and informing people about why more kids may be vulnerable to this, and suggesting what should be done about it.

School does keep children and young people safe and for some children it might be their only safe space. They get a hot lunch (not all parents will have used the extra vouchers given during lockdown for proper meals), they have someone they can go to if something is worrying them, outside influences can't get to them while they are in lessons. So yes I would agree it's a worry that some students will have slipped through the net while in lockdown.

I don't know if social services did face to face visits - but I imagine not.

It was my initial concern about lockdown. Sometimes home can be an unpleasant place.

I think the knock on effect of covid will be this sort of problem.

Thanks so far for different perspectives.

I think covid has given some families an excuse for poor attendance and it has been more challenging to keep track of kids. I think it is a little alarmist but it will be the case that more kids hanging around the streets gives more opportunities to gangs to groom them. Schools are more aware than ever about this problem but unfortunately parents either may not be or may not want to get involved in what their kids are doing. Schools are spending more and more of their budgets on pastoral staff such as family workers and counsellors and safeguarding teams who are not also teachers. They have not received more money for this. I think the government almost need to recognise this and most schools need a funded social worker in post. School funding for education is stretched. Many schools can't afford enough teaching assistants for children with additional needs nevermind finding the money for the amount of complex safeguarding they are doing.

The article is a bit confusing because the first line talks about "exclusions" and then the rest of the text is to do with kids either not attending school or registered as home educating.
I've been following this issue for a while because DS is one of the newly home educated lockdown kids. So I find it fascinating to be part of this weird unexplained cohort.
I'd love to think that the increase is all families like ours who enjoyed home educating over lockdown and decided to stick with it.
But home education has functioned for a long time as a convenient cover for other things (off rolling, unregistered schools etc). So, sadly, that's unlikely to be the case.
There's been some disquiet about lack of regulation and monitoring for home Ed for years. But this Covid related increase has made the matter more urgent.