As parents we have all done it, removed children from school; either for either a doctor’s appointment, dental appointment, illnesses or more controversially a short break away.
Absences from school is regularly making the headlines. We are also told to take education very seriously for obvious reasons, as well as at the same time being told that family time is equally important.
However, we are never really told what the impact of poor attendance has on children, and surely the odd half day here and there won’t make much of a difference. After all, when we check their timetable they may be missing assembly, playtime and an hour of maths. What could possibly have such a life changing impact as missing the hour of maths?
The Department for Education published a document in 2016 highlighting the link between absences from school. The higher the absence rate was the lower the attainment score was.
‘’….pupils with no absence are 1.3 times more likely to achieve level 4 or above, and 3.1 times more likely to achieve level 5 or above, than pupils that missed 10-15 percent of all sessions’
What do the facts say?
At KS4 the study shows us that:
‘ ….pupils with no absence are 2.2 times more likely to achieve 5+GCSE’s or equivalent and 2.8 times more likely to achieve 5+ than pupils missing 15-20% of Key Stage 4 lessons.
As this is a fairly well trodden path for teachers and educationists, Campaigners for parent’s rights have accused the government for their lack of understanding when taking into account the variety of reasons for absences and the differing outcomes.
There are always going to be students which struggle to gain the perfect attendance record, this could be due to their own health, family or a host of other reasons. It is here where tutors and classroom teachers can come together to make a difference to the individual student.
Creating an engaging environment and ensuring each student is able to increase their confidence in the ‘can do’ environment will go a long way to ensure students attend lessons and gain those all-important grades.
Enlisting the help of the right tutor and ensuring strong connections are made between home, school and the tutor is essential to creating strong links and ironing our any problems which may emerge within a student’s education. HB Tutoring ensure these links are always made and having everyone liaising together for the benefit of the students help identify any problems as they start to emerge , before they become a large problem which may make a student want to skip class or feel that they are unable to achieve.