Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

reasons for heading down this path from the start, and take one more step forward – towards acceptance of the idea that students should have the same say in their attendance as they do in any other matter. Pushy salespersons What I say next may sound counter- intuitive, but we need to shift our expectations of the amount of time students should actually spend in school. From the age of 14, students should be able to learn in a place of their choosing. A blended in-school/online experience ought to be provided wherever possible, as this is muchmore likely to be the nature of their future studies or careers. It’s far better to promote attendance as something that young people will want to actively buy into, rather than continuing to try and force an outdated model of education that essentially still views teenagers as incapable of thinking for themselves, and lacking the ability, commitment, and responsibility to lead and manage their own learning and development. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson. Why should we assume that young people will feel any differently over having to buy into a model that they ultimately have little choice or control over? The problemwith non-attendance isn’t ‘cultural’. Nor is it just a residual impact of COVID-19, or the result of mental health decline. The problem is the learning model and rigid curriculum design that even the most forward- thinking and creative schools remain trapped within. Big changes are needed, and soon – or else, more and more of our 21st century learners will simply continue to turn their backs on what we have to offer. Ed Carlin is a deputy headteacher at a Scottish secondary school, having worked in education for 15 years and held teaching roles at schools in Northern Ireland and England THE ATTENDANCE ROUTE MAP In July this year, the education charity School Home Support (SHS) set out what it described as a ‘routemap’ for addressing the attendance crisis, and laid down a challenge to the recently elected Labour government – to commit to a ‘moonshot goal’ of seeing every child in school and ready to learn by 2050. The routemap breaks down the first 100 days, year and five years of an ambitious plan tomake the education systemmore inclusive. Building on research SHS carried out last year with Public First (previously published in the ‘Listening to, and learning from, parents in the attendance crisis’ report – see bit.ly/ts127-NL2 ), it proposes investing in whole family support, having strategies aimed at tacking child poverty cover matters of school attendance, publishing parental engagement plans and having checks of attendance formpart of new annual safeguarding inspections. Said report’s recommendations included carrying out a review into how absence fines are administered and levied upon parents, with a view to potentially abolishing them if evidence indicates that they have not had a substantive impact on improving attendance rates. It also called for improvements to school-level monitoring systems to ensure the accuracy of information shared with parents, and for closer, more holistic partnering between (better funded) schools and CAMHS with welfare/ housing agencies. In the view of SHS chief executive Jaine Stannard, “ We welcome the Government’s commitments to breakfast clubs andmental health support in secondary schools, but likemany current approaches these rely on children being in school to benefit andmay not address the underlying issues.Wemust go further and faster to reconnect with families to turn the school attendance crisis around. ” The ‘Every child in school and ready to learn by 2050’ route map and accompanying report produced by SHS can be downloaded via bit.ly/ts136-HTA1 “The problemis the learningmodel and rigidcurriculumdesign that even themost forward-thinkingandcreative schools remain trappedwithin.” 53 teachwire.net/secondary L E A D E R S H I P