Lessons to learn to improve attendance

NEW figures suggest the shadow of the Covid 19 pandemic still lingers when it comes to getting back to “normal”.

While may adults now find themselves working from home more, or a mixture of office and home, it seems our children are still feeling the impact of being thrown into lockdown edcucation three years ago.

Attendance figures in schools across Wales highlight that one in five pupils are regularly missing school.

The cause of this is difficult to pinpoint but returning to the classroom and the structure of school after Covid has perhaps not been as easy for some as others.

That also doesn’t discount other factors that were probably at play before the pandemic and indeed are still prevelant now.

The data was revealed by the

Welsh Government as it launches a campaign to get them back to the classroom.

Education minister Jeremy Miles admitted attendance since the pandemic has not recovered as hoped. He said parents and carers “should be doing absolutely everything they can to ensure their children are in school”.

Pupil absences have doubled since pandemic classroom closures and a “national effort” is now needed to address the problem, he added. The Welsh Government is now proposing to reduce the number of lessons missed to define persistent absence as part of efforts to address the problem.

Of course missing out on important education is concerning and the Welsh Government wants parents and guardians to play their part in getting children into classrooms.

In the 2018-19 school year, overall absenteeism figures stood at 5.7% – provisional data for the 2022-23 school year to date shows this has risen to 10.5%.

So what’s the solution? Clearly there is no “one size fits all” remedy for non-attendance and it is welcome that the Welsh Government is drawing up guidance which could start to answer why some chidlren are not turning up.

As well as the aforementioned pandemic, the possible reasons include bullying, discrimination, anxiety about schoolwork and exams, among others.

What is paramount is that we have open and honest channels of communication with pupils over their reasons for ditching school.

Only by reassuring them that there is help and listening ears out there, will the attendance issue start to improve in schools.