London schools are having to take unprecedented measures to tackle the truancy crisis that threatens to damage a generation of children, experts warned on Monday.
The Standard reveals the “monumental efforts” schools across the capital are making to bring children back to the classroom with it being the number one problem.
They include:
- Children at one academy chain being given pre-paid Oyster cards so that they can get to school.
- Police being sent to knock on the doors of children who are absent.
- Parents in some schools warned that letting their children stay at home is a form of neglect.
- Support staff travelling with anxious children on buses to help them get used to the journey.
- School leaders driving minibuses to pick up children from home.
Schools are also paying for uniforms and shoes for pupils who cannot afford them, organising breakfasts and offering reduced timetables to make the return to school easier, as well as offering hot chocolate and certificates as rewards.
Leaders said they were diverting resources to the “colossal task” of tackling persistent absence and urgently needed more funding.
It comes as figures from the Department for Education show more than one in five children are classed as persistently absent. Before the pandemic, the figure was one in 10.
Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 54 schools in London and Essex, said: “Persistent absence just wasn’t such an issue before the pandemic. But it is now the biggest issue in schools across the nation. It’s a crisis. It’s massive.”
He added: “It might feel to families that’s it’s just one day here and there, but it seriously affects children’s future life chances. The school’s role is to stress to parents we understand your problems and we will help you with them, but in the end it is negligent not to send your children to school.”
Reverend Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis multi-academy trust which runs 53 schools, said: “Schools have always had a responsibility for attendance ... but now instead of a trickle it is an avalanche. School staff are having to fulfil duties far beyond what they were ever trained to do — they have become social workers.”
The number of pupils classed as persistently absent — missing 10 per cent or more of school — spiralled during Covid and is still above pre-pandemic levels.
It has been blamed on a “perfect storm” of factors including increased anxiety, a change in attitude to the importance of attending school, the cost-of-living crisis and more parents working from home.
Pupils from all economic backgrounds have been missing lessons, although disadvantaged children or those with caring responsibilities have the highest levels of absence, according to figures — with pupils receiving free school meals twice as likely to be absent.
The children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said some children play truant while others experience anxiety or have educational needs so find it easier at home.
She has also previously raised concerns that there is now “a huge amount” of absence on Fridays when “mum and dad are at home”.
At Harris academies, children who cannot afford to travel are given pre-paid Oyster cards or are picked up from home.
Sir Dan said: “Some of our schools have school-based police officers and they are involved increasingly in going round on home visits. It makes sense because if you are not in school you are less likely to achieve qualifications and you are more likely to get into trouble. The fact the officer is going round doesn’t mean they have broken the law, but it is a good way of focusing some parents’ minds.”
He added: “If children are not in, they can’t be taught and if they can’t be taught you don’t know what’s happening to them. You don’t know what’s going on with safeguarding, what they are up to. How can you deal with standards or disadvantage gaps or gaps between different ethnic groups? Whatever it takes we will try to do it.”
Asha Vaghella, a lead youth worker in Enfield, said anxiety was a major cause of absenteeism. She spent weeks with one child shadowing them on the bus journey to school to provide reassurance.
She said: “We did the journey together, then I would walk behind or sit separately on the bus the next day... That was a lot of persistent work going again and again. We are trying to think outside the box. Some children can’t get out of their front door because they are so anxious.”
For other teenagers she has helped devise timetables around afternoon nap times, gradually trying to reduce the nap and getting them into a normal sleeping pattern. She has also arranged new shoes and clothes for some children.
Judith Allan, family support worker at Oasis Academy Hadley, said her team collects some children from home to walk them in and sometimes offer rewards such as hot chocolate or certificates. For some whose sleeping patterns have got out of sync, she negotiates a later start at school for a short time.
Since Covid, some children are so anxious about going to school that they are sick, she said. Housing was also an issue with some missing school because they are rehoused hours away. Others are staying at home because they are worried about their parents, who are anxious, depressed or ill, she said.
The DfE said: “Parents have a duty to make sure their child regularly attends school. We are taking steps to improve the consistency of approach and this includes a new national framework that will ensure penalty notices are used consistently, including when a penalty notice will be considered.”
