Children with SEND more likely to be missing from education
More than 11,500 children in England went missing from education between spring 2022 and spring 2023. A new report from the Children’s Commissioner shows that many of these children returned to education, however 2,900 were last recorded as not being registered at any setting or known to be receiving home education.
Analysis shows that these children have particular vulnerabilities. For example, they were 1.4 times as likely to have a special educational need or disability (SEND) compared to their peers in state-funded education. They were also 1.5 times as likely to live in the most deprived areas and 2.7 times as likely to have a social worker as a child in need. The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, says this data ‘reflects a troubling gap in our society to protect and support some of the most vulnerable.’
De Souza calls for a unique identifier for every child and nationwide data sharing to ensure that no child falls off the radar. Additionally, she calls for policies to improve mental health support in school, including the provision of in-house educational psychologists to support pupils with SEND.
Educational challenges from Covid-19 to continue into 2030s
Damage wrought by the pandemic upon children’s learning, behaviour, and attendance is set to continue into the 2030s, according to research published by the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL). The author of the report, Tim Oates CBE of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, writes that he understands the rhetoric of getting ‘back to normal,’ but warns this fails to recognise the scale of what schools are facing and the nature of support needed to return to pre-pandemic levels of equity and attainment.
The report shows that there are different problems at different stages of education. For example, secondary schools are reporting an increase in reading difficulties among Year 7 pupils, poor personal organisation and challenging patterns of interaction, whereas primary schools report on children struggling with arrested language development, lack of toilet training, anxiety in social spaces, and depressed executive function.
Meanwhile, children who were born during the pandemic and are now entering primary school appear to be prone to cognitive and social problems due to disruptions to their early development. This brings a new set of educational challenges that will continue to unfold over the next five to ten years as these pupils pass through school.
Oates says that mitigating these challenges requires ‘strategy and resources co-designed by schools, unions and government,’ in addition to parental support and community engagement. He warns that without concerted action, the depth and scale of residual COVID-19 effects ‘may transform schooling’ as staff run the risk of permanently lowering the requirement for children to develop skills that are essential to their progress in education and future careers.
★ Are you looking for specialist support to help you navigate educational challenges and school attendance? Our consultants can carry out audits on your current attendance and SEND provision, sharing high-quality action plans and practical recommendations to help you achieve equity in education.
Reach out to our Pupil Attendance and SEND teams to find out more.
Researchers to investigate impact of flexible working on retention
Data from the Department for Education (DfE) reveals that over the last 12 years, more than 40,000 teachers left the profession after just one year of teaching, rising to 63,000 after three years. Nearly a third leave the profession within the first five years. To identify solutions to the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) has launched three new research projects.
The first project will investigate if a nine-day working fortnight – where staff have an extra day off once a fortnight – can have a positive impact on retention. Researchers will work with Dixons Academies Trust, who moved to a nine-day working fortnight at the start of the new school year across 17 schools in their trust. The project will include interviews with leaders and teachers to explore the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from this approach.
The second project will explore how off-site planning, preparation, and assessment (PPA) time can impact teacher retention. The project will be carried out across primary schools to identify the barriers and enablers of this approach, the impact it has on wellbeing and job satisfaction, as well as the implications for teaching and learning.
The EEF has commissioned a third project focusing on teacher recruitment, led by research organisation Teacher Tapp. This will use the Teacher Tapp app to identify strategies that can effectively attract teachers to schools with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage.
Emily Yeomans, co-Cheif Executive at the EEF, says that until there are solid, evidence-based approaches to address recruitment and retention, ‘we will continue to see great teachers leaving the profession and young people’s education suffering as a result.’ Results from these projects are set to be published next year.
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