News
New plan to tackle school absence in Walsall
With levels of absence in Walsall schools above the national average and rising, a council working group has produced a report setting out a number of recommendations to address the problem.
In the 2007-2008 academic year, 37,063 days were lost in primary and secondary schools to holiday absence and the report links pupil under achievement to time spent away from the classroom during term-time holidays. Statistics indicate that only 26.7% of students who miss 22 days of education will achieve 5 A* – C GCSE results.
The report recommends that head teachers should challenge all forms of absence including “authorised absence” where a head has the discretion to approve up to 10 days holiday in exceptional circumstances. There is no automatic right to term-time holiday and individual head teachers may apply the law in different ways. A lack of consistency and guidance means that schools set their own policy on a case by case basis.
Parents who take their children on cheaper holidays during the school term face the possibility of a penalty notice fine of £50 per child and could possibly face prosecution leading to a £2,500 fine and a three month prison sentence. Some parents however, simply include the £50 penalty notice into the holiday budget. In 2007-2008, 71 fixed penalty notices were paid by parents and 41 notices were directed to the courts.
The report, presented to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, calls on school governing bodies to appoint a named governor to oversee the absence issue and that targets for reducing absence should be set, monitored and acted upon on a regular basis. Another recommendation is that councillors in their role as “corporate parents” should undergo training on school attendance.
Councillor Keith Chambers (Labour, Bentley and Darlaston North), a member of the working group said: “The days lost in schools are very important, they are days lost forever and it is very difficult for children to catch up with that learning. What we would wish to come out of this is for the document to be used as a tool kit and a model to try and give teachers and governors a robust position to deal with unauthorised absences.”
The working group consulted with head teachers, governor support and representatives of local community groups in compiling the report and makes reference to religious observance and family bereavement. It also refers to the high-profile case of Sahil Saeed, the five-year-old boy from Oldham who was kidnapped by an armed gang when on an extended holiday in Pakistan during the school term. An estimated £100,000 ransom was paid for his release and he has now safely returned to Britain. A number of arrests have been made in Pakistan and Spain.
The Scrutiny Panel approved the report which will now go before cabinet at some time in the future.