TRUANTS

[Rich]

Listening to sky news I learn that truants are to receive air miles and laptops if they turn up for school, surely that means that the kids who do attend on a regular basis will receive a lear jet and a 40" flatscreen tv, you could'nt make it up, could you, :shock: labour, have really lost the plot, but I think that's obvious to everyone anyway.

Rich.

 

[Smudger]

Oh dear, here we go again. The world's gone mad, hasn't it?

First of all, you need to know that all unauthorised attendance now counts as truancy. Almost all pupils (80%+) truant at some stage of their school careers, well over half of truancy is known to and approved of by parents. Persistent truants have high rates of involvement in crime as well as being vulnerable to crime and exploitation. Persistent truants tend to be less successful in school with low educational aspirations.

Then you need to see a number of initiatives in the recent past, including on-the-spot fines and court appearances for parents of truants. Alongside punitive measures have been incentives to attend.

This incentivisation to attend, right or wrong, has been done for some time in some areas. We always put the names of 100% attenders into a half-termly draw, as well as making a point of praising pupils who improve their attendance. In a Conservative-controlled education authority. Sorry about that.

The frightening part (for you) is that with some kids it actually seems to work. And the little Bs actually attend school, stop offending and aren't a drain on society. Annoying of them.

If you want I'll send you my Masters' thesis on causes and remediation of truancy, but then, what do I know?

 

[RogerS]

I have to say, Dick, that after reading your thought-provoking and balanced replies I now have a (slightly) more rounded view of things and not quite so ready to 'string-em-up and bring back the birch'.

Last year there was a little gang who had taken to sitting up on the bank near the back of our house and occasionally making a bit of a nuisance of themselves. Not too fussed, not our land even though they threw the odd stone at walkers and minor acts of petty vandalism (picking off rights of way signs, nothing major). Softly softly needed especially as there's lots of glass in the windows of the workshop, sports car with a soft top. Winter came, they got cold and stopped coming.

Just recently they came back (5 of them), same old, but this time with bikes etc and cycling down our track that has lots of blind bends and we don't expect to see anyone walking/cycling/running/coming the other way. 'Old' Roger would have charged down and given them a bollocking. 'New' Roger drove down and politely and pleasantly explained to them that it wasn't a footpath, they had no right of way but more importantly we didn't expect to see anyone on the blind bend and so didn't really want to run them over. No f'ing or blinding from them which have to confess came as a pleasant surprise.

So far, it's worked, touch wood. On Sunday, during conversation with another person from the village the subject of the little gang came up and it turns out that they all come from one family, the mother did a bunk a long time ago and their old man is a bit out of his depth. They bully younger kids, throw stones at them and seem fairly feral. The Community Support Officer is keeping an eye on them but if I had more time it would be good to try and find ways to channel their energy into more constructive ways.

 

[woodbloke]

RogS wrote:

I had more time it would be good to try and find ways to channel their energy into more constructive ways.

Rog - you could let them loose in the 'shop and they could build heirloom furniture... 8-[ :lol: - Rob

 

[RogerS]

RogS wrote:

I had more time it would be good to try and find ways to channel their energy into more constructive ways.

Rog - you could let them loose in the 'shop and they could build heirloom furniture... 8-[ :lol: - Rob

But then that would get me involved with the Stasi aka HSE and probably CRB check and insurance and ........

 

[13eightyfour]

Im all for incentives for getting kids into school, as long as those who dont truant and always work hard arent forgotten, you cant give a "good" kid a pat on the back and a "bad" kid a lappy.

hardly anybody skipped school when i was there, all the male "underachievers" had a motor vehicle studies class which for the last 2 years of school saw them design and fabricate go karts, I cant remember what option the girls got, but the point is that they werent given "bribes" to keep them in school they were given something to work towards and having seen a few of the lads since they actually left school in greater shape than i did, yes i got better grades than them but in real terms most of them left school went into engineering jobs, and have worked their way up the ladder to well payed jobs.

Id like to see more real world subjects available to students to set them up on a career path.

 

[Smudger]

So would us in the system. I've mentioned several times how much our Carpentry and Joinery courses meant to 'less academic' kids - we could have run them four times over. All the courses we used to run (motor mechanics, catering etc) have gone - it started with GNVQ and then the 'Gold Standard A Level' killed them off.