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Attendance: Have you considered flexible schooling?

Attendance Vulnerable children
With a quarter of secondary students persistently absent, flexi-schooling is an option and is easier to achieve than you might think. Sarah Sudea sets out the case for enabling more pupils to go to school less often
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During the last academic year, more than 28% of secondary school pupils were persistently absent (DfE, 2023). Huge numbers of children are unable to access full time mainstream school for a multitude of complex reasons.

There is growing consensus that this is an issue that is not going away and affected schools, parents and children are under intense pressure as a result. Much has been written about this crisis and the need for action and major recovery and catch-up plans and how vital it is that we get back to how things were pre-pandemic. The media has fuelled unhelpful polarisations that keep everybody stuck – it is the fault of feckless parents or snowflake children or soft teachers…

When children cannot overcome the barriers that prevent them from attending school most of us buy into the widespread assumption that improving their attendance is the answer, a notion that has been heavily promoted by the current children’s commissioner (2023). It offers a neat solution for everyone invested in solving this problem. But sometimes it is the answer and sometimes it is not.

This is because school as we know it makes no sense in the minds of more and more of our young people. Or, for that matter, in the minds of the teachers leaving the profession in their droves. For many, school is the problem.

More than 1.2 million children sought mental health support in 2022 (YoungMinds, 2023). Meanwhile, half of 10,000 15 to 16-year-olds surveyed by the Edge Foundation (2023) see school as something to “get through”, while others who had left mainstream school were mostly “thriving”.

A child’s school distress has a “devastating” impact on parents’ mental health (Connolly & Mullally, 2023). Despite the increasing prevalence of families struggling with this, often parents feel alone, ashamed and convinced that they have failed. Parents tell me their own need to be perceived as “good” and to comply with what professionals ask of them gets in the way of them acting in their child’s best interests. Taking a child off roll and going it alone feels too big a leap for many or is practically impossible.

Schools are under extreme pressure to meet attendance targets. With so many children missing lessons, the curriculum pressures mount up too. Asking more of teachers is unfair – 78% of them already experience mental health symptoms due to their work (Education Support, 2022) and more than 40,000 have left the profession in the last year alone.

There is little capacity within schools to meet the needs of individual children and teachers sometimes tell me, in voices of quiet concern, that particular children are probably better off out of school. Like it or not, part-time schooling looks as though it’s here to stay.

 

What if we accepted part-time schooling?

But what would it look like if we moved to a place of acceptance that allowed us to start focusing on the possibilities?

We could redeploy some of the energy currently spent trying to get children back in the classroom and accept that some of them are better off spending more of their time outside it. Children could be given more agency to make decisions about how and where they need to learn to enable them to thrive. When children show early signs of emotionally based school avoidance schools could intervene quickly and support low demand flexi-schooling as a reasonable adjustment.

Schools and parents could work together to co-create bespoke plans that better meet the needs of individual children without generating extra work for teachers.

Collectively we could recognise that many of our children are shouting from the rooftops that full-time school isn’t for them and it is about time we started doing something about it.

Flexi-schooling is already an available option and, thanks to the work of the “Flexischooling Families UK” Facebook group, we know it is popular with parents and that there are more than 280 primary schools that support it in one form or another.

However, the DfE only makes reference to flexi-school in their guidance on elective home education (2019) and for this reason it flies largely under the radar of school leaders and families with children in secondary schools.

Despite the tight constraints state schools are subjected to, headteachers have the discretion to allow children to attend school three days a week and receive a “suitable education” at home on the other days.

This can be an indefinite arrangement agreed between headteachers and families. It is not the same as a part-time reduced timetable and should never be used to absolve schools and local authorities of their statutory obligations to provide an education.

Schools should record a “C” in the register and have safeguarding responsibility on the school days only, although they retain full funding for each child. The onus is on families to approach the school with a plan, seeking support and agreement.

Flexi-schooling contracts should be created with the best interests of the child at their heart. They can be subject to terms stipulated by the head, including curriculum requirements, and should be regularly reviewed.

There are endless possibilities for how children can use their flexi-schooling days: rest and recovery, one-on-one time with a family member, accessing 14-19 provision, pursuing an interest that lies outside the school curriculum (perhaps an additional qualification), joining with other home-educated children for an outing, or learning an instrument or developing an app or building something or spending more time on homework…

Detailed testimonials from families have been collated by the Centre for Personalised Education. When it comes to the benefits, there are recurring themes:

  • Children who find the school environment overwhelming or burn-out towards the end of the week are better able to cope.
  • Attendance is good on school days because the child’s social and emotional needs are being met through the part-time arrangement.
  • Families feel a greater commitment to the school and sense of belonging because they are so grateful for the arrangement that enables their children to thrive.
  • Many children have more autonomy on flexi-days which fosters their intrinsic motivation and enables them to learn with more engagement and enthusiasm.

Thanks to research by the Relationships Foundation (Paxman, 2022) we know that flexi-schooling has specific benefits for neurodivergent children or those with an SEND profile but is routinely overlooked as an option.

 

Challenges and barriers

Are there barriers and challenges? Of course. Undoubtedly a spirit of courage and curiosity is required from headteachers and SENCOs.

There are questions around how schools can ensure equity of access to flexi-schooling arrangements, especially for those children who would benefit from part-time school but whose families are not in a position to support at home. With a bit of energy and imagination, there are exciting possibilities to be explored here:

  • Redeploying staff in schools as Lydiard Park Academy in Swindon has with its innovative School of Solutions.
  • Forming parent and teacher working groups to create a directory of funded options in the local area, including things like the Youth Wellbeing Project on Hampstead Heath.
  • Creating time and space in school as proposed by Derry Hannam in his 20% project for schools.
  • My organisation, Finding the Flex, is working on the potential of repurposing in-school behaviour units as “flexi-hubs”.

Meanwhile, it would be helpful if the DfE introduced an attendance code specific to flexi-schooling so schools weren’t required to explain themselves to over-eager local authorities.

And what about Ofsted – well, all recent Ofsted comments on flexi-schooling have been “very positive” (Paxman, 2022) and the DfE reiterates that “schools with significant flexi-schooling numbers have had good outcomes from Ofsted inspections”.

The DfE (2019) adds: “Schools which have flexi-schooled pupils should be ready to discuss with Ofsted inspectors the arrangements they have in place to deal with the requirements caused by such pupils.”

It is hard for heads to be brave about sanctioning less time in school for children when schools are subject to Progress 8 accountability measures, although when around 30% of children gain fewer than five GCSEs and one in four children are missing more than 10% of their schooling, this becomes something of a moot point.

 

A no-brainer?

Flexi-schooling could be transformative for some of the children who we are currently failing. Desperately anxious children required to attend school every day are not learning. Our dogmatic insistence that attending school will improve things for them, means that many reach crisis point and end up languishing at home for months, if not years, as the thresholds for support creep ever higher and vital services are stretched to breaking point.

There is a moral imperative to do school differently for these children. Through flexi-schooling there is also a common sense and practical option available, right now, to every school in the land.

It allows headteachers to instigate a gentle shift in how children do school. Collaborating with parents in order to understand what their young person needs to thrive and learn. Alleviating pressure on teachers and school leaders while giving them more freedom to make decisions that are truly in the best interests of children. Connecting with others to take advantage of opportunities in the wider community. Compassionately and constructively working together to improve the wellbeing of all concerned.

Flexi-schooling makes all kinds of sense. Parents can ask for it and headteachers can support it. It is an available option in the best interests of some children. We owe them a duty of care to consider it.

Sarah Sudea is a former secondary English teacher, now a coach and consultant on school attendance difficulties. She is the founder of Finding the Flex, offering flexible educational solutions to support children’s wellbeing. Visit www.sarahsudea.com and www.findingtheflex.com

 

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