First week 'critical' to avoid children missing school later, parents told

[Bloodyscarymary]

I just saw this article in the BBC and am astounded at the daft reasoning. Apparently, students who miss days in the first week of school are more likely to be persistently absent, therefore we need a critical focus on attendance in the first week to reduce absence.

I feel like someone needs to let the DfE know that correlation does not equal causation! Surely it’s just that children with factors causing absence are more likely to miss a day in the first week than children who don’t have those factors. I am pretty sure if they took a data subset from ANY week in the year, persistently absent students would be more likely to be absent in that week than non persistently absent students!

Therefore it’s not the week that’s critical, it’s the factors driving absence we need to focus on.

I am all for having a public awareness campaign but why muddy statistics like this instead of just talking about what is actually needed to solve absence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7jk3rr225o

Has it suddenly become a bigger issue now or were you just not aware of it before?

I don't think it's new, I think it's just talked about more now and considered a societal issue in a way it didn't used to be.

In the past some of these children were packed off to schools like this where they were abused: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn47w8kl8v4o

Some were excluded as that used to be easier. Alongside other strategies to move them off roll so they weren't the school's or council's problem anymore.

People not caring enough to notice or follow up.

The school leaving age was only 12 at the beginning of the last century and only rose as high as 15 post-war, where it stayed until the early 70s when it went up to 16.

These children were left behind, forgotten about, or abused in the past.

Why do you think missing the first week of the year is ideal?

I wouldn't dispute your logic or stance about the last week of the year, but I am surprised that you think missing the first week back is ideal.

Longer holiday’s don’t equate to better grades. All of the private schools where I live have an extrance exam, so are already taking the brightest students. They also have smaller class sizes, which is far more advantageous.

Well yes, it is well-documented that school attendance has plummeted just in the very few years since the pandemic, so it can't all be to do with it being hidden before.

From reading MN over the past 20+ years, it's also pretty obvious that more children are struggling to attend regularly due to their ND.

I agree that the pandemic has caused extra problems with school attendance for lots of different reasons, but your post wasn't about that? You seemed to be suggesting that ND is a new problem and ND children were perfectly fine in the past with rowdy classrooms and corporal punishment?

The term ND was only coined about 25 years ago and there was much less awareness of autism etc 20+ years ago. There was also substantially more stigma. It might not have been talked about, it might not have been talked about in the same way, it might not have been on your radar in how you used the site 20+ years ago, you might have forgotten, the site was smaller. There are all manner of reasons why discussions about ND would seem or be more prominent now compared to 20+ years ago. Besides which, that's anecdotal.

I’m in my mid 60’s now & my parents always took us on holiday (UK only) it coincided with being the 1st week back at school in September.
It was awful starting school a week late, everyone had made friends etc & knew the routine & settled in, I felt like an outsider, playing catch up.
That experience made me vow never to do that to my kids.

That's exactly how I felt about it too. My parents were the same with holidays and us starting late.

My daughter is still in burn out from last year. It can take months to recover from. I have no idea how this week or school year will go.

Because not much happens first week back. We did it year before last with eldest and no problems so doing it again this year. Fortunate the school has 4 days of inset at the beginning so taking advantage of that and then tagging our holiday on. They do a transition before end of term so both girls know where they are going, new teachers, class etc. I imagine a few will be doing it to take advantage of cheaper prices.

Gosh, dd's school get started pretty much from the first day, I don't think there's time to not do much in the first week. I agree about the last couple of days being a tail down but the first week seems pretty important.

A lot happens socially, with friendship groups and sorting classroom routines. It's rough on the kids.

Well each to their own eh? I'm pretty confident my kids will be absolutely fine. Both schools have been informed and no problems their side.

I have 3 kids in school and my experience is that loads happens in the first week. They always hit the ground running. I’d never take them on holiday in the first week of a term.

I agree.

And I saw the article this morning and had exactly the same thought, OP. It’s just a nonsense statistic really, unless you look at it the way TheNightingalesStarling suggests.

I read something somewhere that a high school did a trial of a 10am start I think ? That alone massively increased attendance rates and when they went back to the previous start time attendance rate declined

It really isn't rough on the kids. Mine will go back on the Friday and then have the weekend to chill before back full time.

Interesting to read this, and fits with what I'd previously thought.

I think because you're not pretending all schools teach up to the final hour in July, as one occasionally sees on here, people are more likely to take you seriously.

Well if you've told them that you're going there isn't really much they can do or say. They'll probably be thinking it's not the best choice, but it is your choice and not the end of the world. I wouldn't do that to dd personally as I'd be worried about some of the negative experiences like those mentioned on here. I'm not sure it'd be worth it for a slightly cheaper holiday.

I was an academic high achiever, and never struggled at school, but I had parents who were happy to take me out of activity week because "we can organise better holidays" or "we can afford a family holiday for that school trip" and they were completely oblivious to the social impact it had on me.

Missing out on the excitement for those trips, the shared memories after had a huge and lasting impact socially.

Whilst I'm not going to be a "slave" to the school year and my son's social life, I'm also not going to be a bloody narcissist over it and choosing my family convenience over him.enjoying himself with his peers either.

As one of the kids this happened to because my parents decided to run our holidays to suit them, myself and others in this thread who have been forced to be those children did find it rough. Your kids will be fine but that doesn't mean there isn't a period of discomfort where they feel like outsiders and like they are a bit behind everyone else socially. It won't kill them though, just provide unpleasant memories.

As a teacher I would say that being in for that first week is really important. I have seen kids be on holiday that week in Year 7 and then be unsettled for the whole year. It's the only week I would say to not go on holiday!

I’m in Ireland where it’s not considered the work of the devil to be taking your kids on holidays in term time. As a result we often go in term time. But I’d never take them in September, it’s incredibly disruptive for them. They miss a key settling in period with the teacher. My DD had an op one year and missed the first two weeks and it took her ages to settle.

Well like I said I have done it before and no negative repercussions so here we are. Both my kids are pretty robust in terms of friendships etc so I am not concerned. But of course up to everyone on their choices.

My parents didn't think there were any negative repercussions either, because we never told them. They were going to do what they were going to do anyway, we were going to have to suck it up, so what was the point?

This thread explains why my teacher friends are tearing their hair out. The idea that the response to not being able to afford a summer holiday is to pull your children out of school and is in the child’s interests drives me insane.