Children may be up to 55% more likely to miss school on their birthday, according to new Government analysis, proving that the education crisis has finally been squeezed into a room with cake, candles and a register.
The Department for Education says the concern is not one dramatic disappearance, but the quiet accumulation of “just one day” absences. Birthdays are one example. Broken weeks and schools that finish the year on a day other than Friday also appear in the analysis, which found absence rising by 27% in the final week at schools with that arrangement.
At last, the attendance system has located an enemy it can understand. Not a child who has spent years falling through several gaps, but a pupil with a balloon and a perfectly defensible opinion about whether mathematics belongs in a birthday. The spreadsheet can work with this. It may even produce a pie chart.
The Government response is a package of tools for schools, including a real time data resource, a practical toolkit and communications guidance. The stated aim is to spot patterns early, work more closely with families and make schools places where children feel they belong and want to attend.
This is a sensible aim, although the policy machine has dressed it for a ceremonial inspection. A headteacher can now examine a child’s attendance pattern, identify the birthday shaped dip and respond before the pupil becomes statistically entangled with a different sort of dip. Somewhere, a dashboard is waiting to colour a child’s childhood amber.
The guidance suggests initiatives including a birthday queue jump pass at lunch and “Under the Weather” forms to help families and schools agree support for children who may struggle during the day. The balloon has reviewed both proposals and recommends issuing every pupil with a small administrative cake, provided the icing is recorded in the correct field.
The serious point is that missed days can accumulate. The Government says pupils who attend nearly every day in year six have better odds of reaching expected standards, while persistently absent secondary pupils are around three times more likely to become NEET. Attendance is about learning, friendships and belonging, not merely producing a pleasing row of green boxes.
Still, the balloon has been told that every day matters, every pattern must be identified and every family should engage. It has therefore booked its birthday off as professional development, submitted a cake shaped absence form and left the register signed by a candle. The candle has been referred for early intervention.
Source: GOV.UK.
