WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT TRUANCY?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 516.

Unit VII

It's a nightmare – you think your child's in school, then you find out he's been on the streets all day. And it's not just boys who do it – teenager girls are just as likely to bunk off .

Overall, round a million UK schoolchildren play truant each year. By 2002, the Government wants to see this reduced by a third, so it's introduced a range of measures, including computerized registration systems , extra staff to follow up non-attendance, truancy-watch schemes with the police, pupil passes and pagers.

But none of this matters if parents don't play their part. Teachers are the ones on the front line, but they can't work miracles if they are not supported by you.

Don't turn a blind eye if you think your child's playing hooky, even if it's only once in a while. Get to the bottom of the problem fast because, as Education Secretary David Blunkett says, “A child who isn't in lessons is a child who isn't learning – and it disables them for the rest of their life”.

Very often, truancy is the first sign that a child needs help. The education watchdog Ofsted found that some children failed to attend because they couldn't read well. It is also found that anxiety over deadlines was a major problem. Kids themselves often cite bullying as their reason for dropping out – one study found that a third of girls and a quarter of boys were afraid of attending school because of it. Then there are those who dislike a particular teacher or lesson and will simply skip it.