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?

DD not DS

But it takes the parents' cooperation. if the Mum hadn't said to try it, they wouldn't have done so.

It worked for one child.

I had the education welfare officer attend my house when my DS was unable to attend, after he'd been trying to jump out of windows and moving cars, because he was so stressed at the thought of school. I refused to allow her to see my child because him being told that he was naughty is not the answer and could well have tipped him over the edge.

Instead I frog marched the EWO to the school , which is next door to where I live and had a meeting with her and the head teacher, and guess what? School had the option of marking the absence as authorised given the circumstances.

I just simply don't think that people have a clue.

You can't parent away neurodiversity and an ill equipped school system.

Forcing a child into an unsuitable environment is abusive.

I have offered DD home learning but it’s her worst nightmare. She is almost certainly ASD.
homelearning would mean seeing no one but me and never going out. Also she doesn’t enjoy interacting with people online.
She wouldn’t be suitable for a special school as she can’t cope with unpredictable behaviour or others making noises.
She wants to go to school. She wants to sit in and classroom where everyone is quiet and gets on. I did ask school why they can’t replicate that for all the children like her but have no answer. I think a fake classroom would help get her back into a normal classroom.

Everything takes money - government don’t want to pay.

My DD is exactly like this (she has ASD too). The only thing that helped were small class sizes so we went to private. Many schools provide burseries for this if there’s a school locally you could send her too. In addition I was able to leverage parent networks to get her referred for treatments. She went from being non-verbal, in nappies, to being a top academic and sports performer. It still stuns me how far she came how quickly. She still has a few issues with bathing but she has close friends who tend to keep her straight on that!

DD2 and DS would love an environment like that. They long for it. So your DD is not alone.

They're struggling because every week the school routine is disrupted by something within school. Ironically, these things are meant to be treats.

I would love a school that was just the same day after day with minimal events. Then they'd feel ok.

Then perform a 2 person restraint to move distressed yp into car? Then restrain with straps to stay in back seat. Then employ 2 more people to sit on either side of restrained, distressed yp. 4 members of staff driving around all fecking day acting as custodial officers?!
Why doesn't the shit Tory government just fund quality services for children & yp, fund schools, CAMHS, play offerings in communities, cheap cinema & travel. There is little affordable, fun things to do, no MH support and no activities. Fund that you Tory fuckers.

My teacher cousin has had to go to truanting pupils' houses and get them into school (in his free periods, think they rotate this task).
I also know of a woman who is not allowed to make the judgement on whether her child is ill enough for be off school after refusing to send her back in after covid, so if her child is apparently 'ill' someone has to come round and verify it. Never known the HT do this though.

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.

Nonsense, there are many parents who couldn't give a damn if their sprogs are in school or not!
Who will be providing physicval protection for these visits? I know many teachers with pastoral responsibilities who never go to certain areas alone.

I hate to rain on your parade but this is a problem whichever party is in power, even under St Tony!

Yes, send your headteacher on £150 000 a year to round up scallywags. Hope they don't get beaten up by irate parents.

Or, let the school Welfare Officer, on £28 000, do that as they do every day.

I'm probably ten years out of date on salaries...

St Tony.... Who is that????
Of course it is but it's Tory fuckers who continually shit on children, young people and families. Or perhaps you missed the point.

My dd is currently on 60% attendance. She is autistic and was doing ok, but year 6 SATs sent her into burnout. School are actually excellent and have made every adjustment that is within their means, but she still can’t attend.

We are awaiting an EHC assessment. I can’t see how she will manage in a mainstream secondary of 2000 pupils, one obsessed with assessments and box ticking. We’re hoping for a specialist provision, but realistically there aren’t enough and most are full. She’d thrive in an academic small school, small class sizes, quiet etc.

She has spent months out of education, no alternative provision. She doesn’t want to be homeschooled. She desperately wants to attend.

That is what we would like to do too, unfortunately the government have other ideas.
Low attendance rates are a sign of much wider issues in communities. However, the government have cut budgets to local authority services that can help, so unfortunately, the buck stops with schools AGAIN to address all ills.

@MargaretThursday so that one story overtakes the dozens on here who have explained their child is suffering from EBSA? I don't think anyone denies that there are kids and parents who are just not bothering and don't see the point (though I would still ask why that is and how to address it) but the utter failure and unwillingness of most schools to accept that children are ill or ND, not naughty, is the issue here. On the FB support groups there are parents with criminal records and fines from the LAs while they are absolute crisis.

Thank you so much for this, I had no idea this group existed.

Why are you so concerned about attendance & other petty nonsense that has absolutely nothing to do with academic education? If you’re concerned about a child's welfare (which I sincerely doubt) just report them to local authority. Schools have no power to enforce attendance anyway so why waste time with it after all it’s not mandatory that children attend school

Also, I think the research about poor attendance leading to poor outcomes is misleading

Agree with this. Also, if an anxious child is forced into school then they are not ready to learn, which affects outcomes too. We were told this by our family worker when 6yo dd went through her last and most severe school refusal. The focus was on improving her mental health to a point where she went to school ready to learn.

Yes. I've seen it on TV. Just shows how clueless she is

Do you know, originally, I thought stupid idea, but on reflection I wonder if it could be helpful IF the purpose of that visit is to sit down and REALLY listen to the reasons why it’s hard to get to school so there can be some thinking about what might help.

The meeting should not be in the child's home.

For many children who have got to the point of non- attendance home is the safe space.

Having a headteacher or anyone else from school in the home is inappropriate.

These 'welfare' meetings should have happened before it gets to this point anyway. The problem is that no-one really listens. They'd rather assume the non - attendance is a result of a naughty child and either disinterested or chaotic parenting than actually look at what is the cause of the absence, which is most often what is going on in school or simply the environment being wrong.

As someone upthread correctly pointed out if a child did not want to go home then it would be a serious safeguarding concern. The same should apply if a child is unable to be in school.

Yes but that's just standard MN isn't it.

Bliar. The naivity on this site is so amusing!

It is a bloody stupid suggestion because it is happening all over the country all of the time - and this idiot is supposedly in charge of schools, and does not know that.

Very true. In this situation, nobody would be coming into my home without a court order.