Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

As we enter this election year, the government – backed by some influential media voices – is routinely asserting that its education reforms have been the stand-out success of the last 14 years. Few on the ground appear to agree, however, withmany pointing to a system in decline and disarray. Crumbling buildings, serious teacher shortages, an ongoing crisis in SEND, Ofsted under near-constant siege – and to that list we can now add worryingly high levels of pupil absenteeism. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow Secretary of State for Education, recently highlighted this issue during a big policy speech, in which she described current levels of pupil absence as a ‘disaster’, and the numbers involved as, “Frankly, terrifying.” According to figures from late 2022, one in five children are persistently absent. In some schools, more than half of the children are missing a day every fortnight (see bit.ly/ts132-MB1 ). So what’s going on? Many have identified the pandemic as a principal cause – a period in which the established contract between families and schools broke down. Manymore people nowwork fromhome, and some parents may still be allowing their children to stay at home, for a whole host of reasons, just as they did during COVID. Education to alienation Financial pressures surely also play a part in some cases, with families unable to afford uniforms or even food, leaving children ashamed to go into school. Undiagnosed and unsupported SEND is another major factor to have emerged. But could there be yet another, perhaps even deeper reason for the rocketing rates of pupil desertion from formal education?Maybe the changes brought in from2010 onwards, which gave rise to a crammed, yet arid curriculum, constant testing and a catastrophic decline in arts subjects? Have we checked whether instead of educating an increasingly high percentage of young people, we’ve actually been alienating them? Long before the pandemic, the organisation Square Peg (teamsquarepeg.org ) was calling attention to the problemof school refusal, citing a widespread chronic lack of special needs support and a school curriculumunsuitable for many children. Already anxious school refusers are oftenmade evenmore anxious by threats from schools and LAs. Instead of being supported tomanage the home-school transition, children are often told that they could be held responsible for their parents being fined or prosecuted. Rather than face legal action, some parents then feel compelled to give up work in order to home school their children, with devastating financial consequences. Changing the language Whatever the reasons behind school refusal, parental punishment isn’t the answer. Instead, we need greater sensitivity from the government to the many-layered impact of poverty. We also need to see a shift in how politicians discuss education. Nearly all will seek refuge in stale rhetoric around ‘driving up standards’ , not tomention those other old favourites: ‘ambition’ and ‘aspiration.’ These terms are fine, as far as they go – but when did you last hear aMinister orMP talk about the central importance of ‘engagement’ or even ‘enjoyment’ in education, or the changes that may be needed to restore those qualities to the classroom experience? After nearly 15 years in power, the Conservatives aren’t likely to now shift their vocabulary, nor honestly acknowledge their role in the many problems schools are now facing. The pandemic has become an easy alibi for everything, from the widening of the attainment gap to those growing levels of pupil absence. Ears to the ground Opposition parties are obliged to similarly employ that conventional, media-friendly vocabulary around standards and ambition, but they have their ears closer to the ground and a more accurate sense of what’s going wrong and why. For all its famed caution, the Labour Party is now calling out the government on a range of issues in education, and pupil absenteeism in particular. It’s also starting to edge towards a broader vocabulary concerning the purpose and practice of contemporary schooling, with Bridget Phillipson lambasting the ‘joylessness’ of our current systemas one significant cause for pupils’ absence. Complex as the absenteeism crisis clearly is, this is at least a welcome start. With the number of students persistently absent from school continuing to climb, we’ve seen a stark lack of effective responses and honest reflection on the part of policymakers Melissa Benn Melissa Benn (@Melissa_Benn) is the author of Life Lessons: The Case for a National Education Service , and is a Visiting Professor at York St John university 19 teachwire.net/secondary S C H O O L O F T H O U G H T