Is this your child? Staying home on Friday?

[NetballMumGrrr]

Article about how more children are staying home on a Friday as their parents are at home?

Link to BBC News

I’m assuming it’s vulnerable children. Not sure why people are not valuing education more or AIBU?

I do not condone this and would not do this myself. However, I do know that until year 5, my DSD school did absolutely no work on a Friday. All videos and colouring in. Could this be the case in other schools? Might that be why parents aren't sending them?

"What did the Left expect when they shut down everything for eons."
.....do you remember who was in government? Nice try torybot.

Sure they are. No, the left are hard left. And no need for personal insults.

NetballMumGrrr, but you referenced the valuing 'education', surely your point is completely relevant to the discussion. Ok this is happening on Fridays but it will be other days and education not just happening on the school grounds is a valid reason. It is completely context dependent as to whether it will be detrimental to your life.

Pre covid it wouldn't have dawned on me to keep my DS out unless he was sick. Once schools opened again it was like there weren't enough hours in the day, by the time we got home, for him to do all the things he loved like drawing and building lego. I randomly give him a day off to do these things, and we'd also do a bit of school work too. I sometimes would choose a Friday so he could relax for a long weekend.
I don't do it out of laziness, and I do really value education, but I think children spend way too much of their time in school, alot of which is spent faffing around between lessons, lining up for things, waiting for the teacher while they deal with others, the teacher trying to discipline students etc., so I think a day off here and there is fair enough.

This is true my daughter has missed 4 Fridays since sept. Every one has been the week she returns after a school holiday she must pick up a bug in the mon or tues and by Fri her temp is 39 and we are either at out of hours or riding it out! Drives me nuts

I would be interested to see the data from Sweden where schools never closed (apart from for the over 16s). There might be a bit of a rise in absenteeism due to more parents WFH, but I bet it’s pretty minimal compared to the rest of the world.

I get that teachers and unions in the UK were scared, but honestly, it’s hard not to feel that at least some of this is related to the fact that parents were being told, again and again, that school attendance doesn’t really matter and that school is optional. Shorter school closures would have felt scarier for staff at the time, but the long-term fallout would have been less and they would probably have less stressful jobs now.

Makes sense - Friday off = long weekend away potentially. Or, tired and fed up of school, feeling a bit rundown, let them have Friday off as it’s less disruptive than missing midweek. The govt are obsessed atm with attendance, in turn the schools are becoming obsessed - fine approach to help those at risk or low attendance rates. But kids are kids, school is full on, those with good attendance should allow the odd duvet day.,,

I sometimes let my dd stay home when I wfh. She's autistic and loathes school.

We have done this a few times recently - to go away travelling or just give ds a day off for a long weekend. Well tbf, my 6yo also recently wrote the 7+ and worked right through Xmas and didn't have a break, they are far ahead of the curriculum at school and well prepared for the next year. The school has had no issue with us doing this. Obviously this isn't all the time, but my ds earned a few of these days off.

I live in Edinburgh and schools finish at lunchtime on a Friday (they do longer hours through the week). My children aren’t at school yet but I’ve heard from some teacher friends that often if they are going away for the weekend etc then children will be off those few hours in the morning, so that would explain it here. Even pre-covid, lots of parents had a Friday off/worked morning only to work around these school hours, so probably more likely to keep them home if they are sick or do have weekend plans.

@Starsinyoureyes12 its the same where I am, high schools close at lunchtime on a Friday so I could easily see parents extending a weekend away by missing those couple of hours in the morning.

No way! We wfh on Friday's and there's no way DD would not be at school

When DS was at school you could fill in a form for a term time holidays for up to 10 days in a school year, we often used to tack a week onto half term, obviously we avoided the important exam time but it didn't seem to make much difference. DS did have a good attendance record otherwise though only about 2 days sick from age 5 to 16.

Agree. I think this sums it up.

I teach and we have a lot of absences on Fridays and Mondays, and more term time holidays than ever before.

I do think covid changed a lot of people's attitudes to attendance.

Minor illness is an excuse to skip the school run, long weekends away are needed for wellbeing reasons, family holidays have increased value attached to them.

On a human level I can understand. A lot more people were traumatised by covid and don't realise it.

But educationally it is a shame. Every child's education was damaged during covid and we are still catching them up. Absences now, while the rest of the cohort moves on, compounds the damage.

I had a child off for a week for a holiday. We did graphs in Maths and wrote a persuasive piece in English and sewing every afternoon. He won't revisit any of that again until next year, when it will all be entirely new to him while his friends build on their skills.

On a human level I can understand. A lot more people were traumatised by covid and don't realise it this is so true!

Some parents will never value an education no matter what stats you show them. Many will say with snow days, school strikes it's fine for schools to shut when they see fit so a random day off here and there won't do any harm. Where we are Fridays are a half day, I can see why some people would use that as a justification to keep them off.

Like pp our attitude to days off in term time has definitely shifted. So we have taken dc out of school for the last day of term to beat the traffic, which we never did previously.

But we do value education and I am taking annual leave to cover the teacher strikes to make sure DC get some school work done.

My dc were off 5 days over the last two weeks for school strikes. It’s amazing how school attendance is oh so important until covid / teachers interests.

No, it's not my child.

My ds is there every day, fed, prepared and on time (unless he is ill) .

I wish people realised that every single day of school they let children miss, materially damages their life chances. 😟

Wow. How far right do you have to be to describe the right-of-the-Conservative-party government that implemented lockdown as the left? Someone needs referring to Prevent.

DS has had an awful autumn/ winter barrage of minor illnesses right back from mid-September. The first post-Covid business as usual winter has been a big germ-fest as the general herd immunity is poor and in upgrade mode. DS has transitioned to secondary school and is constantly run-down and stressed as this is very draining to his autism. Stress affects the immune system. He's had several blocks of absence (including being sent home by school) that have wrapped around a weekend because if he's soldiered on in being "under the weather" through the week, by Thurs/ Fri, his energy level is crashing. By Mon/ Tues he tends to be back at a functional state. He's been ill in every holiday too and had 6 notable heavy cold type illnesses in 5 months.

My boundaries on illness/ absence haven't changed, but it is difficult to convince him that school is important after losing 4 months of y4, 2 months of y5 plus random weeks because a classmate had a cold, y6 was ok, now it's sporadic strike days. Being told to Stay the fuck At Home suited him. He liked having to not people. He liked reduced capacities. And now it's harder than ever for him to function in a business as usual road, because he wants to go back to that unsustainable quiet.

"Yes I know you've got a cold, but school is important. No school tomorrow, the teachers are striking" mixed messaging for a young person to deal with!

I can understand why people have shifted their boundaries in the past few years and more people are able to accomodate a mildly un-well child at home than they were before.

I wish people realised that every single day of school they let children miss, materially damages their life chances.

Only if you believe the only education children get takes place in school. I don’t regularly keep my children off school, but I find it a hard argument that their life chances are compromised because they missed one day to, for example, spend some time with a much loved grandparent who lives at a distance, or to attend a family friendly music festival. Education is a broad spectrum of knowledge and experiences. Yes they need academic learning, it they also need relationship and connection, they need love and care, they need cultural education and those are the things that schools are limited in being able to offer.

A day here or there won’t do them any harm and might actually fill in some of the gaps due to covid - it wasn’t just school kids missed during covid.