Send your kids to school even if they have a cough or cold or they’ll get left behind, minister orders parents

CHILDREN probably won’t thank me for the reminder, but the summer holidays are winding down.

Families will soon be preparing for one of the biggest days of the educational calendar – the return to school.

Alamy

For most children that means being reunited with friends and teachers.

But there are too many for whom that simply isn’t the case, where one day off becomes two and, in an instant, time at school becomes the exception rather than the rule.

Persistent absenteeism has a serious long-term impact on any child’s life prospects, but it has a disproportionately damaging one on those already struggling with disadvantage. 

We know from figures that have built up over many years that even one day off could have a detrimental effect on a child’s education.

School is not just a place where children formally learn, but where they develop social skills, make new friends and take part in sport.

Multiply a couple of missed school days over a sustained period, and missing this amount of education could have a serious impact on their GCSE results and social skills.

The pandemic was a shock to the entire system. Children had to suddenly learn from home using a laptop. It was hard for them, their parents and their teachers.

It is not surprising that some have struggled to adjust.

Although we have now moved on and the number of young people who are persistently absent from school is coming down, it is still too high. 

Together with teachers we have worked hard to get back to where we were before the pandemic.

We have put a £5 billion recovery plan in place including a bespoke tutoring programme for children who need extra support.

We’ve also asked schools to offer children the warmest ever welcome in September.  

Our attendance hubs are there to help schools and teachers who are struggling to encourage absent children back to the classroom.

Schools who joined our first hub told us that that support has made a real difference in helping them to improve attendance levels.

Hubs are doing a great job improving attendance by helping schools to provide targeted support for children and parents.

I would like to thank our dedicated teachers and school leaders for their work to get children back in school.

This kind of support will only go so far though. We need parents themselves to take a stand on absenteeism.

You can call it a social contract if you like, between parents and schools – we all have to do our bit to make sure children are where they should be.  

We know there are many barriers to attendance but in some cases, such as instances of relatively mild illness for example, parents are not always sure when a child should be sent to school or kept at home.

It’s fine to send your child to school with a minor cough or common cold.

But if they have a fever, keep them off school until the fever goes. For parents who are not sure, there is plenty of online guidance available on the NHS website.

Of course where a child has longer term medical issues there may be some unavoidable absence but parents should speak to schools to keep the time away from school to a minimum.

I urge parents to back schools and back teachers. Children have to be in school, it’s as simple as that.  

PA

We are starting to see really good results from our mission to make sure every child gets a world-class start in life.

Our teachers are better trained and better paid than ever before; standards are rising and our children are better readers than anywhere else in Western Europe.

Even so, we cannot claim a world-class start for every child while some children are absent too often.