To think the Ofsted inspector who blames WFH parents for low attendance is probably just resentful?

[JandamiHash]

The Chief Inspector of Ofsted is blaming parents who WFH for the demise of school attendance https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-16/parents-working-from-home-makes-children-feel-school-is-optional-ofsted-head?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0ULgukQnTsabNTlcJRBI4kVQsMYkhCPK_KA4lUAgVkxOocYfo3onmRNHU_aem_nuBknA_QEGgfA93CaTPagg. Apparently none of us want to take our slippers off so we let our kids stay at home while we work.

He makes some REALLY weird points like his overworked dad he didn’t see much as his inspiration to go to school. And also MPs making sure they spend weekends with their families is a bad work ethic.

I know MN is a good example of whenever WFH threads are brought up, non-WFHers come on dripping with resentment over WFH and implying WFHers don’t really work. AIBU to think this man - who has somehow been knighted - is basically doing that? I’m not sure how much inspecting he does now, but Ofsted inspectors aren’t any superior or harder working just because they spend a few days working away from home at a time (something BTW I’m expected to do, at least 1 overnight a month).

Also as someone from a household where 2 of us WFH, I can’t think of anything worse than having kids flapping around us while we try and work. I’m FT, and this week I’m off Weds-Fri, as is DH. my DD11 will be at home tomorrow with strict instructions to keep away unless there’s a serious emergency (she’s secondary and old enough to take care of herself) and at a friend’s on Tuesday. My DS is 8 and is going into a holiday club tomorrow and Tuesday as his neediness is unbearable. Both have somewhere between 97 and 99% attendance so far this academic year.

YABU - “He’s got a point”
YANBU - “He’s wrong/resentful”

It's such a weird thing for him to come out with. I was expecting some kind of evidence of increased truancy from kids of parents who wfh but it was just a piece of imagination.

Read the article
it is very measured and sensible
and you distort it with your title

Surely if a parent is at home they can see their child skiving and get them to school.

Sounds like this isn’t the case.

Have you read the Sunday time article? Or just this out of context abstract

Yes exactly it’s really just a batshit theory from someone who really should have engaged his PR & comms team.

FWIW I do think there’s an attendance problem and I don’t especially agree with term time holidays, bar certain circumstances. I do think there’s a problem that lies somewhere which explains low attendance - but how does random baseless speculation help?

I have.

What about it is measured do you think?

There’s lots of reasons for poor attendance. For example my ds had poor attendance because he was on a looooong NHS waiting list to see a specialist.

Wrong, yes.

Resentful, no. That's a weird take on it.

It is not a particularly long article nor insightful. Just some sweeping statements and baseless extrapolation from a tepid imagination.

It appears the OP is the only one 'dripping with resentment'.

I've never seen such a biased take on any story that's been linked.

You do realise we can actually read it OP, don't you? 👀🤦‍♀️

No because it’s behind a paywall

Does it have statistics to support this viewpoint?

Having googled the Times seem to have an exclusive relationship with this man whereby he goes to them making quite controversial statements. Interesting PR move

You’ve read the Sunday times article?

Surely you’d know then (not being snippy but the article was much fuller and you’d know that he’s not having a go at all WFH parent)

"He makes some REALLY weird points like his overworked dad he didn’t see much as his inspiration to go to school. And also MPs making sure they spend weekends with their families is a bad work ethic. "

So he was neglected and would like other kids to be neglected too.

Sure, every parent that wfh wants their child disturbing them all day 🙄

Probably better to read the entire article, which is much longer than this, before starting a thread about it

Well, I am more lenient on letting my kids stay home sick, since I’ve been able to wfh and not lose a day’s pay. They’ve been off with a stomach ache and heavy cold this year, previously it might have been a dose of calpol & see how they get on in school

Invite viruses I to a school
Inevitable that some kids will get it worse than others and be off.

This obsession with attendance is ridiculous.

If my kid is ill, my kid stays off, I couldn't give a fuck about the schools attendance score, I care about my kid.

I think he may have a point, although it's just his opinion - I doubt there's any evidence to back up this up I would imagine, in some households, the fact that parents are working from home may make it harder for some children to get motivated to get out to school. And there will be some parents who are more likely to let their children stay off with a sniffle if they are at home anyway, and aren't having to worry too much about who will provide childcare.

Whether he's right or wrong, I've no idea why you think he's resentful.

I think there will be a VERY small increase in children staying off when parents WFH, and they will be the children who should be off.

It is not unheard of for children to be sent in to school when they are ill and shouldn't be there - for example children who reveal they were sick that morning but mummy and daddy have to work. If parents can keep their child off in those circumstances- great!

Yes stats.

Correlating the exponential increase in WFH with the exponential increase in absences, and often on Fridays

Can you elaborate on what’s right about this article and what I am resentful over please?

So I doesn’t have statistics to support his viewpoint then?

Why would people do that if you haven't read it?

Perhaps parents who WFH or are SAHP are just able to keep their dc off when necessary rather than sending ill children to school? Looking at some schools info sheets on when to send dc in it seems they want them in when not well at all. Maybe the focus needs to be on why schools have these ridiculous targets and expectations for children to be in unwell (when they won’t be receptive to learning anyway ?)

Exactly
you’d think you would do this before getting resentful and starting a thread