To not understand the fixation on attendance?

[Gardenschmarden99]

Or at least to the level it currently is…

New education secretary and based on her speech to the association of school leaders it seems her focus is on attendance.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m an ex teacher with two primary age children who go to school whenever they aren’t unwell. Broadly I’m in favour of children going to school!

But I don’t think I’ve met many teachers who really think the current fixation is helpful. For those with deep seated problems, they would benefit from intervention. For those families that were unlucky enough to catch covid and a sickness bug in one school year the rather officious computer says no letters just erode the seriousness of actual attendance problems.

When children are unwell, they shouldn’t be in school even if it makes the attendance dip below 97%.

SEN children without support don’t have an attendance problem, they have a support problem (and I know this is because central government don’t fund local government well enough to pay for it but the kids can’t help that!)

I also think it would be such a crowd pleaser to allow 5 days authorised holidays at the discretion of the headteacher…. And yes, I’d also be in favour of my child’s teacher being able to go to a family wedding or see their child on sports day or (God forbid) have a day out with their spouse a few times a year.

My family live in a European country (not especially known for being ‘progressive’) where all this over focus on attendance is just not a thing. They outperform us in league tables for academic and mental health of children.

AIBU?

Well Labour have a very tight budget and a focus on attendance is measurable and cheap, it also requires action from the school not them, and so it makes perfect sense in that regard.

@Cowbag77
I completely agree with what you say sorry you experienced that.

Definitely agree there can be sen / mental health factors, also there are times where the factors are external linked to the child's family situation or perhaps adverse childhood experience at home which all impact too.

Any 'support' I've seen offered to the family seems to not be supportive and sometimes the opposite and doesn't help improve things. So that's why I would be interested if she was taking any different approach towards attendance and how this is actually supported

My children’s education is of huge importance to me. But I’ve learned that it’s not important to the LEA or school because of SEN.

When are these local authorities going to assume proper responsibility for delivering services under Section 19 and catering for children who are unable to attend school, as per their legal duty?

Every week, we read in the media about these scumbag parents like myself (who apparently don’t give two hoots about education). They are all sitting on their arses, working from home on Fridays and can’t be bothered with the school run etc, while Little Timmy remains uneducated..

These local authorities who fail to deliver are being let off the hook entirely by the media.

Section 19 says they have a duty to educate children alternatively if the children cannot attend school. Parents are battling for months and years to get those authorities to discharge their duties.

It’s the same with uniform and the pettiness around policing appearance. Kids were punished for wearing tracksuit bottoms on non uniform day at my daughter’s school.

There’s no evidence school uniform helps academically. It doesn’t prepare them for work unless they’re preparing for the military (or prison). Most workplaces are casual now.

There’s no big “slice” of society that doesn’t care about education. It’s a tiny minority, same for benefit fraud, nasty stereotypes.

It’s ridiculous that I have to ask for the head teacher’s permission to take my child out of school for a medical appointment (consultant not GP so little choice) and be threatened with a fine if they refuse. I declined to complete the form and told them to report me.

Screw the system (that’s failing my SEN kids). I’ve taken them on holidays slightly covering school term and just reported them off sick. My holidays are always educational much to the kids’ disgust.

Yes I'm so so sick of reading this.

I think poor attendance does need to be tackled. There are kids in my child's school who are on 20% attendance and you can't tell me that won't be having a massive impact on them and their families.

I just believe it needs to be tackled in terms of better SEN support and more investment in making schools pleasant places to be rather than fining parents and sending head teachers out to homes to drag kids to school.

I believe parents absolutely want their kids in school but what schools and local authorities are doing now isn't working.

By controlling attendance and improving the percentage it gives the illusion that the LEA is 'improving' education.

These fines will apparently increase in September.

Spare a thought for the mothers out there who are having to grapple 24/7 with their children’s mental health or SEN issues, while being clobbered over the head by the state (financially and by the criminal justice system).

Imagine the escalating pressure in family home, where attendance is a massive issue, while Mum cannot go to work, Mum cannot contribute to her pension, the school sends some “advisor” from Early Years who has no expertise in SEN to nose around fridges and bedrooms, and “help”, the educational establishment blames the parents.. These fines and criminal penalties are helping no one.

The trouble is as well once kids get into a routine of not going to school it makes attendance even worse and it’s hard to get them back attending regularly. I’m not blaming parents for this as due to delays in getting Sen support/ehcps often they have no other choice.

Agreed 100%.

My kids school gives out awards and prizes for attendance. Well done, you were lucky enough to only get sick during the holidays and not have any accidents! It’s ridiculous.

I don't value attendance in the slightest. If there's somewhere we want to go and it's on a school day, then school is missed. There's more to life than sitting in a classroom.

It’s very much a systemic issue. And agreed, it’s better to continue with the routine for most children.

It's a huge systemic issue. Giving up to 5 days in a block for a holiday I'd be in favour of (as a teacher). It's the absent every Friday kids which are a real issue.

The child being marked absent for turning up at 920 is being coded wrong. That should be L.

My stepdad died after a short illness and it hit us hard as a family.

Work understood and I had a couple of weeks signed off sick so I could grieve and also support my mum.

My daughter was also affected by it greatly and I kept her off school. This was the first time she had suffered a loss.

Unfortunately, a couple of months later, her great granny passed away. Again, we needed time to grieve.

Along with these losses and a vomiting bug the whole household came down with, she dipped below 90% attendance and we were given an attendance officer visit from the council.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Sorry people DIED.

Attendance is a massive issue and needs tackling but the problem isn’t the kids who have medical issues and they shouldn’t be penalised for it. Attendance certificates miss the mark.
Some children are kept off school for long or regular periods for no reason. The whole system does need looking at to meet children’s needs more effectively.

I've just not seen any decent ways of increasing attendance in the complex groups. It's all fines and red letters rather than looking at the causes and trying to sort it out.

I've also seen schools decide to improve their stats by tackling the people at the threshold of persistant absence (so around 92%) as its easier to tackle those, over supporting those with very complex reasons who are down on 60%. so the schools overall stats look better, but there is still some poor sausage really missing out in a very meaningful way.

Parents who cannot be bothered need to be pushed to act, and a focus on attendance helps to ensure that to some degree. It's also an important lesson for life in general.

The taking out of school for holidays needs to be tackled by something other than fines, as said they are usually just a typical beach or similar holiday.

I was with you until
I also think it would be such a crowd pleaser to allow 5 days authorised holidays at the discretion of the headteacher…. And yes, I’d also be in favour of my child’s teacher being able to go to a family wedding or see their child on sports day or (God forbid) have a day out with their spouse a few times a year
Definitely no, I wouldn’t be impressed if my kids were left without a teacher because they fancied a day out with their spouse. Same for term time holidays, you do realise that if you say it is fine to take a week some people will take more. And then the children will need to catch up, taking from the learning time meant for the other 29 kids in the classroom. Sorry but this is really a silly idea.

I genuinely think the schools insistence on being so draconian in their outlook is why so many kids become school refusers.

the whole thing of “you can’t take your blazer off even though it’s 32 degrees” or you’ll be put into isolation if you stare out of a window…. For kids with ADHD it must be utterly unbearable having to be a square peg stuck into a round hole for 8hrs of the day. The workforce isn’t like that so what are those schools trying to achieve?

relax the pettiness and make kids WANT to go school might be a good place to start…

If parents don’t want to abide by attendance rules, that’s entirely up to them. But don’t then bitch when your child falls behind in their core learning and blame the school and teachers! My OH teacher sees it time and time again. Schools have to stick to the curriculum and the timeline of teaching it, they cannot go back and fill in the gaps every time a parent can’t be bothered to send their kid in or decides to take a cheeky week in Greece in the middle of the school year. Yet these parents are the ones always bleating at parents’ evening when they’re told their child has fallen behind. 🤷‍♀️

I agree with you totally. Experiences, time with family etc are far more beneficial for children. People don't want to hear this though for some reason.

My DS is a very bright child with ASD who is being totally and utterly failed by his school. They talk the talk and then do fuck all to support him, other than fuck about round the edges, not providing substantive help (e.g. the Ed Psych says he needs a named person as the person he can talk to when he needs help / is feeling anxious, not a 1-2-1, just a named person. They've not even done that).

Then they bitch at us about his attendance.

School/ formal qualifications aren't that important to many people. There are entry routes to most jobs that don't require decent GCSE grades ( my organisation no longer asks for any qualifications) and if you're desparate to get into 50 grand of debt, you can do an access course for Uni when you're over 21. Why waste your childhood worrying about fronted adverbials or sitting in isolation because your socks are the wrong colour?

Attendance is important especially in deprived areas.

I worked in a school in the bottom 20% for deprivation and it’s so important. The head teacher used to drive round and pick children up to come to school otherwise they simply wouldn’t. It was so sad to see.

I also agree, it's frustrating to see nonsense trotted out when it's not addressing real issues so we know nothing will change.

Same old same old again.

I'd also add that supporting dc with sen is not just a funding issue. Some dc just need very light extra support and understanding from a teacher. But they can't get that because teachers don't know.