09 January 2024 , 13:52
653
0
Children should not miss school for cheap holidays and birthday treats - and parents will face fines, Labour's school chief has said.
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said it was a "mark of disrespect" for kids to miss class for no good reason as skipping school harms their life chances and causes disruption to other children. Parents must take responsibility for ensuring their children go to school or risk fines, she warned.
In a speech at the Centre for Social Justice think-tank, Ms Phillipson set out her plans to tackle the attendance crisis after long term absence rates shot up following the pandemic. One in five children (21.5%) in England were persistently absent last autumn and spring terms, which means they missed one in 10 lessons. The figure has more than doubled since 2018/19 (10.5%).
Ms Phillipson said: "Cheaper holidays, birthday treats, not fancying it today, these are no excuses for missing school. Penalties must be part of the system, but they cannot be the answer alone.
"Allowing your child to skip school without good reason shouldn’t just be cause for a fine. It’s deeper. It’s a mark of disrespect. For the children, the teachers, the school. Because absences hurt not just the children missing, but the children there.
Nursery apologises after child with Down's syndrome ‘treated less favourably’
Should kids be allowed time off from school for holidays? Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
"They strike at the rhythm of teaching and learning for other children as well as your own. They make it harder for other parents, for every teacher, to hold the line, to tell the truth: every day matters."
Labour plans to legislate for a compulsory register of home-schooled children to ensure no pupils fall through the cracks and use AI to spot absence trends. The party would also put mental health counsellors in secondary schools and provide breakfast clubs in all primaries to encourage absentee children back to class.
Ms Phillipson said the Tory "mask slips" on the issue as attendance is "always about other people's children. "It isn't Winchester where half the children failed to turn up at least one day a fortnight," she said, referring to Mr Sunak's old school. "It isn't Charterhouse, it isn't Eton, it isn't Rugby."
Boris Johnson's former catch up chief Sir Kevan Collins threw his weight behind the plans, saying "too many of our children are still living with the disruption" of the pandemic. The top education expert said the ongoing challenges facing kids could have been mitigated if the Government hadn't blocked demands for a proper catch up plan in 2021. Sir Kevan resigned in protest at the measly £1.4 billion blueprint - 10 times less than what he had called for.
Pointing to the impact of the pandemic, he said: "The failure to re-engage and return to established norms is seen in the collapse in school attendance. For too many children the habit and convention of going to school every day has been broken.
"Tackling the crisis of persistent absence must therefore be a priority and the national response must measure up to the scale of the local challenge...I'm excited by Bridget's ambition for our education system and her determination to raise standards and improve outcomes for all our children."