In the Herald today, from Dani Garavelli:
SNP must tackle the disturbing ‘vanishing’ of pupils from Scotland’s classrooms
Not in the Herald today:
From the Children’s Commissioner for England, in the wake of the Sara Sharif murder case:
A register of children not in school to be implemented urgently. This must include children who are home educated and be introduced via legislation as a matter of urgency, backed by the resource to effectively implement and monitor it. https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/deaths-of-children-in-need/
Because of the above lack of record-keeping, there is only an estimate of how many children are in home education, in England – 92 000.
In Scotland, the known, not estimated, figure is currently 2 222. Thus, roughly 41 times as many children, 4 times as many pro rata, have vanished from schools in England than in Scotland,
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
No child ‘vanishes’ from local authority schools. They might be excluded, they may be being home educated, (mostly called home schooling), they may attend other types of schools, private for example, they may be long term ill so can’t attend school.
If a parent/carer wants or needs to remove their child from school, because the child say, has autism and is so unhappy as to feel suicidal in that setting, there are procedures and rules and such which the parent/carer is required to fulfil in order to home educate even if temporarily. It’s not just a matter of ‘vanishing’, though on a personal note, when we did have to home educate, the Labcons’ council were delighted in fact, it saved them sooo much money, and they didn’t have to provide any extra support for our child with support needs, which in fact was meant to be their statutory duty! I wonder what they did do with the £30k(min) we saved them, hm….
Looks as if the BritNat English rags are going after education and schools in Scotland, using children in order to demonise the SNP, and schools and teachers etc. They don’t stop do they, grrr..like vicious dogs that won’t let go intent on causing harm. hell mend ’em, these faux journalists deployed in Scotland, do real journalists a great disservice indeed. Disgraceful.
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You are right to focus on the word ‘vanish’. Almost all children who stop attending a school in Scotland go to another school in Scotland. In almost all of these cases, the parent or guardian informs the school in advance and advises where the child is going. In the very few cases where a child is absent and no contact has been made to inform the school and attendance officer or social worker or, in some cases, a police office will make enquiries. Usually, other family members or neighbours have information on where the child and family have gone. When a child turns up in a neighbourhood and does not appear to be attending school, usually, concerned locals report the matter to the authorities.
Sadly, there are a few cases when the child cannot be traced and in such cases the child might have been killed or badly abused.
Even the most comprehensive of systems cannot prevent every abuse.
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Indeed John, desperate stuff from the Herald by any stretch of the imagination, but Dani is more capable than most in knitting together totally disconnected elements and imply connection, but to attempt to capitalise on the horrific death of a child in England, to take a pop at the SNP is a real low, even by James Cook’s standards of ‘churnalism’..
You could see where Dani was headed by the title to the photo, ” In Scotland, the latest figures, published last week, show the number of secondary school pupils absent for 10% or more of the school year dropped from 41% in 2022/23 to 40.6% in 2023/24 (but that’s up from 26.7% in 2012/13) “.
Now bearing in mind even the Glasgow Herald was a respected newspaper in 2012/13, what possible significance was there to a decade later ?
A 20 month old BBC series on school absence rates post Covid in England.
Eh?
No pictures of the father of an unknown number of children partying or the inappropriately named UK Minister for Health having a grope in the cupboard for Dani Gavrelli, oh no-no-no, it’s Jenny Gilruth pause… 2.. 3… in a classroom… theatrical confected shock disguising a muffled fart sounding vaguely like WTF ?
Dani Gavarelli’s new book, “How to stitch-up a Scottish political quilt” is expected to be available in the new year….
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Neurodiverse children. 1 in 20. Often do not attend school because their needs are not met. Various measures can be put in place. A school with a base. Schools specialist equipped for the most disable. Council are not providing enough specialist equipped schools.
The additional needs pupils need quiet places. They suffer from anxiety and can have meltdowns. They can have timetables geared to attend school less. There are not enough specialist places. Councils often try to cut additional needs provision.
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Schools text parents to find out why pupils are off. Even for legitimate reasons.
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vast majority of children in England are not attending local authority run schools. Most are in “privatised” education like a academy trusts with NO local authority oversight.
The English commissioner is very well aware that “privatised” academy trusts economic driver is their league table system better academy results by getting rid of those children who don’t fit, difficult have different learning styles, or physical disabilities.
That is why she wants such a register and has been for a number of years. Do English politicians care? Fae kens.
dottieb
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