Chronic absenteeism

Written by Melanie Loxton, Primary School Teacher

I would like to return to one of my previous ‘pointers’ seeing as it is presenting a great problem for me at this present moment, and recurs yearly with one student or more. I want to highlight my concerns in case ‘that one student’ is your child! My current bugbear is that of chronic absenteeism.

Now, of course we know that children get ill and miserable. We know that sometimes it is genuine and sometimes it is a cheeky attempt to stay home from school (but didn’t we all try that when we were young!). However I am talking about a pattern that a teacher may pick up on when she finds she is writing the same names on the absentee sheet each week. The other children may even comment that ‘Paul is sick AGAIN’. Sometimes it’s the Friday/Monday symptoms, which allow the child a lovely long weekend.

Unless illness is genuine, I strongly discourage you from allowing children to stay home from school because it sends these messages: “Shame, they are so tough on you at school. Stay home where you will not be challenged or made to work”. How will that shape the child’s work ethic for real life? Or this message: “School is not that important. It doesn’t make a real difference if you go or not”. How will that child give of their best in their school career if school is not viewed as a place to be involved in and achieve in? Or this message indirectly: “No one will mind if you are not there. You will not be missed. Your presence is not vital for lessons or class friendships” and a child may grow up feeling disconnected and unengaged as they fade out of close friendships due their many absences.

I have a situation at present where one of my pupils has missed 31 days of school counting today. This means more than 6 full school weeks. This means that each week when we learn a new phonics sound and practice applying it, she has missed six. Will this affect her spelling? Of course! Each week when we learn and practice a new list of 10 spelling words, she has missed them – that is 60 words she has not had drilled and applied. Each week when we learn a new maths concept, she has missed six. When we learned life skills lessons, she missed learning about whole countries, stranger danger role play, ‘fun’ bonding days such as Big Walks and class fun race.

This also means that on 31 days I have questioned whether I should teach a new concept and held back until all my pupils are present, which affects my planning and the quality of work I can continue with for the ones that are present. This means that every test she has missed I have had to keep hers aside and catch up in my admin time (most tests in Grade 2 still need teacher guidance for the questions).

I know (and hope) that this is an extreme case, although there are children each year where the headmaster has to phone and remind the parent that unless a child has been “on site” for a certain number of days in the year, they may actually be legally held back a year as they have not been physically present for enough days to qualify as having completed a grade. In some cases child welfare have had to get involved in questioning why these children are so sickly, whether they are receiving the treatment they need, or whether the parents are just being negligent in their lawful duty to ensure their child’s education.

Sometimes it is not even the number of days that is irksome but the feeble reasons given for missing a whole day of school. “We overslept”….. then arrive late!! “Mommy was sick”…. Please try to phone a classmate or neighbor for a lift for the children, but for healthy children to miss a whole day for this reason – especially if it happens more than once – is not acceptable. “I arrived in the wrong uniform and when I saw everyone else in their summer uniform I went home”…. Seriously! “Mommy thought we all needed a day to rest”… Wouldn’t the teacher love to try that! Would it be acceptable then? Of course not! For us to do our job, we need our pupils.

When children are absent, we feel as if we are teaching to an incomplete quota, and are always conscious of who is missing out on which concepts. We hold back on teaching and assessing important concepts when even one pupil is absent, so please think very carefully before keeping children at home unless they are really sick, or especially if they are contagious! These days when I have my full quota, I shout “Hallelujah!” which my pupils find quite amusing. But they get the message: I like to have them here with me.