Truancy Options

[TallDarkAndHands...]

'MORE than 440 secondary school pupils in West Berkshire regularly missed school last year, according to the Government’s latest truancy statistics.
Figures released on yesterday (Thursday) by the Department for Schools, Children and Families show that 4.4 per cent of West Berkshire’s 10,060 secondary school pupils were persistent absentees'

I always wondered why so many kids are in town on school days.
Do the PCSO's and police question them anymore if seen out and about in school time or have we just given up?

[Bloggo]

'MORE than 440 secondary school pupils in West Berkshire regularly missed school last year, according to the Government’s latest truancy statistics.
Figures released on yesterday (Thursday) by the Department for Schools, Children and Families show that 4.4 per cent of West Berkshire’s 10,060 secondary school pupils were persistent absentees'

I always wondered why so many kids are in town on school days.
Do the PCSO's and police question them anymore if seen out and about in school time or have we just given up?

Not surprising that the Trinity School was top of the table. Little wonder when many of the pupils come from the run down Turnpike estate with all of it's ASB.

[dannyboy]

I used to drive around in my lunch hour & sort the buggers out - before they got round to terrorizing old ladies & shoplifting 6 packs for their drunken dads.
but the police ended up sorting me out! thats what this once great country that my dad fought for has become!

[JeffG]

I used to drive around in my lunch hour & sort the buggers out - before they got round to terrorizing old ladies & shoplifting 6 packs for their drunken dads.
but the police ended up sorting me out! thats what this once great country that my dad fought for has become!

Errm. That's what this county has always been. Taking the law into your own hands is not allowed. No change there.

Whether or not the law is less likely to be implemented by those responsible is a different argument.

[user23]

I used to drive around in my lunch hour & sort the buggers out - before they got round to terrorizing old ladies & shoplifting 6 packs for their drunken dads.
but the police ended up sorting me out! thats what this once great country that my dad fought for has become!

Call me old fashioned but driving round "sorting out" potential problems is a job for the Police and possibly Michael Knight too.

[dannyboy]

possibly Michael Knight

****! been rumbled.

[JeffG]

Googling Michael Knight led me to the David Icke website (no kidding) and a link from there led me to this:

http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=12246

Amazing what crops up on 't Internet

[user23]

Googling Michael Knight led me to the David Icke website (no kidding) and a link from there led me to this:

http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=12246

Amazing what crops up on 't Internet

"Publisher: VOMIT UK Group"

How bizarre. Knowing the kind of thing David Icke and associates publish I suspect this isn't meant to be a joke either.

[On the edge]

Not quite convinced of the numbers. When my daughters were at what goes for a good school in Newbury, we were regularly sent absent notes and their term reports showed a less than 100% attendence record. Careful questioning revealed that they generally missed registration in the afternoon - once a week in the afternoon because they were in the School Band which officially practiced at that time. Apparently, they were supposed to report this to the teacher who'd taken the register but she always complained that it took too much effort to open up the register again or claimed to have too much on her mind to remember if asked beforehand. Fantastic example our elders set sometimes! There are lies, dammed lies and statistics - so sorry that and experience means I don't believe the numbers.

[On the edge]

Not surprising that the Trinity School was top of the table. Little wonder when many of the pupils come from the run down Turnpike estate with all of it's ASB.

Err; the vast majority hail from other places, Thatcham and its environs. I was in Turnpike recently and as most ex local authority estates of its age it's maturing. The only ASB I saw was an old wrinkly dropping a fag end down a gully. You want to observe real Anti Social Behaviour - Newbury Station when the school kids are rampaging. Very few from North end of town.

[Berkshirelad]

Apparently, they were supposed to report this to the teacher who'd taken the register but she always complained that it took too much effort to open up the register again or claimed to have too much on her mind to remember if asked beforehand.

Sorry, it doesn't work like that.

Registers are closed at a set time as advised by central government (in order that national statistics can be gathered on a comparable basis). A teacher cannot re-open the register.

In these days of electronic registration, I can't see why the member of staff running the band practice can't do the necessary registration.

[On the edge]

Sorry, it doesn't work like that.

Registers are closed at a set time as advised by central government (in order that national statistics can be gathered on a comparable basis). A teacher cannot re-open the register.

In these days of electronic registration, I can't see why the member of staff running the band practice can't do the necessary registration.

But it DID work exactly like that; I have the documentary evidence. I wholly agree that the administrative procedures adopted by the school were very poor. For my part, they eventually got a written complaint and I had a fulsome apology back. Ironically, I saw no evidence that the system subsequently changed - but by then my children had left.

Also, if one thinks of this logically, are we really in such a Police state that a
manualsystem for collating information cannot easily be amended when faults or mistakes occur. If this really is the case, then it reinforces my perception that the numbers are fundamentally flawed. Are we really saying that central government so distrust teachers that they don't even permit simple correction? Good job the same doesn't apply in shops - we'd never be able to get refunds! What a state we are in - how sad.

[Bloggo]

But it DID work exactly like that; I have the documentary evidence. I wholly agree that the administrative procedures adopted by the school were very poor. For my part, they eventually got a written complaint and I had a fulsome apology back. Ironically, I saw no evidence that the system subsequently changed - but by then my children had left.

Also, if one thinks of this logically, are we really in such a Police state that a
manualsystem for collating information cannot easily be amended when faults or mistakes occur. If this really is the case, then it reinforces my perception that the numbers are fundamentally flawed. Are we really saying that central government so distrust teachers that they don't even permit simple correction? Good job the same doesn't apply in shops - we'd never be able to get refunds! What a state we are in - how sad.

Truancy at schools is a reflection of weak or non-existent discipline by the parents at home and by the Teachers and Governors in schools.
This needs to be fixed first, but I won't hold my breath.