“This struggle is not going away”: Schools call for communities to ‘join forces’ to battle truancy epidemic

A Chadderton head teacher is calling for a more ‘joined up approach’ across public services to help tackle a truancy epidemic, after a ‘trailblazing pilot scheme’ in Oldham saw success in getting youngsters back into the classroom. 

Glyn Potts, headteacher of Newman Catholic College in Oldham, said an ‘intervention’ with the help of the council ‘has worked’, but that more needs to be done. 

He said: “We’ve reconciled ourselves that this struggle is not going to go away.

"This is the Forth Bridge now for schools.

“We are still focusing on raising attendance but actually, the intervention that has been put into place by the local authority has worked.

"Whilst I’m not always the biggest fan of the council, I have to say on this matter, they’ve lent in in a positive way.”

Oldham Council’s campaign saw a dedicated team reaching out directly to parents of pupils with lower attendances to identify barriers to returning to school, public messaging and creating a closer network of communication with schools across the borough.

As a result, attendance in Oldham has risen, with the number of persistently absent kids dropping from 19.2 to 16.7 pc at primary level and 25.6 to 23.5 pc at secondary schools. 

The efforts were described as ‘trailblazing’ by Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, who champions children’s rights in England and Wales. 

Responding to the results, council boss Arooj Shah said: “Seeing how much we’ve improved on school attendance makes me so proud of our schools and the pupils that attend them.

"It’s a testament to our great school leaders, our partnership working, the pupils themselves and their parents. 

“We know that there’s still so much more we can do here but I’m pleased that we’re heading in the right direction.”

But attendance rates at school remain a national issue.

Latest figures show seven percent of kids are missing out on school, with almost 20 pc of those absent missing more than 10 pc of their lessons, known as ‘persistent absenteeism’. 

And tackling the complex issues at the root of the soaring truancy rates is complex, according to head teachers. 

“It’s a very, very, very tiny amount of parents and children that don’t want to come in for no reason,” Mr Potts explained.

“For the majority, there’s an underlying issue we’ve not addressed.

"We’ve got to break that down.

"We’ve got to think outside the box.” 

The attendance plunge started with the pandemic lockdowns.

But spiralling mental health and anxiety rates among youngsters are increasingly significant factors, according to head teachers and attendance officers. 

Mohon Ali, Oldham Council’s lead on children and young people, said it’s particularly pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and teenage girls affected by mental health struggles who are currently most at risk ‘falling through the cracks’. 

And a lack of resources at schools is a part of the picture. 

“Currently there’s a big gap,” Mr Potts explained.

“Young people go to the GP because of school anxiety.

"They can say ‘I’ve referred them back to the school to manage their anxiety’.

"The school says ‘we don’t have the resources’ and then the kid can say ‘well, I’m not going in’.”

The headteacher wants to see more of a ‘joining up’ between other services, from GPs and mental health providers, to youth workers and community police officers, to create a ‘network of support to challenge absenteeism for all young people’.

Mr Potts added he was currently ‘in discussion’ with other secondary heads and the local authority about how that might work, and is looking to pilot ‘targeted intervention work in localities’.

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