Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

this by developing a qualification that’s as meaningful to them as possible? Student agency At the same time, let’s not pay lip service to what the student desires by diluting it with other subjects that serve no real purpose to the individual. Too often, I’ve seen schools pretend to respond to the interests and needs of their students with boasts about how they build ‘real life’ and ‘work’ content into subjects like English, maths or geography. That’s not the solution either. It has to be the other way round. If a student wants to develop their computing skills, or their metalworking skills, then that is what they should be doing for at least 75% of the time they’re in school. The other 25% of their time can be used to develop wider skills and knowledge – but even then, this should be consistently linked to what they’re actually aspiring to qualify in before leaving school. What frustrates me evenmore is that despite the evolution of liberal approaches to tackling general student behaviour, the full impact of this on school culture over the past 30 years has never been fully evaluated. We have spent vast amounts of time and energy promoting the rights of the child and giving students an equal, if not greater say in every aspect of school life. So why are we so surprised and perplexed to have now arrived at a point where students are asserting their rights regarding attendance? At some stage, all parents will need to grapple with a certain form of repeated questioning from their children – usually some variation of ‘ Why do I have to? ’ or ‘ Why should I? ’ It’s hard to see why school staff should expect to see anything different. Everything we’ve promoted and protested regarding children’s rights and student agency has led us here – so is it time to finally admit that we’ve brought this on ourselves? If so, then we ought to stand by our PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT – THE KEYTO SOLVING THE CRISIS? Since the relaxation of restrictions imposed during the pandemic, there has been a concerning increase in pupils exhibiting high levels of absence of school. According to our own survey of 498 UK schools (see bit.ly/ts136-HT1) , a worrying 70% have seen increases in pupil absences over the past two years. It’s widely felt that the damage wrought by the pandemic – on children’s mental health and wellbeing, relationships between schools and parents, and the overall culture of school attendance – will take years to fix. Amajor contributing factor to this rise in absence is the growing number of families taking holidays during term times. According to the survey, such cases are up in as many as 68% of schools. Additionally, many schools have seen marked drops in attendance on Fridays, with some families opting to take ‘long weekends’. Changing perceptions This has prompted schools to consider whether perceptions among parents have changed, to the extent that many now see their children as no longer needing to attend every day – with the result that previously strong partnerships between home and school have significantly deteriorated. Where possible, schools must therefore demonstrate a genuine desire to understand families’ concerns – with all due sensitivity and care, yes, but also in the spirit of professional curiosity, so that barriers to learning can be removed and absence rates reduced. One tool that schools can turn to when tackling persistent absence issues is their MIS. An increasingly common feature within modern, cloud-based MIS packages are ‘parent portals’, which can provide real-time data on students’ attendance via a web browser or app, and potentially make a huge difference to the quality of your communications and levels of parental satisfaction. This transparency will keep parents informed, while encouraging them to take an active role in facilitating their child’s school attendance. Used well, they can also help to address the parental disengagement we’re seeing, resulting in better outcomes for students, parents and staff alike. Early detection By granting parents ready access to their child’s attendance rates, behaviour and assessment reports, plus other key communications, truancy challenges are more likely to be detected early on and prevented. Through such portals, parents can receive live updates regarding their child’s school attendance at lessons throughout the day, thus making it easier to spot potential problem areas. School staff already do amazing work in encouraging pupils and making their attendance more consistent, but there are still limits to the difference they can make.What would make even more of a difference over time would be for schools to foster a supportive culture, raise expectations, and deploy their systems and data in increasingly innovative ways in order to keep things on track. Ali Guryel is executive chairman and CEO of Bromcom 52 teachwire.net/secondary

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTgwNDE2