As we get to the end of the annual flurry of back-to-school photos in our social media
feeds, spare a thought for the children and young people not so cheerful about
returning, or who feel unable to return. We need to think about why they might be
feeling like this, and what can be done to help them.
The government tells us that school is ‘the best environment for the majority of pupils
to learn in’. They say that ‘being surrounded by teachers and friends keeps children
safe’. This may be true for many, but what about the children and young people who
don’t feel safe in school? What about the ones that tense up at the thought of school,
who are up all night crying at the thought of going in, the ones who are physically
sick with worry, the ones who freeze into a block of concrete at the school gates and
refuse to go in? What is being done to support them before they leave the school
system altogether?
Earlier this month England’s Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza,
published the latest report to come out of the Attendance Audit she launched in
March 2022. It highlights that there are over 100,000 children missing from education
each year in England. These children are more than numbers. As the report states;
they are young lives at risk of being forgotten. It’s also important to be aware that
they are often some of the most vulnerable children. Children missing from education
are 1.5 times more likely to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods, 1.4 times as
likely to have an identified special educational need, and 2.7 times more likely to be
a child in need, relative to other children in state-funded education.
The current school system is often focused on legal sanctions and processes when
pupils aren’t attending, rather than the emotional support and understanding needed
to help learners to re-engage with education. There often isn’t the prevention to stop
them getting to the stage where they feel that they can’t attend. Children and young
people who are missing from education don’t just suddenly decide to leave school
and never return. They will likely have had a negative relationship with their setting
for some time. In fact, they are more likely than other pupils to have had poor school
attendance or have been previously excluded from school.
We feel that relational practice is such an important and integral way for schools to
become the safe spaces that children need them to be. Predictable and fair adult
responses to behaviour create emotional safety. School cultures need to be
transformed to be supportive, consistent and nurturing. It is only when students feel
safe in school that they will want to remain there. We will bang the drum for relational
practice as loudly as we can as we know of its transformative powers. We have seen
it in practice in the thousands of schools and colleges we have helped to transform.
At When The Adults Change, we can work with you to rebuild your classroom
climate to make your setting a safe place that learners want to come to and,
importantly, to remain in. We can help you to wrap your learners in relational practice
so that they feel safe, valued and able to thrive.
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