Are we losing the plot re: attendance?

[BlueySchmooey]

Are we losing the plot re: attendance?

https://x.com/catinthehat/status/1840399910769672198?s=46&t=G9BWOZlYGPa11_pR7aKkbHQ

Can you summarise rather than linking that website?

Wow, that's grim. And a massive slap in the face to the many children and young people who struggle with attendance due to anxiety or bullying (and their families). There is a huge crisis in attendance in English secondary schools, and this is not the way to encourage pupils to attend more frequently. The language also stigmatises low attenders to their peers. Absolutely tone-deaf.

Thank you. As a parent of two teenagers with SEND and now EBSA after years of abuse in school, bullying, and not having their educational needs met, I’m not going to look. I feel sick as it is, with it being Sunday night. I almost clicked, appreciate the heads up!

The whole attendance thing is crazy to me , as I live in Ireland and we just don't seem to have the same problems with chronic low attendance. Have the actual root causes been looked into? Surely when fines haven't worked someone would think maybe punishment isn't working here and try something new instead of becoming even more draconian and adding this kind of shaming into the mix.

“The law is being broken”
“rest assured we will be intervening”

pathetic.

Yes OP schools are acting desperate and pathetic now. They’re losing their (weak) grip on reality and are unable to self-reflect on their part in the mess that is the ‘attendance crisis’. Smacks of narcissistic gaslighting to me.

I had terrible attendance at school, if I saw that poster it would’ve made me want to go to school even less.
If you’re a child who struggles to get into school you need support and encouragement, not to be patronised. I managed to get a good degree and a job that I love, but only because of a couple of teachers who really supported me, if I’d have listened to people who told me low attendance=worse outcomes and that I wouldn’t have an ‘easy’ and wealthy’ life, I probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to believe in myself and go to university.

Mine have all struggled with attendance due to anxiety (caused by pressure to perform in school), coming down like a ton of bricks did nothing to improve the situation but made it worse.

IME the only children achieving high attendance are those who were lucky enough to never be ill or who had parents who sent them in regardless of whatever bug they had.

The whole of education at the moment is doing everything to prove that those who write the guidelines and those who blindly follow them have no idea about children and the difficulties they may have.

Yes they have completely lost the plot and don't give a shit how many disabled children and families are hurt in this obsessive need for presenteeism.

Too much focus on children whose parents take them out of school on holiday and children whose parents want them to stay home with them, which actually is a small minority of absences. Not enough focus on why some children find it so difficult to attend school and supporting their needs. Pointless.

its awful isn’t it - congratulations for now being ill having an accident (mine both did last year one at school) for not needing any out of school appointments (orthodontist) or having a bereavement (mine lost a day to a funeral

it is hardly something that you can try to achieve

and for those with low attendance is not often due to not trying

I’m a teacher and I absolutely hate these attendance ladders and current focus on presenteeism. I think this is a situation of our own making, schools aren’t getting this right. The focus should be on the school environment and why we aren’t meeting the needs of our children.

Since having children I hate some aspects of schools- uniform, not enough focus on the arts and sport and creativity. Makes me very sad.

CherryBlossom, don't look now, I'm posting the image for the benefit of MNers not on Twitter. I too have a DC with SEND and EBSA and it is the single most distressing and stressful thing that's happened in our family. Being in perpetual negotiation, and often ‐albeit reluctantly‐ conflict, on all sides, trying to advocate for DC, ensuring school fulfils statutory requirements as per EHCP, pleading with the attendance team to follow DfE national guidance and HCP directions, wrangling with the local authority who gatekeep resources which could make the difference between access and a life stalled due to unmet SEN. Exhausting.

That poster is awful and blatantly designed by people who have never taught or have education experience.

@romdowa I think this has been a major issue since the 90s, they are just trying to sort the issue now- Covid accelerated and amplified it. It stems, IMO, from us having a competitive education system which pushes and pushes kids for little positive outcome. Our secondary and uni education was revered, now it isn't. It ignored teachers demanding less paperwork, failing grades, off-rolling, it tried to make vocational learners academic and left average academic learners (me) to fall by the wayside. Honestly, the system is awful! Exacerbated now, by some really really crap parents.

Any idea who wrote this? It reads like student work. Who is “I”?

Let’s remember how are kids weren’t allowed to go to school for months on end!! Still resent the fact I was still working and was expected to home school a five year old !! Grrrrr

I don't want to click on the link, can you share a screenshot or something?

Oh. Fucking hell.

Yes that's monstrous. It's as though disabilities and chronic health conditions don't exist.

The more snotty contagious children are encouraged to attend school the more time my children will end up taking off.

And actually what matters is the effort you put in when you are there.

If they cared about education they would find ways to help children keep up when they can't school, using the diversity of technological solutions. But it's it's a focus on box ticking for attendance statistics not improving educational outcomes.

I've posted an image upthread, but fuzzed it as 'sensitive content' as CherryBlossom mentioned she didn't want to see it. You'll be able to see it if you click on it.

Schools have really lost sight of what education is for, haven't they, when it is reduced to merely "bums on seats".

Exactly. What's the benefit of being in school if you are too ill to focus.

I’m rule abiding and a parent who supports the school. However, even I am fed up with the villainising of parents keeping ill children home. Dd had flu so was off for 4 days before half term. We got a letter saying she couldn’t be off again for the rest of the term. 2 weeks later she was sick. By morning she felt okay so I sent her to school rather than seek a dr note. Sickness spread through the class. It was clearly already in the school but I refuse to feel guilty. The blame lay with the school! This was 2 years ago and dd was in year 10. It was her first sickness since year 7. Bonkers and disrespectful of me as a parent. Yes, it’s a standard letter but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. You want parental respect, lead by example.

I completely agree with you OP and others on here.

My friends DS has SEN and struggled with school. Like @TheCentreCannotHold my friend has had to fight to get the right support. I was shocked actually at what her family's been put through.

also what happened to the idea that if you’re ill and contagious then it’s best to stay at home, not come into school and infect everyone for the sake of ‘100% attendance’ 🤢

Also I think those children pushed into school when ill end up with the wrong attitude to education.

I have always tried to instill in my children that education is a privilege and a pleasure not a duty or a chore. We want our children to value education and pursue it outside of school too, not just see it as something they are told to do and have to do even when really unwell

Unfortunately there are parents who keep their dcs off for trivial reasons / holidays - and this makes it harder to focus on the children who really do need help and are struggling.