Government attendance campaign

[D3LAN3Y]

Firstly I apologise if this thread has already been done. I haven't seen one.

AIBU to think the government's new campaign to improve attendance has totally missed the mark? "Moments matter, attendance counts".... that one.

I first stumbled upon a picture of a happy smiley child running around with a speech bubble saying some nonsense about him having a running nose but look at him now. As if having an NHS logo on the right hand corner magically means this child is cured of whatever ailment he had that morning, his parents are obviously dimwits and he should attend school no matter what.

All that matters to schools seem to be their statistics. Not childrens physical or mental well being. What about the teachers teaching them? What about their class mates? What about vulnerable families? What about SEN families with no provisions?

As parents do you think the government need to toughen attendance? What reforms would help?

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-national-drive-to-improve-school-attendance

Well they blew it during covid by insisting kids stay off with every sniff until it was tested. And they decided it could all be done remotely. Then they also had that concrete that could collapse and kill people.

Leave it up to the parents and kids. If they care they'll show up. If there's an underlying issue then yeah the NHS should step up and help. They won't though.

I was absolutely begging for my dc to be allowed to go to school during COVID. When they closed them for the second time, I could have cried. My ds was sent home to isolate for 14 days and missed his sports day he was so looking forward to...he sat in his room instead.

How fucking dare they

Apparently wanting my dc to go to school made me a conspiracy theorist granny killer....

It’s a load of crap. If attendance was important, schools would not have been closed in the name of an illness which poses virtually no risk to children and less than 1% mortality rate for under 65s without core morbidities.

These gaslighting morons like to tell you what suits them at the time, not necessarily what’s true.

The middle picture (of the House of Commons) must be taking the mickey, surely!! Is this a parody campaign or a real campaign? It’s the middle picture that’s making me doubt it’s real 😂

Here you go OP. I CBA to repeat myself again but loads of good points in both of these threads. 🤣

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4985675-if-you-work-in-education-what-do-you-think-is-causing-the-current-attendance-issues

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4979549-parents-to-be-asked-to-solve-school-attendance-crisis?page=1

It's cheaper for the government to have a campaign and appear to be doing something about attendance, than it is to fund schools and the health service properly. Any decent school does care about well being (for both pupils and staff), vulnerable and SEN families. But Heads and governing boards all over the country are struggling with their budgets.

I put that one in there. Couldn't help myself.

It's absolutely condescending, and aimed at their prime voters... the boomers. The grandparent boomers who sent their kids off to school whether they were being bullied or in fear, autism what's that etc.

I didn't send my son into school when he had covid as there's a kid in the class with a heart condition. Teacher said that the other child wasn't my concern.

The campaign is all about trying to reduce the loss of seats at the general election, do something even if the wrong angle.

😂😂

So true. If public services were much better funded, that would definitely help with boosting attendance (not for the sake of boosting attendance but to help kids learn and make the most out of their time at school). I realise attendance is a complex issue, but more public funding would be a step in the right direction towards improving it.

Public spending has never been higher. Where is this magic never end fountain or funding coming from?

Raising taxes; lowering spending in one area and diverting the extra revenue into public services: creating a new tax (which will be horribly unpopular, I realise!!)

It may be that public spending has never been higher, but that’s because our population is growing all the time and also because we’ve had quite a few unforeseen circumstances come up that we’ve had to spend money on e.g. the pandemic and its legacy, and Brexit.

Brexit wasn’t really ‘unforeseen’ in the same way that the pandemic was, but the Brexit result wasn’t expected and the legacy has cost a lot of money over the last few years. I’m just giving Brexit and Covid as two of many examples. I could add HS2 as well.

And who is going to pay this new tax. Anyone who earns more than you?

Exactly. The amount spent has been astronomical for last few years but the cries for more and more

And yeh keeping dc out of schools for two terms plus isolation at a cough isn’t going to help attendance now

If only people could have thought about that at the time 🤔

I suggested a new tax as one of the options, but mentioned that this would be very unpopular. Any of the other options I’ve suggested will be better (obviously none of them are ideal though).

What are your thoughts on the situation?

You say public spending has never been higher. Have you or your family or friends been impacted because of the current economic situation? If you have, I’d be interested to see what you think we could do about it as a country. And if you haven’t been affected, I’d be interested to find out why.

We live in a society, and therefore have a duty as a society to look after one another. Due to the political ideology of the current government, they have made it the responsibility of private companies, charities and individual people to care for society, pretty much. For anyone who doesn’t qualify for help or isn’t able to get help from any of these places, they will struggle. In my view, that is not the hallmark of a healthy and functioning society.

All that matters to schools seem to be their statistics.

All that matters to the government is school statistics.

Fixed that for you.

DeathbyJedi · Today 13:23

It's absolutely condescending, and aimed at their prime voters... the boomers. The grandparent boomers who sent their kids off to school whether they were being bullied or in fear, autism what's that etc.

Don't be ridiculous.

Some of the responses on this thread are hysterical!

The trust between parents, school and the govt was damaged when they decided children didn't need to attend school during COVID. You can't say school is important and then insist that only children with 2 key worker parents can attend for 6 months and all the others need to stay at home and do 1 hour of online learning.

The money would be better spent on the root causes of persistent absences. There are many children who don't have a school to go to due to their needs, maybe the money for the campaign can go into funding more sen schools rather than demonising parents.

IMO we need to go back to the headteacher discretion for absences or allow 10 days which can be taken for holidays in term time. We need to recognise that family holidays are as valuable for children as maths and English. Maybe we should respect the role of the parent to choose how to parent and educate their child. Why shouldn't I take my child for a week's holiday in term time on the last school week of July when all they do is watch films and colour, if they have high attendance and on track. There will always be feckless parents and this campaign will do nothing to encourage them to send their children to school.

Wow! I can’t believe they said that to you!

Well done for caring, more than the school can say.

It the attendance at the debate on SEND funding in schools.

Ivd had an email saying my daughters attendance us less than what it should be and that children with a mild illness should still be in school. Ha, they weren't saying that during 2020 and 2021 was they! Anyone with a cold had to stay iff for 2 weeks and they sent whole class rooms home because a friend had tested positive for covid. What hypocrites!

So that's a government advert, that is critical of the government? (The middle picture)