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

that is how generalisations work.

that is what i have extrapolated

doesn’t mean i think every teacher thought that. Certainly, and thankfully, the teachers at both my children’s schools pulled out absolute blinders during covid. I was in awe. Especially when i went on mumsnet and realised how rare our experience was.

The main thing my son complains about are the idiots who mess around in lessons. They just have to sit there doing nothing when the whole lesson is spent dealing with those children.

The DfE teacher workload report.

that must be so incredibly frustrating for the teacher, the pupils and the parents.

Have you ever been happy in the teaching profession Op? if so, when?

this one?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e12fcb7e5274a0f9e82e4fd/teacher_workload_survey_2019_main_report_amended.pdf

apologies if you have already listed upthread. I’d just like to have a read

@daffodilandtulip those 'idiots' likely have parents close to complete mental and physical breakdown fighting for a suitable education for their child behind the scenes.

I certainly do.

Which is why I haven't yet told school exactly what I'm thinking. But I will have to shortly.

Will make sure I tell them I am aware of the huge constraints they're dealing with, but will need to speak plainly for DC's sake, who is being harmed by being at school.

I'd appreciate equally plain speaking on their part, but I doubt I'll get it. And therein lies the basic problem: communication is shite in all secondaries that I know and know of.

Indeed some may ... but the majority think it's funny and big and clever ... and have parents that go mental at the school for daring to shout at their precious angel. I'm not denying there are many unmet SEN needs, but that doesn't excuse the behaviour of the majority.

So you don’t believe that shit parents exist that don’t value their children’s education and genuinely sometimes can’t be arsed to walk them to school if it’s raining for example?

Whether it was due to the school, to large or mixed age classes or the teachers working there we don't know, but when she was adopted at age 5 she couldn't read or write at all and had virtually no maths skills.

Or maybe being removed from her family and the uncertainty of being in care mean she was unable to learn. Once settled in a permanent, unchaotic home it’s reasonable that she would then be able to access the curriculum.

Stressed, anxious children literally can’t learn - they’re too flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, they’re who system is trying to cope with a lack of safety. Trauma informed practice would understand this and focus on the child feeling safe and secure as a necessary step in enabling them to learn.

The March 2020 lockdowns were inevitable.
The Jan 2021 was unforgivable. Teachers should have been fighting tooth and nail to have children back in school whilst the pubs and restaurants were opened - instead there were endless news reports about how teachers didn’t consider it safe, the goalposts were constantly moved by the unions, and even on here were endless advice threads about how to submit some sort of form about how you were declining to work on environmental health grounds. We all saw that, everyone on MN during those two years saw plainly that teachers did not want students back in the classroom.
And the sub text running through the entire debacle was that it was a sort of
government protest, a chance to say “fuck
you”, a sort of “oh you need us now do you?” attitude.
I expected teachers to be on the side of children and they were not. They endlessly prioritised their own agenda long after everyone else who faces the public was back to work. The excuses were flimsy and laughable.
And as soon as kids were settled back in, the strikes began.
Of course there were some amazing teachers and amazing schools. A secondary school here let pupils self identify as vulnerable - essentially, if you felt happier at school than at home, then you were welcome in.
But generalising, as an industry, as one half of the social contract, teachers made it clear they didn’t want to be there particularly. So now, if I don’t want my kids to be there particularly, I take them out. I do it rarely, but I do do it now, when it suits. If teachers didn’t care about my kids when they were most vulnerable, then why on earth should I care about their stats?

One of ds2 school friends ripped his blazer and couldn't get a new one for a few days. She was kept off school because the alternative was for her to be in isolation because she wasn't in correct uniform.
These are the ridiculous things parents are fighting against and the school wonder why they have no support.

The children I know that have poor attendance, it is both ill mental health and the parents.
My son's friend has had poor attendance since he realised his Mum will let him do as he pleases if he makes enough fuss. The official issue is anxiety, but I am not convinced that staying home is the answer.
Also gaming past midnight and terrible diet (pizza in front of the x box).
His parents love him but have never said No.

My sons school was exactly the same during the pandemic (but without the updates on what the teachers were up to!!). We actually made several attempts to contact the school and could not speak to a human .Very little on-line work was set. Eventually, at the end of the academic year a teacher we had never heard of wanted to speak to my son. We pulled him out of that school after that 1st lockdown. They knew he had autism and ignored him. We are still struggling with EBSA up to today. Awful school.

For those curious about teachers’ contracted hours:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64257c6060a35e000c0cb1de/Modification_of_STPCD_2022.pdf

If I were younger and working nowadays (I retired from full time teaching ten years ago, at 60) I’d work no more than 0.8 FTE in order to have a reasonable work/life balance.

The Jan 2021 was unforgivable. Teachers should have been fighting tooth and nail to have children back in school whilst the pubs and restaurants were opened

If proper mitigations had been put in place in schools and colleges in the Autumn of 2020 - as were pleaded for by teachers - it might have been possible to not close in Jan 2021. But the pleas fell on deaf ears.
I was teaching in FE and it was a frightening place to be, with Covid rates increasing daily and more and more students and staff becoming ill. My previously well controlled heart condition worsened significantly after a brush with Covid. I required urgent medical treatment and eight weeks off work. Soon after that I left my job.

“The Jan 2021 was unforgivable. Teachers should have been fighting tooth and nail to have children back in school whilst the pubs and restaurants were opened”

Schools are mass gatherings like churches. If the Government cared about kids they would have offered the teachers and other staff in schools the Covid vaccine as a top priority group. They refused to do that.

My dc had no schooling for months during and after the first lockdown then it was online schooling during school closures.

I found so many resources for my dc to keep their learning going. Some of them were amazing and from all around the world. Dc were learning about things that they wouldn't have at school. They also kept up with their maths and reading.

Then when schools switched to online, dc hated it and I didn't blame them at all. They were staring at a screen for 5hrs a day and I doubt they took much in. How is that even considered healthy?

This made me realise that it didn't matter if dc missed a few days school at primary level. It really didn't.

It’s not about covid anymore . Some huge reasons are detailed in that - lack of structure for the children due to lack of teachers and more supply teachers . Children probably don’t feel as safe and comfortable as they used to , creating anxiety . So many of these children who are absent probably have sen but due to the massive failure to diagnose , schools can’t get funding to support these children or to support actually getting them in to school and parents are left to deal with this alone .

Maybe stop schools living in fear of ofsted . Stop teachers crumbling under the pressure of ofsted , under the pressure of having to make sure the data is right and allow them to actually teach and nurture the children in their classes .

Offer support to the families whose children have low attendance rather than threats of fines because the schools have no choice but to be concerned about the statistics instead of the wellbeing of the children .

@stickygotstuck if your DS is being harmed by being at school, why are you waiting to talk to the school?

but they didn’t offer ministers vaccinations ?
nor supermarket workers?

Individual teachers then. I don’t know any classroom teachers who don’t care. The system puts pressure on but the vast majority try to humanise it and work with the children on front of them - it’s the only way to get through the day for a start. (Secondary teacher with 35 years of experience currently doing supply as a semi retirement option and still caring)

@plumberdrain "someone more knowledgeable could confirm, that the DofE mistakenly inserted a comma after "This morning" in this ad?!"

I suspect they are trying to demonstrate use of the much-maligned "fronted adverbial," taught to 8 year-olds as part of their English curriculum. It gives added detail (when, where, how) to the verb and is placed at the front of the sentence, followed by a comma.

For a teacher to improve the relationship with me on a 1:1 basis, talk to me. Tell me what you are doing in school with my DC, how I can support that and where my DC in your opinion would benefit from extra work. This never happens.
I’d have loved to be able to do this when I was working on a contract, @LittleMyTopKnot , but as a secondary English teacher I taught over 150 pupils per week. If I’d been a teacher of a non-core subject it would have been a much, much higher number (easily double, probably more). I had 2.5 hours per week of non-contact time in which to mark and plan (that’s the legal requirement). To talk for even 5 mins to each of those students parents each half term would have been another 12-13 hours of work - and I’m sure you would agree 5 minutes wouldn’t be enough to cover what you asked for there. Unless teachers have a much reduced number of pupil contacts, you are never going to achieve that (incidentally, that’s the sort of thing that makes small classes better - it’s not so much the lesson time as the time per student it frees up to really analyse what they need to help them move forward and to be in contact with parents where appropriate).