Hi,
My DD is in yr10 and has generally, a good attendance record.
The school is currently in special measures due to poor Ofsted report, and no improvement under new management, and has just been moved to another set of new management. Lots of changes, new rules etc. I support the school on this totally and DD has been told by me that if she breaks the rules not only will there be no sympathy here for punishment, but more punishment.
She's generally not a disruptive teen or rule breaker, obviously there's been a couple of minor incidents over the last 4 years but dealt with quickly by school and me and nipped in the bud.
I realise that half the battle with education is behaviour, and I know they need to come down hard, but so far all I've heard in meetings and letters is how the parents must support the school and how pupils will follow rules or face concequences.
Fair enough, except I'm hearing nothing about how the school intend to sort out the problems identified that are beyond pupils, parents or even teachers. Issues like pupils walking off site and no one noticing, or questioning where they are for a full day, and core subjects not having a full time and qualified teacher for 2 years - different supply or other subject teachers most lessons with minimal input from the only qualified teacher in that subject at the school because they're stretched so thin. Ofsted rightly said this, along with behaviour, isn't good enough.
When asked they cite a recruitment crisis, and that's it. Well obviously there's a recruitment crisis, but how do they plan to solve that?
Bullying and lack of action from the school is also a huge problem, again identified by Ofsted. But when asked about what is going to change there, they just state the current procedure works well - it obviously doesn't or Ofsted would have said so!
I feel that the school are palming off all the blame on badly behaved pupils and poor parenting, when it's not the case. Behaviour and parental support needs to improve, no doubt, however so do the policies regarding the things I've outlined. You can have all the parental support in the world, and the best behaved pupils, but if the teachers aren't qualified for the right subject then the pupils still won't learn what they are supposed to. If pupils are just allowed to bully others in school, they can do what they can at home but ultimately unless they're there to deal with it on the spot, which isn't going to happen as parents aren't there, what parents can do is limited.
To top it off I've had an experience around attendance that I'm a bit pissed off about. DD has 6 absences, all of which have been for medical appointments, and evidence provided to the school.
I got a letter after 5 saying that any further unauthorised absence would result in a home visit. I contacted the school and told them I'd already provided evidence, they looked into it and agreed that they had the evidence, it was a clerical error.
She had her 6th absence about 3 weeks ago, and I had a call on Monday to arrange a home visit due to so many unauthorised absence! I explained, forwarded the evidence and was told that it was definitely sorted out this time, all her absences had hospital letters to authorise them.
I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to end up in court over this, which will be a complete waste of time because obviously I have the evidence, but they've failed to record 6 absences correctly now, we will have other appointments, probably 2 before summer term ends and it's worrying.
It's also concerning that this is pretty basic, yet they can't seem to get it right.
Very worried for DDs education and exams next year and regret sticking with the school in the first place, but feel it's too late to move her now - it will be massively disruptive and she probably won't achieve better results moving now than she will where she is.
I want her to have the best chance at life but I don't know what to do for the best.