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?

@Tawstrong 1 in 6 goodness me that’s a lot. I knew it was high and getting higher but blimey.

It’s happening near me, kids living with a parent not capable of getting them to school , so school go get the DC.

The education secretary needs to be looking at why schools are such a traumatising place for many children to be.

Over testing in primary schools has a lot to answer for and can make intelligent children with SEN feel stupid. Add to that over crowded class rooms and poor behaviour management which makes children feel sensory overload. Children don't have the same access to sport, music and imaginative play because of funding cuts. Children who struggle educationally are kept in at break time to 'catch up' rather than being allowed to play.

I have experience of school refusal. My son, when he was 10 at the time, tried to kill himself because school was such a terrifying prospect. A teacher coming over wouldn't have solved that it would have made it worse.

Fast forward 7 years of learning in a suitable environment, (our home), an autism and dyslexia diagnosis and medication for anxiety, and he has just very successfully finished year 12 in a mainstream 6th form and has done so well he is applying to Oxford University.

There are so many assumptions about school refusal. It destroys lives. Most school refusal is entirely down to failures to identify SEN and lack of specialist provision.

Schools often do this. We often have to go and get children from home.

School my mum works at the headteacher does this.

I'm a teacher of teenagers. One particular student regularly misses my class which is after lunch. I have called his mother and brought it up at the PT meeting. Her response was yes he frequently just wants to watch TV after lunch and moans about going back. She can't do anything about it so can I stand at the school gates and remind him as he's leaving to come back.

The majority of parents do their utmost but there are some (particularly in our area) who love to blame the teachers for everything.

ju done that. My DD still won't budge on a bad day. Count yourself lucky you have zero experience of it.

Soundbite pronouncements like this are so typical of this government. God forbid that the Education Secretary should actually educate herself about the cause of the problem and what schools are already doing in this area. Just come out with something sanctimonious about what headteachers "should" be doing, job done.

Heaven forbid school staff try and support children and parents in getting children into school...

From my own personal experience they couldn’t care less about supporting a parent or child, it’s to make sure the overall attendance record remains at a certain level. If they didn’t have a standard set then there’s no way would be as concerned about kids absences

@tsmainsqueeze i agree with school us viewed differently now. Before, you went to school, everyone did it, and no one knew any different.

Since lockdown, kids are more relaxed. They’ve h got used to not going and don’t view it as essential. It was ok to sit at home during lockdown, so it’s ok now to do it. Plus all the mental health g fall out from lockdown.

And this is what needs looking at

A child directly opposite from me had someone involved in taking her to school on and off … mum has Severe Mh problems - child is now in long term care. This isn’t a simple issue take them to school and all will be fine .

we have a combination of increasing mh problems and schools becoming more ridgid . It’s not working

I would have appreciated a home visit for my y11 son who was a school refuser. I did everything I could to get him there. School used to say - see if he comes in tomorrow which isn’t very helpful. He has asd and generally found school a stressful place. He said it was an exam factory with no concern for the well-being of its students, sadly I think he’s right.

In our MAT they had to send 2 staff for safeguarding reasons (there had been incidents). It’s very time consuming for staff. It also rarely works.

In one nice school one of the governors sons just didn’t want to come in. Staff would go, he would make them wait whilst he ate breakfast/had a shower. Would get to school, would get sent home with a few minutes as he knew exactly how to get excluded. 2 staff for well over an hour for him attending for 15 minutes.

I have a school refuser (SEN) I realise it’s not the same. She’s bigger than me, pressure to go in when she should have had a break has made things worse.

I've never thought of it like that!
You only have to read the numerous threads on here where schools do sod all to address bullying to realise just how crap some Heads are. I'm surprised that school refusal numbers aren't higher.

100%

Then you do try to physically get them into school and they get so agitated that they take an overdose of paracetamol, taken to hospital where they tell the doctor that their mum assaulted them leading to a thorough and stressful social services investigation.

Then the school comes out again and asks for access to the 16 year olds bedroom repeatedly to see if they can try things I "haven't tried yet".

So so glad the period of our lives is over.

If it is done in an agreed way to support then great.

if it’s turn up at the door in an authoritative style telling them it’s time for school then it’s going to create more issues than it solves

One of our local secondary schools sends out a mini bus with a member of staff in to pick up the kids who are playing truant in the park or refusing to leave their house. See it doing the morning rounds at about 10am most mornings.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to this over privileged ignorant flancy that many school staff ( including heads) don't have cars

That's awful. I hope you are OK.

One of my kid's friends was being picked up and driven to their GCSE exams. Still failed miserably because they hadn't actually attended half their lessons but at least the school tried.

Many schools already do this, where appropriate.
Not all persistent absence needs that approach - schools often have information to help support them in knowing when it may be a useful intervention and when it won't help. Other measures can be put in place to help if that's the case.

School staff turning up can and does work for some cases, in other situations it can make matters worse.

I work in primary these days so it's very different to secondary and the approaches will also be different.

School staff DO usually care about the education and welfare of their pupils. School attendance figures, day to day, are irrelevant to most teaching staff, ime, it's the reason behind those absences that we care about,

The government has such a fucking cheek. Closing the schools to our children for months on end...then expecting kids in this country to retain their enthusiasm for education and have zero anxiety around it. Makes me sick. My ds was an incredibly enthusiastic year seven when covid hit. Endless disruption, isolation, masks in classrooms...my ds never got his enthusiasm back. He used to love school. I'm lucky that he willingly goes in every day but he hates it.

Oh and before anyone has a go at me, I have no problems with teachers...they are absolute heroes, but I will never forgive the government for what they did to the kids in this country.

Then fund CAMHS properly
Then fund SENCO & Pastoral Care properly
and Bring back Vocational Pathways to high schools

If you have every lived with a teenager with Emotional Based School Avoidance (school refuser is such a horrible term) … the thought that a teacher could turn up and your children were suddenly compliant, is hilarious

People here and in media who say parents should face benefits sanctions of their kids don't go to school...that is displaying quite a bit of prejudice. My son is only partially attending due to mental health/ASD reasons. We are two professional working parents, reasonable incomes and he is in a state grammar school. His school has enough absent children that it was with having a coffee and information morning for the parents. It isn't just the 'poor kids' who are absent. This can happen to anyone, no matter their background or privilege. I'd never in a million years have thought we were the type of family to have a son who was long term absent from school but we are and it has made me question my own prejudices. To anyone who hasn't been in this situation, don't be too sure about 'what you would do' - sometimes there is actually nothing which works.