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

Slightly off main topic but related - my child was diagnosed with a lifelong condition earlier this year and as part of many of her symptoms she suffers from secere
anxiety and finds school challenging on many levels. It’s a rare condition so school are a bit stumped on how to handle it, but prior to onset she had very high % attendance. She now doesn’t, so I’ve been receiving the “auto generated” ie sorry you get These but we aren’t stopping 😔emails re attendance with facts like “70% and under leads to higher risk of unemployment and offending later in life. They are soul crushing to receive when I’d love her to be in school more. Fixation on attendance and how it impacts on school ratings is extremely detrimental to families struggling with illness, SEN, and mental health. It feels arbitrary at best
and dangerous at worst.

Also, do a graph of absences over each day of the week. Fridays are by far, based on the schools that two friends teach at, in different parts of the country, the highest. They think not every absence on Fridays, is medical related. As when one of the school secretaries that works part time goes out during the school hours on Fridays, she often sees school aged kids with their parents.

One of my friend's had a lad in her class last year and both he and younger brother - had the same Fridays off and probably about the third of Fridays in the school year too.

It's awful they are sending you those emails. Obviously there are times when it can't be helped. I think this thread is more about voluntary absences by parental choice rather than illness.

I think we have to be careful about making assumptions. If you saw me and my child out during a school day we might be on our way back from the hospital, where we had regular appointments for a very long time. And if we stopped at the supermarket on the way home quickly? Doesn't make the situation any less necessary.

Yes I know it’s a bit off topic, sorry hopped on to have
a rant before Monday rolls around again and I get another doom email about my 9 year old’s future.

But that’s not the reason most absences.

I think it is. Some parents when their DC have a medical appointment at 9-10am and out within 20 mins, still keep their DC off school. I was driven to school and probably missed the first lesson.

Depends why I supposed.

One of mine missed first few days - due to illness one year .

Then all three missed first week and half - because house move from one part of country to another took longer than expected and we couldn't sign up for new school till that went though - the school and us got them in as soon as possible before paper work and uniform was bought.

They had 100% attendance rest of the year and then most subsquent years. They didn't seem to suffer much but then everyone knew they were completly new to area and school and we all quickly caught up with new procedures - they all settled much sooner than we'd dare hope.

One of DD1 friends has a mother who set up an high street eye appointment on her first day in secondary - and a routine dental after paying for last Y6 trip then trying to get money back rather than re-book appointment. I thought that was really odd way to behave - but the mother was pretty consistant making life harder for eldest.

Your child will be fine. They know there is a reason, it's not just your choice because it suits you, and they no doubt feel the love and security of your care. Those are very important in the development of a child too.

DD was struggling with her mental health and her school said she couldn't come in until authorised by CAMHS and then a safeguarding meeting. That took her attendance below the required %, and so I got an official letter warning me about her lack of attendance - although they were the ones saying she can't attend!

One time the brothers were both off together on a term time Friday, they visited a theme park as DF uploaded photos onto FB and the DF is a friend of my friend (the teacher)'s OH. Another Friday, they went to the coast and uploaded photos of the lads on the 2p machines. The DF WFH and does the bare minimum on Friday mornings.

It’s just madness, isn’t it?

I would have thought the first week is important for settling in, making some new friends or catching up with old ones, refreshing yourself on rules and expectations. Turning up after everyones already settled in or has mates at lunchtime would make you a bit anxious about going back in,

Completely agree, op. The thing that made the biggest difference to dd was having an ehcp in place. For the past two years she's thrived and attended almost 100%, barring the usual viruses. Yet the government is considering stripping EHCPs right back, which is likely to worsen school attendance. It's all so short sighted and they're not talking to parents or ND charities, just local authorities. 🙄 The education system, mental health services and SEN support need a complete overhaul to address some really complex problems. Issuing a misleading and attention grabbing press release does nothing to address these, but further alienates parents and families who are already struggling. Do they honestly think we don't realise how important school attendance is?!

I completely agree. I feel that the salivation over attendance and the fines system in particular is solely to try and punish people for going on holiday during term time. Which, as you say, doesn't work because you save soooo much more money going in terms time that a fine is irrelevant.

Putting systems in place for any other reason for absence are ignored.

Ah I see - I was thinking the first week could be quite overwhelming.

I'm not actually suggesting that ND is a new thing - I don't think it is. But I am really curious about why it seems to be such a large factor in persistent absence in recent years. I'm not sure there's any evidence of schools off-rolling persistently absent kids (w/o other behavioural issues) in large numbers historically before ND was widely recognised?

At primary level,a weeks summer holiday you can afford because it's in term time is more important for well being than school

My lack of ADHD diagnosis in 1990s lead to anxiety, self harm, anorexia and lifetime mental health problems because I thought I was defective. High intelligence and ability to mask but it resulted in horrific effects.

Getting an ADHD diagnosis at 45 was such a relief, I wasn't.at fault for a lifetime of defective behaviour.

Is it bollocks, you don’t have to go away on holiday, I just took a week off and spent time doing local things with my children because I can’t afford to go abroad in the school holidays. A week at a compound in Turkey isn’t culturally enriching whatever people say.

Exactly this. The fining system achieves fuck all and damages relationships between schools and some families. It also serves as a distraction from tackling the actual underlying issues.

Unfortunately, some people's disapproval of term time holidays renders them unable to understand this.

Not in the first couple of weeks in September it’s not.

This is parents putting their own needs before their kids and then wondering why their kids are struggling with anxiety and MH.

If I was the type of parent to book holidays during school times. The last or first week would definitely be what I picked. Unless moving schools nothing overly important seems to happen noted by what the children explain as their school days.

I haven’t seen the data or the statistical methods, but the article didn’t mention a correlation. Would be interested to see what method they used. If they used some kind of maximum likelihood estimation, for example, you could identify the most predictive week missed by people with poor attendance. However, that’s of limited value (as you’ve pointed out).

Totally agree.