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?

There is no point arguing with anyone as ignorant as @Florenz .
My ND child is non verbal. He doesn’t understand words. He can’t just ‘get on with it’. And yes, he does find life very hard to cope with and probably always will. What’s your point?

I've no problem with making adjustments. But at some point, after the adjustments are made, they have to actually do the job.

Exactly. But at the moment there isn’t the funding or staffing needed for the adjustments in schools. £32k from access to work, schools get £6k per child. Schools are overcrowded and underfunded. They can’t employ the staff or resolve the schools to make adjustments.

So actually you agree. Schools should’ve making adjustments for disabled children, which they can’t at the moment due to over a decade of chronic underfunding.

@Florenz l just wonder what went wrong in your life? Thinking everyone lives on benefits and council owned, which you’d choose to remove.

And then your life gets harder ever year. Mine hasn’t. I don’t fit any of the things you’re moaning on about.

Yet l have a ND kid😲

Florenz probably expect someone who is visually impaired to be able to ‘adapt’ to see

I don’t think Florenz is trolling, I think she’s just making the essential point, which is that life can only make accommodations to a certain point and beyond that we have to stand on our own feet. Otherwise the world just becomes one big support system for those who say they cannot cope, and that’s not fair on everyone else. Sadly the world runs off cash and if we don’t have enough people robust enough to work and put more into the system than they need in return, then we’ve got a huge problem on our hands.

I think the first step is figuring out why it is teenagers and kids seem to need so much mental health support than in previous years, because until we do that this is just going to keep spiralling.

I would be interested in responses from parents dealing with this first hand. Would banning phones in school help? I’m horrified pupils are filming over toilet doors and so on. Why should they be entitled to possess a phone when they should be learning?

@Sweetashunni banning SATs would be more helpful. Reducing the obsession with assessment and data. Let children learn through play and creativity.

Fund schools properly so they can recruit teachers, TAs and support staff, including at least one TA for every classroom like 15 years ago. Allow staffing to reduce class sizes. And money to repair school buildings and ensure they are big enough for the amount of pupils they have.

Reopen all the special schools that they closed and provide specialist provision.

Fund camhs properly so that children aren’t waiting years for mental health support. A child has to have made two serious suicide attempts in order to receive support.

Funding for Ed Psych training- there is a national shortage which delays EHCPs.

Banning phones in schools won’t help my severely autistic child be able to function, no.

I’ll bite

Florenz

I forced my ND kids into school every single bloody day. Both masked.One ended up developing Anorexia we’re still battling 3 years later and has tried to take her own life. The other ended up having a complete breakdown. Both are on anti depressants and anti anxiety medication. Consequently both have missed far more school than if they’d been given the support and space they need at the time.

Gillian Keegan’s comments are disgraceful and she should lose her job. Headteachers are doing heroic work in extremely difficult times. Most barely have time for lunch let alone driving round large catchment areas picking up kids.Funding and provision for SEND is beyond inadequate, everybody working in the system says the same. It’s broken. She should focus on giving schools the support and funding they need if she really wants school absence figures to improve.

Florenz · Today 15:15
“How are schools more difficult for ND pupils to access?

Surely they'd be better off attending and learning as best they can, trying their hardest in the exams, etc, than just not going at all?

I don't think it's practical to expect schools to tailor individual learning methods for each and every pupil. It's up to pupils to adapt to the world as it is, not expect the world to adapt to them. Because that certainly isn't going to happen once they start work.”

This disgraceful post is incorrect as thankfully we have an equality act. I have reported it and I hope others go too. Nobody would speak like thought about more visible disabilities.

It’s amazing , isn’t it, how people with no knowledge of autism think they have all the answers!

Oh FGS. Read the fucking thread. It’s all there.

I’ve reported a number of Florenz’s posts as ableist. Presumably a wheelchair user should just try to adapt to walking and a deaf student adapt better to hearing.

It is clear that @Florenz has no understanding at all of what ND even means. I don't disagree that "only so many adjustments can be made" and there will be some who never can access paid work, which is why there is PIP etc. (dire though it is). But for many many ND kids, they will actually cope perfectly well in an adult environment when they have more control and choice over their role, workspace, type of colleague etc. They wont just be shoved randomly into a bear pit of 35 and expected to get on with it. They will seek out employment in sectors that suit them. Why shouldn't they? Equally, why should we not seek to find and implement huge improvements in the education sector to actually practically address the mental health needs that we keep banging on about in PSHE lessons. Kids today know all about "stress" and "anxiety" and "self esteem" and "it's ok to not be ok" and we, as teachers, can tick the boxes that we've "done it" but are completely unable to provide anything concrete to improve anything.

Sadly I disagree.
Too many teachers refuse to even acknowledge a child’s disability.
Too many schools focus relentlessly on attendance and academia beyond all else.
Of course they’re underfunded, of course they have directives from a shitty government.
A parent’s battle in these awful, destructive cases are with schools and teachers - they have the power to make a difference, yet over and over again they choose to not understand and to dismiss children’s trauma.
If schools are routinely able to traumatise a cohort of students they are not good enough.

Unfortunately there’s a whole load of people, some of them teachers, quite happy to discriminate. if You’re of the ‘they’ll just have to cope because that’s life and it’s not fair on the non disabled’ I’d suggest doing some research into how these conditions affect people, the effect on health and life expectancy and reframe your thoughts as ‘how can we get the best out of everyone’. How can we ensure some groups in society are not disproportionately affected by ill health, suicide, poor prospects, going to prison. Because when you actually look at the statistics of who is at risk people who are ND/ disabled are hugely more at risk, and that’s because of the failure of society to support them

The local councillor in our council had this opinion, literally believed that money spent on SEN is wasted and should be spent on gifted and talented instead. This is such a short sighted view. All children have the right to be seen as deserving and to receive an appropriate education , everyone deserves the opportunity to achieve the best that they can. Not everyone is going to be academically gifted and luckily not everyone needs to be.

The world of work is a thousand times easier and more accommodating that the world of school, since you have freedom to choose your career, your type of work, your workplace, your working environment (office vs factory vs outdoors vs a million other things), can choose a job that involves working closely with many others or a job that's entirely working alone, can choose a job that involves a lot of supervision and little autonomy vs a job with complete autonomy, can choose the career/job that suits your sleeping pattern (eg take a night shift job if you have a sleep disorder, or shift work), can choose a career with a formal dress code or no dress code, or go into business for yourself, pursue being a professional athlete or artist, mechanic or work in the beauty field.

Obviously most people don't end up in their dream job but you basically have control over your life choices as an adult, which you don't have as a child at all.

Al the autistic people I know who really struggled in school now have very successful careers doing all sorts of different things, everything from being palaeontologists spending their time on digs, park rangers working outdoors, professional artists, coders, all kinds of things. None of them are in jobs where they get punished if they wear the wrong shoes or are expected to tolerate bullying.

One of my best friends is autistic and has won several Baftas for screenwriting. Pretty sure his "employer" isn't going to fire him for wearing the wrong shoes or not being able to tolerate noise, LOL.

The fact Florenz made those posts about not giving people accommodations because they have to just get on with it directly after my post about being forced out of school and denied access to education completely after breaking my spine because my school had no provision for wheelchairs (despite me being academically gifted and a high achiever who loved school) really says it all.

The school-work system doesn't actually want high achievers and people who make their own path in life, just drones to be fed into factories and offices.

So, Mr ‘Zero Tolerance’ appointed to be the Chief Inspector of Schools (OFSTED) ... I'm not sure who to be more fearful for, school leaders, parents....kids...https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ogat-boss-martyn-oliver-set-for-ofsted-chief-inspector-role/

Too greater a level of expectation, people like forenz judging the youth of today, materialism, too much testing and most importantly... hopelessness... my generation could aspire to free further education, a house, cheap rent, a decent job, promotion, holidays, pensions... not anymore, all that for so many disadvantaged children has gone.
Vast majority of children skipping school are on free school meals.

All many older people want to do is punish and restrict young people, a few act like dickheads and suddenly they are all idiots... when its actually a small minority, most young people are brilliant and we would do well to remember they are our future.

To fix the minority of issues? Early intervention in parenting, Schools can only do so much, kids spend the majority of their time at home/in the community.

I really do not think teachers should be expected to fix social issues and go and collect absent children.