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

Do you have an ND child? I see you’ve also left out that many children in the era you describe literally just didn’t go to school, and that the past 15 years has since a massive decrease in SEN schools (so poor ND children having to try and make mainstream work when it isn’t appropriate) and a massive decrease in services so that children who previously would have had things like SALT to help them cope now have nothing.

Well those that didn't attend for 6 months due to covid must be fcked then!! Oh yes...sorry they are! They didn't give a shit then.

Exactly this. The children who miss school because of this attitude are also ones with parents who are less educated themselves and have different priorities in life. Less education correlates with less income which also makes it more likely that they're missing school for cheaper hols. It also overlaps with the tin foil hat brigade who believe that pandemic "proved" that kids don't physically have to be at school, along with conspiracy theories about the vaccine and/or long covid.

It would be very interesting to see a study on the academic backgrounds of the parents of school avoiders. How many have finished education themselves, whether they have a university degree, MA, Phd or doctorate, and what the average household income level is. Probably a lot of correlations there.

And also, I have to say, some schools just don't have enough resources to even care or do anything to help.

The school didn't even realise how bad DD's attendance was until we flagged it with them. We had an awful December last year with her attendance around 50% for the month and although the SENCO was helpful to start with, once she realised it wasn't a quick fix, it felt like it was all down to us to sort out, when school was the bloody problem. Weeks went by without even a call from the school.

We had Early Help involvement for a bit; the lady was nice enough but admitted there was nothing we could do that we weren't already doing. She ended her involvement by saying "Sorry I couldn't have been more helpful." 😬

A rant, but thinking about it, apart from the whole 'correlation equals causation' myth that is infuriating about the article, it's also how it puts the blame squarely on the parents; if only they put more effort into getting their children into school, we would not have a problem. Ha!

How about this for parental effort:

• Private play therapy (school had no spaces)
• Early Help (see above)
• Call with educational psychologist ("Here, have some leaflets.")
• Self-referral to CAMHS (Computer says no).
• Self-referral to school nursing team ("Sorry, can't help as child is seeing a play therapist.")
• Reward charts and other incentives
• Visuals

For your study:

DD is a "school avoider".

DH and I both went to grammar schools and have UG and PG degrees from RG universities. We both currently work at universities and have a household income of £90k (I'm part-time).

By the way, what's your educational status and household income?

Another one for your study…

ND (ex) school refuser, now happy to attend school after moving them from state to small nurturing private.
Both RG university educated. One with a masters, one with another PG qualification. Household income £175k.

@SomeOfTheTrouble Glad your DC is now happy at school 🙂 If I could move DD from state, I would!

If you have a university degree then you must know that anecdote doesn't equal evidence?

These threads always descend into people using their personal lived experience to disprove societal problems. Many teachers here have commented in support of the BBC article regarding the first week of school, yet many are still taking offence because their own experience shows it to be wrong. There are obviously going to be outliers on either side, which doesn't prove or disprove anything.

Nope...some do. Most don't. Teachers might choose to work there anyway regardless of the longer hours because the behaviour, class size and freedom from academy chain diktats is attractive.

Of course it doesn’t equal evidence. But you indicated that you’d be interested in the education and income of those who have school refusing children, so we were just giving you our stories.

I missed an entire year of primary school because we moved from Scotland to England (I'm an August baby). I also missed my first two weeks of sixth form because of an emergency operation. I still got 4 As at A level...

Do you think that was used in this case and therefore they have proved a causal link? Absolutely not goading, I would be very interested/relieved to know!

I don’t know how children missing the first week, causes poor attendance later on; but I do wonder how much presenteeism goes on in schools? Children, who are sitting in mainstream classrooms; but have fallen so far behind either in one key subject like reading, or writing or maths; or everything, that the teaching goes right over their heads? In which case, attendance at school is just a facade?

If a child can barely do addition, and the teacher is teaching the class multiplication, how is that child ever going to learn addition, subtraction and then multiplication, with no actual teaching, because the class will be on something else in the meantime. In the real life example, I am thinking of, the school is proposing to do nothing, as they tell the parents, DC will catch up - but how is my question?

It’s no wonder some children school refuse at secondary, when they are bigger and becoming stroppy teenagers, if they can’t read the required level or whatever? The government is showing no signs of improving the SEN system, never mind CAMHS?

Data collection in Education is a huge thing. UPNs (Universal Pupil Numbers) were introduced in 2005 (Labour Government) along with the National Pupil Database and formed the fundamental link for pupil level data from the following year's census returns. After two decades, there's an absolute wealth of data extending from nursery to tertiary education (when combined with the Learning Records Service and exam board/UCAS/university data, which will have both a UPN and a ULN - Unique Learner Number, inclusive of those who haven't received a State funded education at any point) that has been expanded through successive governments.

The interpretation of data, particularly when there can be political motivations (the chaos that ensued when the conservatives wanted to mandate the collection of nationality and passport number so they could notify the Home Office of children/addresses that might be worth raiding and refuse them their right to education - it didn't work because schools aren't immigration officials - was quite spectacular) behind the conclusions reached or at least punted out into the media, is another aspect to consider.

The previous government had already decided to drill down further into specific reasons for absence and had introduced multiple other codes for issues with access arrangements, problems with transport, part time timetables and the like along with the mandatory live link the year before the election.

The area level data (so not personally identifying information) is available freely - the combining of multiple datasets and being able to look for patterns without inherent bias is more challenging; you have to know the question you're asking rather than the result you want to see.

In short, yes, I do think that attendance at key points for holidays and peak absences - first and last week of each half term - has been compared with overall attendance over the year (and in subsequent years) - along with the possible factors that may influence those absences, which includes taking holidays.

Anecdotally (and utterly irreverently), the most important take I have from seeing years of data is a public health and safety matter - if you are a grandparent of a child of compulsory school age, the risk of you sustaining a severe injury or serious illness in the last week before term starts or ends and of it recurring at least once before the end of the academic year, never mind the following ones, seems to be so greatly elevated that there could be a case for all grandparents to be taken into protective accommodation and isolation for a week either side.

And sometimes because they get places with heavily reduced fees for their own children.

That's a very assumptive proclamation when you haven't seen the data to back it up.

Absolutely..though less so than in the past.

I think it was a problem in the past, there were always around 10% of children that were persistantly absent, but there weren't centralised registers, there weren't the strict sanctions and fines there are now, often these children were compliant or quiet in other ways or good students and attendance was overlooked, especially before 2003. There were always plenty of undiagnosed ND kids who felt like aliens amongst their 'peers' and gritted their teeth or fled the school grounds the moment the lunch bell went. Even in the 1980s and 90s young people still removed themselves from school at 15, for some of them this meant they could focus on something they loved doing instead i.e hairdressing or a trade. I think there is too much inflexibility in the system now, too much focus on statistics instead of individual cases, too much authoritarianism, too much focus on a narrow definition of achievement versus wellbeing and satisfaction, even some people who are perfectly capable of oxbridge might not be ready for that emotionally at 18. Many kids KNOW there are alternatives to mainstream school now, they experienced it in covid, so being told they have to attend school no longer makes rational sense to them. Also in the age of the internet why are we still obsessed with physical schools when there are perfectly of good alternatives for the non conformists? Maybe it would be beneficial for those that don't want to go become a study group into new technologies and alternative school achievement pathways instead of marginalising, they aren't missing education then, they are recieving a different kind, this alone would probably halve the missing from education statistics.

Oh, your last paragraph 🤣🤣

I can confirm, as a former school welfare/attendance officer that yes, all grandparents need protection, perhaps hospital observation, in the last week of summer term and the week before and after the Easter holidays. I’ve never known so many to suddenly be struck down ill or worse. I’ve known a couple to even return from the dead to have another sudden illness and death.

It’s a bit like being the mother of a builder. They also need some serious protection. When we had our extension built, our poor builder’s mother died twice in 4 months.

Christ, I never actually gave a shit on a personal level if people sent their kids to school or not, but if you are going to repeatedly lie, just keep a spreadsheet or something.

Some if this messaging is aimed at schools though (and as governor who looks specifically at attendance) it's a useful reminder that e.g. secondary schools should be engaging with Year 6's attendance and trying to understand why persistent absence has been happening and put things in place ahead of time to deal. Including stuff like enhanced transition programmes, making sure reasonable adjustments are in place etc.

Some families are just chaotic for various reasons as well, mostly not their fault, and you can guarantee if they're not getting themselves together to turn up at school the first week, there will be more chaos later. Or young carers etc.

So it's both- a correlation but also a reminder that schools need to actually do something about it.

Its not though

The first week back is often a short week, lots of kids will start on a wednesday or Thursday

For some parents, this represents an irresistible opportunity for a holiday at cheaper prices. These tend to be the same parents who think its no big deal to take children on term time holiday.

Its about convincing parents that it does matter and the kids do need to be in school

Obviously the main problem is governing by statistics and numbers when you don’t have a clue whats going on among the people, because the population has exploded and class-based society is literally back with a vengeance.

It’s also strongly connected to that class-based society. Lack of attendance is one of the signifiers of a life of low class achievement. If the government target that they can look like they are doing something.

Meanwhile all the forces that have driven the return of class structures can continue - low wages and high cost of living, buy to let, broken housing and inheritance, a total lack of jobs and an employers market.

The world that enables many politicians into wealth and power while looking down on the serfs can continue, and they can even look like they’re doing something about it that everyone knows has no effect. Win win for them.

Also ‘mental health’ was a deliberately created industry in Blairite times to hide the real socioeconomic issues building and being created and try to force responsibility for them on to individuals. No one cares about how women and serfs feel, and the rest of the country is more worried about feeding and sheltering themselves. We can’t afford mental health industries. The bottom of the social pyramid is shattered and the rest is already going.

@NeverDropYourMooncup thank you for that giggle at the end there 🤣🤣 well I truly hope you’re right and the data has been assessed in this way - next time I hope the BBC journalist puts a bit more effort in to explain how the DfE came to their conclusions.

My husband and I both have masters our household income is somewhat over £100k. And I'm very aware that this, the fact that we're married and the way I speak (because my dad was a teacher and my mum a university lecturer in nursing) is why I'm listened to when I say my son is struggling and not written off as a bad parent.

I know people who's children are going through the same struggles as mine and have been treated appallingly. Single parents. People in lower income families. It makes an already difficult situation so much harder.

I get some people take holidays in school time and I get that some children are in abusive or neglectful families but making sweeping generalisations that include neurodivergant children who are struggling is needlessly harmful.

And my sister has never recovered from being an undiagnosed autistic child in the 80s and 90s. She was a suicidal teen and as an adult she is still suffering. She wasn't toughened up, she was broken. My son is thriving because his school made really small changes to accommodate him.