That’s according to research for a think tank. The Commission on School Reform says ministers must work with councils to reverse the trend. The Scottish government says it’s looking at challenges that influence attendance…..the figures are based on Freedom of Information requests from the Scottish local authorities who were able to respond to them. The figures suggest nearly one in three children are missing an average of one day a fortnight, while nearly 20% of high school pupils miss a day every week…. A Commission spokesperson says children who miss a large proportion of school time are less likely to attain and less likely to form good relationships.
Once more, a Reporting Scotland headline story not covered on the BBC Scotland website.
Commission on School Reform? No names mentioned because
Chair – Rt Hon Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale
Director – Chris Deerin, just another journalist and regular SNP-critic.
Research Director – Alison Payne. Some Researcher! See this:
In recent years, popping up as just a ‘mum’, unattributed, on Reporting Scotland, GMS and Kay Adams to moan about SNP school policies, Payne began her career within the Scottish Conservative MSPs’ Research Unit, going on to spend four years as Head of Research. She later went on to become Political Adviser to Annabel Goldie MSP, Leader of the Scottish Conservative Group of MSPs. This role included acting as adviser to the Scottish Conservative Policy Advisory Group. She also spent 10 years as a Girl Guide leader, prior to the birth of her second child in 2010. And, how did she become a Research Director with no evidence of research training – PhD, MRes, even an honours degree with a dissertation? Girl Guide connections?
Sample for the research? Only 5 of 34 LAs are mentioned.
Evidence for claim? High attainment pupils do have high attendance but we have no evidence of causality. Maybe those who attain like to go to school more than those who are failing?
Speaking only personally of course, I have always learned better on my own, as long as I had good resources. Look a the success of the Open University, where attendance is only a tiny fraction of the most absent school student.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I don’t listen to or believe anything the Labour Baron Jack McConnell has to say.
He is hardly an impartial source , is he , via anything he states regarding Scotland and it’s politics.
Baron Jack McConnell has claimed, like others, that the UK is a bigger market for Scotland than the rest of Europe…….the threat being that if Scotland gains it’s independence, joins the EU, then it will then lose the UK market.
Yet Jack McConnell as a member of the House of Lords FOR the Labour party fails to explain how New New Labour hope to ‘Make Brexit work’ , where I assume in ‘making it work’, it must then surely include them seeking some ‘better’ arrangement with the EU on a trade deal…..and if that is part of their plan for Brexit….then why would they exclude trading with an independent Scotland that was now within the EU……would it be spite ?……revenge ?…..a big strop ?…..or perhaps another tactic to try and con voters in Scotland, as part of a still ongoing project Fear, that if you leave we will have nowt to do with you………and of course the assumption by them in representing the UK is that there is nowt they NEED from us via trade…….New New Labour have said they will seek to renegotiate with the EU if they become the next UK Government….to INCLUDE a new and better trading agreement between the EU and the UK…..yet somehow that, according to them, would then be be a BARRIER via trade between the UK and an independent Scotland that was within the EU ?????……
And if we, Scotland, did NOT join the EU would they then still exclude us, as a country, in NOT seeking any future trading arrangement with us…..and thus their Global Britain (now further diminished in us leaving it) would spitefully make us exempt in any future trade deals with the WORLD that they would seek to replace that which has been lost via the trade they formally had with the EU ……is any ‘journalist’ exploring or challenging why they, Pro UK politicians, would want to do this to an independent Scotland ?????……and are MORE voters in Scotland paying attention to this declaration and threat by them .
I think there is MORE matters ,via New New Labour representatives, that are “shoddy research” than just “school absences” that headline the news that are very much within the category of being “worthless”…..and too spiteful and nasty.
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If an independent Scotland lost its rUK market pray tell me where rUK would source all the goods etc it currently buys from Scotland? I bet M’Lord did not mention that wee wrinkle in his grand plan to talk down independence.
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How long do you think it would take to McConnel to find an alternative source for the millions of tons of potato shipped to England’s highly profitable crisp, chip prep factories before they were forced to close and put thousands of chippy’s out of business ?
If previous figures are anything to go by, his petulance would last no more than a week before squeaky bum syndrome set in.
Or amifications such as where to find of
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To say nothing about the Scottish Salmon, Scotch Whisky and gin.
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I’ve wondered occasionally just how many of these of ‘think-tank’ organisation actually exist, how many under the control of one particular clique, or whether it’s a cheap quick exercise to create one when the notion arises – You could have ‘These Islands”, these other islands, there in the distance far far away islands, etc., etc..
There must only be a handful of think tanks which exist without an agenda these days…
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As widely reported in February this year. “Listeners desert BBC Radio Scotland: audience plummets 20 per cent in just one year” (2021 – 2022).
So what does BBC Scotland do to improve matters? Up its game, Report honestly, Adhere to its Charter? Nope, for example, it promotes ridiculous stories and tries to lie to its remaining Listeners on the veracity of this “Think Tank’s” findings.
Do they honestly think that most folk in Scotland don’t know what they are up to? No doubt BBC Scotland will tell us that their audience has increased 🙂
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Apologies O/T
Via MSM Monitor Twitter account
“The Scottish Tories & BBC Scotland have decided to politicise a murder because the boyfriend was out on bail. We have to draw attention to their hypocrisy. Nine days ago four *alleged murderers* were given bail in England. Yet no BBC led attacks on Tories”
Plus also via this Twitter account sourced from The Guardian newspaper :
“Nearly 900,000 offences including murder, kidnap, and child rape, have been committed by people on bail in England and Wales since the Tories came to power”.
MSM Monitor account then adds this “If Russell Findlay wants to politicise an ‘out on bail’ murder then he has to address this”
Aye I agree ……indeed COMPARE and CONTRAST sadly lacking…..or rather the usual BBC and Scottish (INO) Tory tactic of IGNORING the TORY HQ ELEPHANT in the ROOM via them being GUILTY of that which they accuse the SNP (Scottish Government) of……rinse and repeat like FOREVER……
Then we also have the Scottish (INO) branch office of New New Labour and also their HQ adopting this same Tory WORSE (not Best) practice of doing the exact same thing in relation to the SNP where they are ever so quick to identify and mention what they say is a SUPPOSED failing in Scotland but somehow not so quick to mention or even identify an ACTUAL WORSE failing in Wales via their party who govern in Wales …..then we see the #SNPBAD message being something which is then gleefully endorsed, embraced and thus communicated by various BBC Scotland news outlets via TV, Radio and too their website. (though not , as a WORSE practice, one that is exclusive to ONLY the BBC as a media in the UK….as other news media also join in as well….for what is the actual REAL reason for their combined barrage of negativity upon the SNP…… that is all so very very obvious………as in STOPPING Scotland from becoming Independent from THEIR UK…..simples) .
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It seems clear that there is indeed something happening regarding school absence rates. In September this year the House of Commons Library (HoCL) published a research briefing entitled ‘School attendance in England’.
Setting out details of a rise in non-attendance, it noted: ‘School attendance following the pandemic is not exclusively an English issue. Difficulties have been reported across the UK, as well as in other countries.’
And in recent days, the BBC News website in its Wales section had an article under this headline: ‘‘School attendance: Thousands more to be classed as absent.’ This reported that the Welsh government was changing its definition of ‘persistent absence’ from school in the context of this expression of concern from the Labour government in Cardiff (with my emphasis):
‘SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IS IN CRISIS, according to the Welsh government and school leaders, as data suggests ABSENCE LEVELS ARE ALMOST DOUBLE what they were before Covid. There are lots of complex reasons for that – such as mental health issues and cost of living pressures – some of which have been made worse by the pandemic.’
Under a sub-heading: ‘A national crisis?’, the BBC article on Wales reports: ’The Association of School and College Leaders Cymru said schools do not have enough money to tackle the problem’; ‘The Welsh Conservatives said they would reverse school funding cuts and offer more targeted support for young people who miss school because of mental health issues’ and ‘Plaid Cymru has said more needs to be done to ADDRESS THE IMPACT OF POVERTY on attendance and TACKLE BARRIERS SUCH AS TRANSPORT COSTS.’
We could of course point to actions on a number of these matters by the Scottish Government already!
To get a sense of scale of this widespread problem here are some data from the House of Commons Library:
In the school year 2022/23, 22.3% of pupils were estimated to be “persistently absent” i.e. missed 10% or more of possible school sessions or around 19 days in an academic year. (In each school day there are two sessions – morning and afternoon).
Since 2018/19, the proportion of persistently absent pupils has increased in all types of schools:
– state-funded special schools: from 28.8% in 2018/19 to 40.4% in 2021/22
– state-funded primary schools: from 8.2% in 2018/19 to 17.7% in 2021/22
– state-funded secondary schools: from 13.7% in 2018/19 to 27.7% in 2021/22.
The HoCL also reports that the proportion of ‘severe absences’ (absent for at least 50% of available sessions) has doubled since before the pandemic. In 2018/19, 0.8% of pupils were severely absent: in 2021/22, 1.7% of pupils were severely absent, this equates to around 120,000 pupils.
And from the BBC News article on the situation in Wales:
in the school year 2022-23, 16.3% of pupils aged 11-15 were ‘persistently absent’ i.e. missed at least 20% of half day school sessions, equivalent to 30 days in the school year. The figure for pupils eligible for school meals was 35.6%.
So in short, there does seem to be a more widespread issue here.
If anyone is motivated to compare and contrast the scale of the problem in England and Wales with that in Scotland’s schools, the data compiled by Reform Scotland’s Commission can be found here: https://reformscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Absent-Minds.pdf.
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Covid & Long Covid & the fear of catching Covid if immunocompromised may also play a part in the level of absences. Difficult to quantify when testing and data gathering has ceased. Children who have had Covid are also more susceptible to other childhood infections.
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So the ‘Commission on school reform’ is the ‘think tank’? So anyone can set up a commission/think tank and get their stories in the papers? What is a think tank? Who funds them and are they funded, or a charity, or business, or lobbying group, what is their legitimacy? Expertise? Looks like a ‘think tank’ is an opinion group/club and of course the BBC et al give them a platform and dodgy status to try to con the people into believing they/it are the voice of the gospel.
As for schools, one day a fortnight, hmmm, the kids might be unwell, tired out, post Covid many still suffer from after effects and their families. All sorts of reasons, maybe children with disabilities where the school is not meeting their support needs, maybe lack of LA funding depending on who runs their LA…
Kids receive very little one-to-one learning/attention at school, lucky if it’s 5 minutes a week!
As some folks here will know I ended up home educating one son with Aspergers, while Scotland was under the UkLabour administration/gov whatever they were at Holyrood and the Labour council in Edinburgh. My son was denied assessment of needs, therefore denied support, which without assessment, they were able to deny his statutory right to appropraite support for his needs. If that’s not too word salad lol!
We never looked back, (the LABOUR CEC were delighted and didn’t bother us after that(!)and we saved them about, oh I’d say, at least £25k by taking son out of their crappy school) I had a happy son who met other home educated kids and they were all fabulous learners and now lifelong friends, we were broke, but my son learned so much at home, internet a huge help, science, Japanese language, design/art etc and his dad being a maths wiz helped, so it was MUCH better than school for him, by far. School does not suit all kids, it’s a haven for bullies as well. (My older learning disabled son was bullied to hell and back by kids throughout his school years to age 16, and he and I were bullied by the teachers, and even head teachers!).
I don’t like the sound of this ‘commission for school reform’ sounds very dodgy and very sinister.
Lastly I signed a petition the other day, supporting parents and children in ENGLAND, who are being taken to court, fined and parents threatened with prison when their kids are unable to attend school, often with learning disabilities and pf course statutory support is just not being provided, and/or parents who are disabled.
It’s actually very very sinister when LA and educationalists and courts and the EngGov are going down that route…but they are. It could all be to enable EngGov to privatise the schools, hence Charter schools which by all accounts, as far as I have read about them in the US, are just like kiddie prisons, they do not cater for all kids and fail them hugely, the kids being much less likely to achieve well and go to Uni for eg. Rich families go private to avoid them. 😦
Sorry long comment.
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I believe it is the case in England now that schools are being ‘fined’ by local councils if their attendance figures fall below a certain level. That ‘fine’ comes out of their already stretched budgets hence their pursuit of absentees. It really is pretty bad in English schools now.
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Only Renfrewshire was unable to provide any data. There are a few other gaps but, overall, the data is very comprehensive.
Comparing it though with the Scottish Govt data which is gathered every 2 years begs the question “why does the FOI data returned to Reform Scotland differ by so much from the Scottish Govt data?”.
The Scottish Govt figures have been subject to lots of quality control – as discussed in the notes contained in the spreadsheets – but there is no discussion of data quality in the Commission on School Reform report.
That is certainly an issue as, obviously, st least 32 different people gathered the statistics from 32 systems – how many different management systems to the different Scottish LA ducation departments use?. The need for some kind of data quality assurance should have been obvious to the members of the Commission on School Reform.
Serious questions should have been asked about how well those gathering the data understood the systems they were interrogating. I know from personal experience that very misleading results can be produced because someone creating a report didn’t fully understand the meaning of how different things were categorised/coded in a management system.
I wonder (perhaps unfairly) if some of the figures used in the report are the result of the FOI being seen as a nuisance and, consequently, being rushed and unchecked or a lowly council officer being tasked with collating figures from a system they didn’t fully understand.
No doubt the report figures will uncritically repeated ad nauseam by the usual suspects whenever education is mentioned.
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