Parents to be asked to solve school attendance crisis

[noblegiraffe]

There is an article in the Times about the current school attendance crisis. It cannot be overstated how awful the attendance crisis is. Pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, are staying away from school in much larger numbers, and for more days than before covid.

It says that lockdowns broke the contract between parents and schools which said that school attendance was compulsory.

It blames parents for keeping their children home when they have a minor illness or are slightly anxious about school.

It quotes Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Education Secretary as saying "If I were secretary of state, I’d be sending a very clear message to parents that every day at school matters, and that irresponsible parents who don’t care about sending their kids to school are harming other kids’ life chances, not just their own"

(Whereas current Education Secretary Gillian) "Keegan will expand a programme that gives children skipping school an attendance mentor who could drive or walk youngsters from their home to school in the morning or negotiate with head teachers on their behalf. She said: “Persistent absence is a hangover from the pandemic affecting schools around the world. Schools and the government cannot do this alone.

“Families play a big part in attendance and parents have a legal duty to make sure their children are at school. I know it can be hard to get children out of the door, especially when they are feeling a bit anxious or have a mild cough or cold, so we must rebuild the social contract between parents and schools and make sure everyone plays their part.”

While lockdowns are brought up, what is not mentioned is the utter state schools were in between lockdowns and after lockdowns. Children were being supervised in halls rather than being taught due to lack of teachers who were ill (and this is still happening now due to inability to recruit). Lack of teachers meaning that kids get endless cover which can be largely a waste of time. Children who are anxious about attending school are expected to get on with it while teachers who are unable to cope with the poor behaviour of students are signed off with stress. The experience of children in schools during and since covid can be extraordinarily shit.

Attendance is much lower in pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Child poverty is not mentioned - I was reading about a child who couldn't attend school because her mother needed to use the one pair of shoes they shared. Other children are needed to look after younger siblings while parents work because they can't afford childcare. How will this be solved by sending a car around?

But we also know that schools in disadvantaged areas are more likely to struggle to hire staff. What is the point in a child attending school when they don't have teachers? How will Keegan and Phillipson argue that one?

This bit is the most worrying:

"A Labour government, Phillipson said, would place more emphasis on absenteeism as part of the Ofsted inspection framework, with schools compelled to produce an annual report on attendance, off-rolling (removing a pupil without using a permanent exclusion) and safeguarding. Schools are required to submit weekly attendance records to the Department for Education but absenteeism does not have its own Ofsted criteria, instead falling under a broader category of “behaviour and attitudes”.
These reports would affect the Ofsted rating given to schools, which would also take into account the progress they have made in shrinking the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers"

Linking an Ofsted grading to attendance will just doom schools in disadvantaged areas to low Ofsted grades at a time when Ofsted had just started to recognise that grading a school based on disadvantage was a bad idea.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/1d7eb40d-c4c4-4dcc-85ea-ad6f62c65b9c?shareToken=6c4b865c0c1b8626f2761a5ad733b608

This is so complicated. Tbh trying to say a political party of any colour can solve it is naive. There will be no improvement under labour, in fact it will most likely get worse.

Things like pupil disciple, respect for adults, schools concentrating of agendas rather than academics, not intervening with unfit parents, parents seemingly unable or unwilling to address minor mental health problems in kids, parent/child dynamic failing. Parents too willing to share their peeves with kids. Parents and teachers treating their kids as friends.

There needs to be marked improvement in all these areas.

Minor anxiety, panic attacks, dissociation etc are pretty easy to address if caught soon enough with parents working with the school and educating themselves about these matters. Kids need boundaries. Parents need to set them from day one. Kids benefit from concepts of black/white, good/ bad. Discipline is not a discussion point between adult and child as to what is “fair”. Every activity doesn’t have to be “child friendly”

Political parties need to outline HOW THEY will work towards better attendance, not simply harass parents.

Or schools. Holding schools ‘accountable’ but with no tools to actually improve it, is just setting them up to fail.

Well when school didn't contact my children for the best part of the year, other than weekly generic emails about how the teachers were enjoying baking /paddle boarding/gardening... Meanwhile I was doing my job full time andhomeschooling/paying a tutor... Damn right the contract was broken.

I am eternally grateful that my children’s school was so incredibly involved during lockdown and set such brilliant and inspiring work and made the children feel part of something. BUT i would have guessed this to be the case because before covid… my children’s schools were superb.

Presumably the schools that failed remotely to rise to the challenge and instead failed their pupils…. were presumably pretty shit before and indeed after covid too?

I have two teenagers.

Teen1 is autistic. His secondary school is fantastically supportive. The SENCO proactively offers reasonable adjustments. He's predicted 7+ in all GCSEs.

Teen2 has many symptoms of ADHD but was well supported in primary, so the symptoms didn't become a problem until secondary (different one than Teen1's). When I approached Teen2's SENCO to express my concerns, they dismissed me and stated that they had no responsibility to make any adjustments because there was no formal diagnosis.

Months later, as symptoms worsened, I went to the GP and was given a referral to CAMHS. After investigation, CAMHS put Teen2 on the ADHD pathway. Still no engagement from school, not even an acknowledgment. Teen2 is going to have to wait 2.5 years!!!! for a diagnosis. Meanwhile Teen2 is floundering badly, and my trust in that particular school has dropped to near zero.

I've been to the GP.
I've referred myself to some sort of Early Help program.
All the footwork has been done by me, the parent.

Guess which of my teens has 100% attendance and which has 80% and is rapidly spiralling toward EBSA?

I don't take my kids out in term time for holiday.

But sure, blame my fucking parenting instead of this shitshow of a government who don't send their kids to state schools anyway. Just show up at my door with the EWO, that'll teach Teen2 to have additional needs. Send me a few threatening letters, too, that'll do the trick.

But those children whose parents were key workers were in school all the way through lockdown. Schools did not close through COVID, they were always open for keyworker and vulnerable children.

No they weren’t, I am a key worker, my two children have complex additional support needs and there was no school
place available to them because their own school was closed and the central hub provision was unsuitable due to their ASN. I wish people would acknowledge that key worker and vulnerable child provision was very, very poor and many schools did indeed close.

There's been a whole shift in mindset from pre covid .
At my DCs secondary school you got sent to matron if you were ill and she then might allow you to rest for a bit but was v reluctant to declare a child ill enough to go home (this policy caused a nasty stomach bug to run through the school).

During lockdown everyone was kept home, the government basically brainwashed the nation, they can hardly be surprised that parents have a different view of illnesses.

Our school did close. We would have had to have driven miles further to the school providing key worker provision and they didn't educate them they just babysat them. Hardly any key workers sent their children as a result.

But it's a parents responsibility to ensure their child is educated not in school.
It's just a way to turn child against parent and then make things worse.
Thank you but they are my responsibility and these political faces have failed them far too many times.

My kids were in a large, usually high performing, city comp. There was very little remote provision. The head even wrote, a few months in, to say that the teachers needed training to provide voiceover PowerPoints! I work in HE, we had to immediately move online and pick up the new tech. Therefore, I worked fulltime from home and couldn’t tutor my kids in any meaningful way. So the patchy educational provision in the state sector impacted and more parents WFH, so easier to keep kids off are impacting.

My DC's school also says that all illness related absences need proof from a doctor...there are many illnesses and viruses which would mean your child isn't fit enough to attend school but don't need a doctor's appointment. It's difficult enough to see a GP, if we all start taking out child every time they're ill just so we have proof, the system will be under even more strain.

It’s not surprising that many children don’t want to go to schools that are falling down, overcrowded, inadequately ventilated, so always too hot or too cold, with insufficient or inadequate toilet provision, where they have no time to eat a wholesome lunch in a civilised manner, where they may be taught subjects by teachers not qualified to teach those subjects, with insufficient time to cover the curriculum and where they are put under constant, unrelenting pressure to achieve even if they are struggling, especially if they have SEND and are insufficiently supported. Neither is it surprising that their parents agree with them.
Lectures from politicians who haven’t intervened to make schools suitable places for learning, and who have persistently interfered in the curriculum to make much of it unattainable for many learners, are hypocritical.

Maybe it's time for the government to realise our educational system needs an overhaul. It's still largely stuck on Victorian principles of education where naturally academic children will succeed. Unacademic children who struggle will be turned off by education.
It grind my gears that we know motivation is essential for success. Motivation is driven by reward. A child unable to grasp concepts will fail to get that reward, they'll quickly be turned off education, they will be the bored kids who either sit quietly in their own little worlds failing quietly with no help, because they are quiet. Or they'll be bored and disruptive making it hard for the other kids, because they are dominating teachers time.
I cannot fathom why when we have a much greater understanding psychologically and the neuro programming, we don't use this knowledge to enhance our children's education.
I don't see the point in forcing a child who struggles with their own language forced to sit a foreign language at GCSE, or why children who struggle, can't just sit 4 GCSEs and concentrate on maths, English and two other subjects. More chance of getting to grips and passing four than taking 7/8 and failing them. But appreciate that would require more staffing to implement so of course it's not practicable.

I haven’t read the thread because it will be filled with uninformed parent and teacher blaming. There’s been an enormous increase in serious mental health issues like eating disorders, self harming, suicide. Schools are in sufficiently staffed and funded. The curriculum and environment has become increasingly stressful and difficult for children and teachers. Schools are driven to improve attendance at any cost, this makes things worse. And yet it’s the children, parents and teachers who are to blame and not the fact that funding for health and education is terrible and life prospects have been very much reduced due to mismanagement by the government. If only these politicians would actually listen

Presumably the schools that failed remotely to rise to the challenge and instead failed their pupils….were presumably pretty shit before and indeed after covid too?

Not necessarily. It’s very difficult to provide a robust remote offer when families don’t have access to technology. The government didn’t fund any sort of laptop provision for children under the age of Y3 which really affected many infant/first schools.

i believe a tiny minority didn’t have access to technology

you can bet your bottom dollar that in many cases… the parents of the children most definitely had access to access precious social media accounts

i believe a tiny minority didn’t have access to technology

What a load of bullshit.

Maybe it's time for the government to realise our educational system needs an overhaul. It's still largely stuck on Victorian principles of education where naturally academic children will succeed. Unacademic children who struggle will be turned off by education.
It grind my gears that we know motivation is essential for success. Motivation is driven by reward. A child unable to grasp concepts will fail to get that reward, they'll quickly be turned off education, they will be the bored kids who either sit quietly in their own little worlds failing quietly with no help, because they are quiet. Or they'll be bored and disruptive

Yes, it very much is time for a total overhaul, but I can't really see any government biting that bullet.

You're right that some of the problems are caused by the curriculum being beyond the capabilities of some pupils, but far from all of the bored, disruptive kids behave like that because of low ability. There are many students who would be able to engage better with the curriculum if teachers weren't havibg to spend so much time and energy dealing with behaviour problems.

You can do social media on a phone. Try typing an essay on one, or even using it to access revision materials. The pandemic really highlighted that many children don’t have laptops or access to WiFi.

i believe a tiny minority didn’t have access to technology

Nearly one tenth of households, which is not a tiny minority, according to this:

https://post.parliament.uk/covid-19-and-the-digital-divide/#:~:text=Much%20of%20the%20remote%20teaching,laptop%2C%20desktop%20PC%20or%20tablet.

I haven't seen too much parent or teacher bashing, more a realisations that our educational system is no longer fit for purpose for a variety of reasons, but largely down to government apathy and underfunding. And that the gov would rather blame teachers and parents rather than looking at the multifaceted issues.

Yes, all this focus on forcing kids into schools. No focus on actually making schools comfortable or worthwhile places to be.

you can bet your bottom dollar that in many cases… the parents of the children most definitely had access to access precious social media accounts

Many (most) parents would have access to a smart phone, but not to a tablet or laptop. Many of those parents would also have more than one child trying to acces online learning. A friend of mine had 3 children trying to access online learning in high school using a combination of phones and a shared laptop which she also needed for work/university.

A home set up where internet access is shared across a whole family and where children were using IT mainly for leisure is no more able to pivot to provide decent quality access for education than the education system was able to pivot their practices to deliver online.

i believe a tiny minority didn’t have access to technology

Well it was a huge problem in the two schools I worked in.

Great to hear that labour's 'big idea' is to put even MORE pressure on schools, eh?

i believe a tiny minority didn’t have access to technology

Just because a child can access the internet for games or social media doesn't mean that they have the equipment for education or the parents have the equipment to access work.