Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 12 January 2024

Back to school, but not it seems for everyone.

Pupils missing school has been a concern for some time, particularly since the pandemic, and a new report this week – and accompanying ministerial calls for action – have seen the issue thrust back into the headlines.

Current figures indicate that the overall pupil absence rate last year was 7.0%, with just over 21% of pupils deemed persistent absentees, defined as such by missing 10% of sessions or more. In both cases the figures were slightly down on the previous year, but still up on the pre-pandemic year. In all, some 140,700 pupils were missing at least half of their schooling or more. 

More worryingly, the latest report from the Centre for Social Justice found evidence that for some parents, attending school everyday didn’t seem to have been as important as previously. ‘Nearly a third of parents polled agreed that the pandemic had shown that it wasn’t essential for children to attend school every day’. This wasn’t the first such finding. The consultancy Public First reported similar findings last year. ‘Covid had caused a seismic shift in parental attitudes to school attendance that is going to take a monumental, multi-service effort to change,’ it concluded in a report last September.

So what to do?

The Centre for Social Justice, which has been assiduously tracking attendance trends for some time, put forward its own seven-point plan covering more mentors, more metrics, and more sport in schools, along with a best practice strategy for parents.

Some of this was reinforced by Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, in her accompanying speech to the Centre. 

She acknowledged that something had gone wrong in the relationship between schools and parents, but that “cheaper holidays, birthdays, not fancying it today”, were no excuse for missing school. ‘Penalties must be part of the system’, she said firmly. But on the good cop side, Labour would make schools more welcoming, provide free breakfasts for primary schools and more teachers, bring in a single number system to help track children, and provide for a register of home-schooled children.

Such a register had been promised by the government in its response to last year’s report from the Education Committee on the matter. ‘The government will legislate for these at a future suitable opportunity’, it said.

That opportunity has yet to arise but the education secretary, who claimed this week that “tackling attendance is my number one priority”, did announce a big increase in the number of attendance hubs and monitors.

Unions appeared unimpressed. In the words of the NAHT 'whilst there is nothing wrong with the expansion of attendance hubs, schools need more than advice'. Or as the NEU put it 'Too little, too late'.

Missing school remains an important issue. As the Confederation of School Trusts summed it up, 'going to school is not only about getting good grades. It is also about being with your friends, contributing to your sense of growing up and your wellbeing'. 

Latest figures covering last term from the data site FFT Education Datalab suggest an improving picture, although with some concern still over persistent absences. Many will be following such figures carefully as the year unfolds.

In other school news this week, Sir Martyn Oliver announced that Ofsted inspections would start again on 22 January and that he intended to work ‘constructively’ with the leadership unions during his tenure. Unions leaders reciprocated cautiously. ‘These are early days … but we are encouraged’.

Elsewhere, the Education Endowment Foundation published a guide to using research evidence, suggesting a red flag warning system of what to look out for. And the Sutton Trust called for a review of the school admissions code as it published new research showing many of the top comprehensives becoming more selective. It’ll be holding a webinar on this latest research on 27 February.

In FE, the Association of Colleges (AoC) set out some of the issues around pay, skills and capital investment that it intends to include in its Treasury submission for the forthcoming Budget. 

Former Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) chief, Tom Bewick, floated a new set of initials – DESIS or Department for Employment Skills and Industrial Strategy – as he reflected on what a general election might mean for FE and skills. 

The government published the list of L3 qualifications, submitted as part of cycle 1, for funding from August 2025. The list will be confirmed in May this year, allowing providers a year or so to plan and prepare. And the latest GCSE resits results for exams taken last November, showed many still struggling to master maths. Resitting can be a ‘miserable experience’ as the ASCL put it.

In HE, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) added to the policy tension around HE financing by highlighting the impact of high inflation and borrowing costs on the student loan system. 'What is certain', it concluded, 'is that funding student loans has become substantially more expensive for the government over the past two years – and official measures do not reflect that at all'. As well as making a loss on the loans that are not repaid, the government can now also expect to make a loss on the loans that are. This could be as much as £7.3bn on the current entry cohort.

It left Bloomberg UK, and perhaps many others, musing 'who exactly is benefitting from this system?'. Labour is looking for answers.

Also in HE, the Office for Students published a commissioned evaluation into its recent pilot of short courses. Low take-up, differing aspirations, and design challenges, were among the report’s conclusions. ‘Pilot crash’ as the Times Higher put it.

Finally, in Westminster this week, Lib-Dem MP Munira Wilson set out the case for every school to have access to a qualified mental health professional. She said that this would be paid for by tripling the digital services tax on big social media companies, "given the harm that they have contributed to our children’s mental health". Her proposed Bill will have its Second Reading in June. 

MPs also used a Westminster Hall debate to discuss access to free school meals for SEND pupils with the Schools Minister promising to update the guidance.

Elsewhere, the Education Committee held its second evidence session as part of its inquiry into screen time and its effects on children’s wellbeing and education. The inquiry continues.

And next week sees the annual gathering of the big names for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos. The strapline of the three-day fest this year is ‘Rebuilding Trust’ and the sessions are set around four themes: security and cooperation; growth and jobs; the role of AI; and climate change. 

The UK is beefing up its participation after its one-man show last year, with David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt heading the government team and Rachel Reeves and John Ashworth from the Opposition. They’ll mingle and share canapes with CEOs from over a thousand global companies, let alone entrepreneurs and techies. 

Links to most of these stories below starting with the headlines.