Headteachers should drive to the homes of absent pupils and get them into school

[Amuseaboosh]

Headteachers "have a duty" to drive to the homes of absent pupils and bring them into school, the education secretary has said.

Gillian Keegan said levels of absence in schools were now "a crisis," with recent figures revealing that 125,000 pupils spent more time out of class than in.

I know how very lucky I am to have never had to cope with any of my children not wanting to go to school.
However, I'm not so ignorant that I believe that all the parents dealing with this issue haven't tried absolutely everything to get their child into school. Where is ANY member of teaching staff supposed to find the time to attend to 125,000 pupils in person to get them to come to school?

AIBU in thinking Gillian is out of touch and ignorant? Or can someone see wisdom here that I cannot?

Fine them. Heavily.

My son struggles to hold down a job. The smallest issue & he walks out. Very worrying for his future.

You really have no idea.

Ha ha ha, you are clueless.

And fortunate to have never found yourself in this situation.

Most of those children will be fine going into adulthood, because school does not replicate a normal working environment and is not the only way for a child to be educated if a school that can meet needs is not found (and they are few and far between due to funding cuts).

You might find the study on the impact of criminalisation of parents with children who struggle to attend school carried out by the University of Coventry interesting, perhaps it will make you rethink your prejudices? :

https://www.coventry.ac.uk/news/parents-most-at-need-are-being-penalised-over-childrens-school-attendance-report-finds/

TLDR : Sanctions don't work because it's not behavioural.

I couldn't care less what happens to the parents who don't make their kids go to school, they're a lost cause. It's the parents who might be persuaded to make their kids go to school by seeing their peers get heavily fined/lose their homes/go to jail that might be worth saving.

Gosh well you are entirely narrow minded then aren't you?

All of these first hand experiences on here and you still think that it is a parenting issue!

If I'd carried on forcing my child into a harmful environment he'd have killed himself. Instead he was educated at home, has 100% attendance now in 6th form and is applying to Oxford University.

But I'm such a shit parent!

@Florenz I’m not on benefits, I’m a higher rate tax payer with a mortgage. How do you suggest I get my autistic dd to school? I can’t physically manhandle her (and neither would I). No amount of bribery works, because she actually wants to go to school but can’t due to the environment being unsuitable. She is frozen with anxiety. She’s 10, maybe I should push her until she actually kills herself?

if a school had no ramps or lifts and doors too narrow do a wheelchair would you fine and jail a parent of a wheelchair using dc? Because that is exactly what you are suggesting, you are ableist.

The thing is, outside of education things can be much easier.

I can’t think of any other situation where people are grouped together quite like this, with more and more pressure put on them, a place where bullying is rife and often there is little you can do about it, a place where anxious pupils are expected to develop resilience in a place that is highly traumatic for them, a place where many teachers do not behave in a way that helps children, a place where help can often take years to put in place, a place where diagnoses of ND conditions are routinely ignored and dismissed, often blaming parents, a place where some children are so traumatised that it feels preferable to try to hang themselves or jump out of moving cars. I could go on and on.

The bottom line is, if parents are not supported to help their child, including allowing attendance to not be the be all and end all, or putting reasonable adjustments into place, or finding a suitable school (that may not exist, or may be so oversubscribed that it’s not accessible), the child cannot flourish. If schools continue to pile on the pressure, to blame and threaten - which they routinely do, then no one can flourish.

I deregistered 2 of my dc, both are now adults holding down well paid jobs. If they’d stayed in school I don’t think they’d be able to, they’d be too damaged by the school system.

To posters like you, I want to say how very arrogant you’re coming across as. How very little empathy you’re showing to children and their families who are all massively suffering. If you haven’t gone through this, we’ll lucky old you, but stop with your shitty comments that show you know fuck all about this topic!
You have your opinions, but they’re not based on the lived experience of so many people.
Back off with your judgemental bollocks, please.

If my dd was in my workplace she would be allowed to sit alone, wear ear defenders, wear whatever clothes were comfortable. She wouldn’t be forced into group work or noisy places. She could probably work from home as an adjustment.

the workplace is not like school .

And do you know what? I’m on benefits.
This allowed me to home educated my dc, which saved the almighty tax payer probably £100,000+ per year in special school provision.
So take your pick - mentally ill traumatised people with no “value” to people like you, who don’t fit the school system. Or parents who are supported to able to meet their needs so their children can recover and access education in a way that works for them.
Seriously, posters spouting shit like this do not know what they’re on about. Really narrow minded attitudes.
I could call them utter pricks, but I won’t, because I won’t stoop to that level.

Why is it such a problem now? Why are so many children refusing to go to school?

I didn't really like school but I still went. Because my parents wouldn't have let me just decide to stop going.

I think my DD will cope better as she grows up. People don’t piss about in class at uni and throw stuff at the teacher etc. same in an office job.

🙄
Already do this (city Primary)

My daughter doesn’t just dislike school. She is prevented from attending due to her disability. I’m the past attendance rates weren’t recorded in the same way. I know plenty of adults that skipped huge portions of school, left at 15 with no qualifications etc.

Lockdown created huge mental health issues for many children and a massive increase in eating disorders.

Class sizes are massive now, funding for SEND is the lowest it has been for decades. So children are in overcrowded classrooms.

the pressure on children now is immense. I didn’t do any SATs, the first exams I did were GCSEs. My primary days were writing stories and project work, not hot housing for SATs and assessments.

I didn't really like school but I still went. Because my parents wouldn't have let me just decide to stop going.

Even if you were trying to jump out of windows and out of moving cars?

Wow.

You think very little of your parents.

And it's not about 'not really liking school'. It's about being traumatised by the environment.

And why so many now? I have my theories, closure of special schools in the name of 'inclusion' when it was really a cost saving exercise, increased class room sizes. Excessive testing in primary schools. Covid hasn't helped because children who struggle with transition had to make yet another massive transition back into school.

How long ago were you at school @Florenz ?

When I was at school 30 odd years ago, the room was formal, either separate desks or sitting in twos. In the classroom there was a blackboard, maybe a few posters, shelves of books, that was it.

I’m autistic and could barely go into my dc’s primary school classroom, it was sensory hell for me and I only had to spend 20 minutes in there. Every wall covered with brightly coloured shiny laminated info sheets, shiny laminated stuff hanging from the ceilings, buzzy bright lights, buzzy smart board, children sitting in larger groups with much larger class sizes, pressure from a very early age to perform academically.

Schools have changed. Teachers have more paperwork than ever, so the job isn’t just about teaching. The rise of academies can mean that when it comes to supporting disabilities they’re a law unto themselves and often push “undesirable” pupils out (their word there, from a document leaked a few years ago).

The problem is schools, not the children - they are victims of this, but because they so often don’t fit the face of bright happy engaged pupil, they are demonised and punished instead of helped.

Do you honestly think that swathes of parents are sitting on their arses saying “don’t worry darling, you stay at home, mummy will make hot chocolate, let’s buy more games for the xbox”? That’s how it comes across.

In my now adult son’s case we had weeks where we literally couldn’t get near him. No matter how many times a teacher or EWO threatened us, told him to just put his clothes on and get him in, we literally couldn’t get near enough to touch him, let alone dress him! Do you honestly think forcing a child - who cannot function on a basic level because he’s so traumatised - in these circumstances is the right thing to do?
If your child was actively trying to harm themselves, trying to take their own life because the prospect of school was too much to bear, would you force them in?

The whole education system needs to be reformed.
More and more children are being irreparably harmed by school, whilst the party line of “get them in” keeps being trotted out again and again.

Oh she's such a tool. I've done this in a non-teaching role, both in terms of collecting school phobic students in a supportive way, and driving round the local area picking up known 'traditional' truants from the park, for example. But these are the sorts of roles that get cut when governments don't fund schools properly...

There was a local PRU that was like this, it was amazing, really turned round a lot of children’s lives.
It was academised, has outstanding OFSTED results, but is a hellhole for the poor children who go.

Interested to know how exactly you go around, picking up children in your car. I have a relative that works in social care, young children basically in care. Not a lot you can do if they won’t get into the vehicle.

I often didn’t go to school - I would show up for registration and then just leave. Attendance wasn’t such a big deal back then. Nobody really kept track of how often you were there.

Strangely enough I made my way back to education and have a PhD now, and work in academia. School just wasn’t the right environment for me.

The Speaker ought to drive round & drag absent ministers & MP's in to Parliament.

I never thought I'd have a child who sometimes refused to go in. Never. That wasn't for people like me.

Until it was and although I could probably physically overpower him and drag him in, I really don't feel that's the best way to resolve things.

Thankfully he mostly seems ok to attend but we do have periods of worry especially as he's getting older.

There's no easy answer and overworked headteachers driving around is not one either.

@3BSHKATS school vehicle, not my own car, two staff, generally good working relationships with the pupils. Don't get me wrong some of them never did get in but most of the hanging around in the park type of kids took the view that they'd been busted and knew there were less consequences if they came along for a lift back rather than legging it.

With the phobic young people it was very much an agreed and scaffolded process, if it looked like they were having a real 'no' day then the families would let us know. We might go for a ride over anyway just to check in, or we might agree to leave it that day and try again tomorrow. Lots of different approaches, no two kids and families did it the same, but on the whole pretty successful. We got one lad to go from five minutes sitting under a desk then having to go home, to doing a pretty average attendance pattern under his own steam. He attended enough for him to gain some useful qualifications, make some lovely friends, and go to his college course of choice, anyway.

You're right it's not their job. councils used to have truant officers they need them. There's loads of shit parents who think they don't need to get their kids educated

My child's attendance is under 10% and I am getting zero help for her complex needs. Perhaps Ms Keegan could do something about that.