Can schools actually take any measures against parents who fail at home-schooling

[emptydreamer]

I have a couple of friends who have received messages from the school that online attendance / registers will be monitored and failure to engage will be escalated accordingly. My children's school also chased on a couple of overdue tasks and online lessons (both KS1), hinting that there will be consequences for not coping well.

This seems to be a complete u-turn to the previous messages from same schools - mental health is important, we're in this together, just read, bake, play and you'll be fine etc.

My question is whether schools actually can take any measures against parents who are late with submitting work / struggle with organising online attendance etc.

I don't want this to turn into a teacher bashing thread, I'd probably explode myself if I had children at home AND I had to teach other people's children at the same time as well. But it does feel like maybe the guidance for schools has changed at the top level?

Was the previous message from the first lockdown?

Schools can now be monitored by Ofsted this time, whereas before the curriculum was suspended

Yes, guidance has changed so schools should be monitoring/encouraging engagement.

No, there's nothing they can sanction you with. They should be offering support though.

EWO here. No. It is unenforceable, whatever school says. We just encourage and try to remove or help with any barriers that there might be.

@ineedaholidaynow

Was the previous message from the first lockdown?

Schools can now be monitored by Ofsted this time, whereas before the curriculum was suspended

Yes, from the first lockdown. I am just surprised by the difference in messaging - today I was told off on the phone as if I was 5 year old, which was... let's say, a strange and novel experience.

@StacySoloman

Yes, guidance has changed so schools should be monitoring/encouraging engagement.

No, there's nothing they can sanction you with. They should be offering support though.

Ah I see, thanks! Yes, the change in guidance is what I suspected.

@MrGruWeLoveYou have you got involved with families? Our local schools are planning to work with EWO where they are not getting any engagement from families, but that includes any contact not just failing to provide any work

Schools have to provide 3 hours of work per day for KS1 pupils

Guidance is completely different to last time.

Ultimately, no, schools can’t do anything about parents who fail at home schooling except put their staff more at risk by inviting those children in.

They can try but the legislation is here, and basically says that fines are suspended. It won't go anywhere at all. I'd write to the school and tell them that whilst yes, they are indeed obliged to offer an online learning opportunity, parents are not actually obliged to take it up and can educate their child as they see fit (as long as they are providing some form of education).

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950219/Education_Act_1996_-_school_attendance_offence_disapplication_notice_January_2021.pdf

Schools can’t do anything.
If they are that concerned regarding the lack of engagement they can bring the child into school and categorise them as vulnerable.

That’s exactly what the primary school is doing where I work. If they’re not prepared to do that then they can’t do anything.

@MrGruWeLoveYou

EWO here. No. It is unenforceable, whatever school says. We just encourage and try to remove or help with any barriers that there might be.

Thank you! So if the barrier is, say, a single parent in full time work, who just cannot ensure online attendance at a particular times due to conflict with work meetings... is there any framework / guideline in place as to how the situation will be resolved?

@ineedaholidaynow yes we are contacting and visiting families but it is to encourage and try to support not to threaten them with fines etc. The parts of the education act that we can fine or prosecute under have been suspended anyway. It really annoys me when schools give out this message of "if you don't do it you will be marked absent / unauthorised / get fined / the EWO will visit you". I would be contacting you yes, but to have a chat about how things were going and if you needed any help. And I would be reminding the schools that they cannot mark either absent or unauthorised at present either.

There was a big gap between pupils from the last lockdown, but the gap is going to be even bigger after this one as the curriculum is now being taught to both children in class and at home, so if pupils aren't engaging they will be behind. Obviously teachers will help them catch up once they are back, but it will be a challenge for them.

Our schools aren't threatening fines.

Parents need to contact schools if their children are having problems engaging for whatever reason

@emptydreamer we would try to encourage and support and possibly the child would be offered a place at school (maybe, depends) but ultimately it's an impossible situation. No one is going to say it's ok for kids to just not do the work, but many won't, for many reasons, and we do acknowledge that. At present there is no option to sanction parents who's children are not engaging. We would consider well-being and safeguarding and escalate where appropriate but that won't apply to many cases where the learning isn't happening

Schools are panicking at how far behind some of their kids are going to be compared with other schools.

@sashagabadon I'm sure most schools will have some children who will fall badly behind.

Unless your children are really struggling mentally I certainly wouldn't just be doing baking and playing this time

@MrGruWeLoveYou
Thank you - I understand that everyone is in a very difficult situation, and it is probably a case of you damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am in a working single parents' informal support network, and it seems like everyone there is on a brink of a mental collapse due to constant reminders from schools about being late / not following the schedule that is often communicated only 15 minutes in advance / work being sent back as not of good enough standard.

I took a day off today (self-employed, so no money earned today either) just to catch up on all things the school set for this week and I am already at the tearing my hair out stage.

today all the work my y6 was set was:
1 piece of editing/re-writing (1 hour tops)
1 maths(30 minutes including meltdown) ok make that 45
1 physical activity with some qus on which muscles you were using. I suppose that could take an hour if you did it slowly.
hmm....lucky I dont work Thursdays really...they have a freedom Friday which means less guidance, just "do some of this homework" which is labelled optional. even harder for parents. lucky I don't work Fridays as its a well known day off for the kids i know. somethings not right, don't want to teacher bash, I guess its just lockdown in its entirety.

A thread like this was started the other day and I put on there that we unfortunately had not done hardly any work and had not handed any in as I was working etc etc my son has not attended any of the schedule zooms either.
No one had contacted us at that point.

Yesterday the head teacher called to see how we were as he is going to be doing weekly calls to all just to make sure everyone is doing ok. He was happy that we were trying but said he understood that it was hard and that as long as the child and their families was healthy and happy that was all that matters. Nothing was mentioned about fines!

If children can’t log on at a certain time then the onus is on the parents to get in touch with school and explain the situation and then work together to ensure the child is still getting an education.

Essentially you won't get in trouble with anything higher than the school (as in you won't be threatened with SS or Police), but you will be told off by the teacher/head etc as it's seen sort of like a safeguarding issue?

If you can't access something you need to inform the class teacher, just as you would if you child wasn't going into school.

If you repeatedly didn't send your child in they'd want a word.

It is incredibly difficult for parents and teachers and although your teachers will be aware that you're struggling, they have to keep pushing or they'll get in trouble too. But try not to take it to heart, police your childs work yourself. If you can't keep up, just do the best you can and expect the bollocking at the end of it.

I'm sorry you're struggling, I hope it eases up soon.

Communication is the key.

If you ignore phone calls and emails and don't engage then that sets off alarm bells that something more serious may be going on. That's when people like school based family support workers and possibly even Social Services eventually get involved.

If you are having problems accessing home learning because you aren't IT literate, don't have a device or have a poor internet connection, then should let your child's school know so they can make alternative arrangements. Teachers and TAs are happy to teach parents how to use the necessary software and websites, and we can even provide Chromebooks on loan. If connectivity is an issue, then we can also provide paper packs.

We cannot do any of those things though if people don't speak to us.

Like any problem, if you ignore continue to ignore it then it will just get bigger and bigger.

This seems to be a complete u-turn to the previous messages from same schools

Parents and the media wanted lots of work to be sent home.
Parents and the media wanted live lessons on Zoom.
Parents and the media wanted regular phone calls.
Parents and the media wanted school to provide mental health support for children.

Now we're doing it, everyone is still fucking moaning.

It's emergency education in a pandemic. Do it, don't do it, whatever. Schools and education and children's mental health is going to be a shit storm for the next 5 years.

The government will not fund anything required to sort out said shit-storm. People will blame schools.

That's it in a nutshell. Look after your own kids in this situation the best you can, teach them some stuff if you can. That's it.

If the school want the work done badly enough, and taking into account the fact that your household needs an income to put food on the table, they’d have no choice but to offer your child a vulnerable school place.