Truancy
 

I've just been watching the news & story came on about how school truancy rates are now at a record high. This is despite the government (2 different education secretaries) spending £15 million on the project. This is just another example of Tony Blair and his cronnies failing to deliver on their promises.

For all the facts & figures, check out the link below.


http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1234598,00.html

Re: Truancy
 

Maybe it would help those figures if schools got their records right too. I just got a message from Moorehead to tell me my daughter hadn't shown up for registration this morning. I know that! She's here at home with an injured foot which I have already phoned and told them about. :rolleyes:

Re: Truancy
 

I don't think that's the main problem though. It's estimated that approximately 50,000 children skip school every day. They can't all be admin errors. The system is all wrong, persistant truants are given rewards for going to school.

Re: Truancy
 

Why do they hate school so much that they dont go? If they could answer that then that would be half the battle.

Re: Truancy
 

Very true. My points is that, why reward the truants? another failed initiative, hospitals closing, council taxes rising & the government wastes £15 million. If the truancy rate had fallen, then fine it would be justified.

Re: Truancy
 

Its not a reward its a bribe or a bung.

Re: Truancy
 

So where does it end? If a good pupil with good attendance thinks "hang on a minute, if i start bunking off & get caught, i'll get rewarded when i go back to school". It's a vicious circle.

Re: Truancy
 

It wont end because at the end of the day a kid is "graded" according to how they behave by their peers. If Billy Jones decides to spend a few weeks "otherwise engaged" in something other than school it is considered cool. The disipline or lack of it at home means most just shrug any parental concern off knowing even a clip round the lug will get their parents in trouble. The law protects them and in a way encourages it. A report card is a badge of honour with all the rewards that go with it.

Those that attend 100% and leave with a good education are not neseceraly do any better in life than those that dont. Those that stay can only hold in there and hope one day they do get their reward and those that dont face real conciquencies.

Re: Truancy
 

It's not always the parents fault, in my younger days i used to bunk off school on a regular basis. My mum was a lone parent & worked 12 hours a day. She was usually at work in a morning after i'd finished my paper round, & i'd gone out when she came home. She was oblivious to that fact that i missed lessons.

Re: Truancy
 

My daughter is also at Moorhead and they have free reward trips every term for good attendance, they also have to be punctual. Good behaviour also counts towards a place on the trip. She has been on all of them, to places like Accrington superbowl, Camelot, Lightwater Valley and Alton Towers. It's fantastic to see the good students being rewarded

Re: Truancy
 

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do they still have the truancy officers walking round accy or have they stopped that now

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Jacky are you still on first name terms with him after all these years LMAO ;)

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Why? are you thinking of bunking off tomorrow and you want to know if the coast is clear?:D

Re: Truancy
 

lol i think i am,no truancy officers up here instead kids are not alowed in any cafes outside dinner times,

Re: Truancy
 

Here they just wander the streets and seem to get away with it. At the right time of day they could proberly round up the scallywags in one swoop as most are having a light drink of Buckfast in the park.

Re: Truancy
 

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The phone call could have been from your daughter or one of her friends and they might have been checking ;). I doubt they check on everyone like that though.

Re: Truancy
 

yeh i used to go to a school last year in accy which i will not name but for the people who were bad in class/people who hardly did not attend school they had these cards and if they got good on them in every lessons for 2 weeks they got to go on a trip to like paintballing are something like that, so people like me who attend school everyday got nothing expect a certificate saying 100% attendance and a 5quid asda voucher which just goes straight into the bin cuz they are useless so why cant
so our year had a motto for this be bad and get rewards be good and get nothing its not fair really is it

Re: Truancy
 

This is the point i was making earlier. The system is at fault, i used to go fishing instead of learning boring stuff like algebra (2x + 3z x 4y = ? whats all that about?). English literature - Shakespear, didn't need that either. Woodwork - i can put up a shelf now, but i doubt that i really needed to be taught that subject for 5 years. The list goes on, but i won't bore you all with it. lol

:)

Re: Truancy
 

i think it is disgusting that children are rewarded for good attendance at school

it should be expected that they turn up and not bought , come down hard on teh little sh1ts and each time they repeat teh offence come down harder every time

i know of one case where a pupil was so bad it was expelled from school for truancy , bullying and selling drugs at school

the pupil now gets a taxi paid for by the govenment to take it to and from school in osswaldtwistle and all the mother sees it as is a plus because she gets to spend an extra hour in the pub

mind you teachers cant even hand out lines these days without the parents charging into school to either have a go at them or punch them

its about time the government stopped been soft on kids and actualy made laws that allowed them to be punished propperly, i know for a fact that as a teenager i woulda simply rolled my eyes and said yes i wont do it again at a good talking to but the beatings i got from my mum sure as hell worked or at the least made me think long and hard before doing it again

Re: Truancy
 

It's about time that this government sat up & listened to what the public want. In my opinion, what is needed is some sort of American style boot camps. If a youngster continually "plays" (great choice of words) truant, or is a constant bully, then a much harded line of action needs to be taken. Rewards aren't the answer, nor is punishing the parents. It's the individual that needs punishing. Some will say that this is extreme, however, what they've got to realise is that the lack of discipline at a young age will inevitably lead to greater problems when they are older. i.e. street crime, car crimes, drugs etc etc. The govenment need to realise that "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE".

Re: Truancy
 

Was it a text message Willow? The school's policy is to send a text message to a parent for any children who haven't registered unless the school knows about it beforehand. Even if they have been informed they still sometimes send a message if they are suspicious, maybe you have a young sounding voice Willow and they thought you might not have been her Mum.

Re: Truancy
 

I totally agree with Chav and AccyJay that we need to get tough and punish the truanters and knock some respect into them. I know someone whose grandson was on that Bad Lad's Army and she said it did him the world of good.

Boot camps. That's what we need. Never mind rewards and punishing parents who probably are at their wit's end anyway. What's punishment about expelling a truant? They've got exactly what they wanted then.

I remember a few years ago a bunch of would-be arsonists decided to burn down SpringHIll School because they fancied a holiday and they figured if there was no school they wouldn't need to go! :eek: