Children missing education can cause a mass of problems for schools. Schools must do their best to ensure their students’ safety and increase their chances of reintegrating.
Some children may find mainstream school too difficult or unnerving so do not attend. There are multiple reasons as to why children avoid school including bullying, mental health or being involved in organised crime. According to a report:
“When summed together, we therefore estimate there to be around 282,000 children and young people in destinations that constitute missing out on formal, mainstream education. That is around 2% of England’s pupil population.”
Despite this significant statistic, there could be more children missing education that are not recorded. When children are not reported missing, it can escalate their situation into a serious issue.
Various dangers can put children at risk. When they are not being monitored, it could lead to devastating consequences on the school and the child itself. This demonstrates the importance of trying to ensure the safety of children when they are being educated. In addition to this, if schools can raise their cohorts attendance then it can lead to increased attainment scores.
The Department for Education published a report regarding the impact on attainment and missing education:
“Pupils with no absence are 2.2 times more likely to achieve 5+ GCSEs A*- C or equivalent including English and mathematics than pupils that missed 15-20% of KS4 lessons.”
Children missing education not only raises several safeguarding concerns but future employment prospects can also be affected. This highlights how attendance and attainment scores complement each other, ultimately, benefitting the student and the school as a whole.
“Attainment 8 (A8) scores were most strongly associated with a pupil’s KS4 absence rate, KS2 attainment and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) status. Fixed-term exclusion rates and moving schools were also associated with Att8 scores for disadvantaged pupils.”
Many dangers can arise for children missing education
When children miss education, they are not being constantly monitored so it can put them in serious trouble. Safeguarding within education should be paramount, unfortunately, children go missing daily.
“Last year, 68,944 missing children reports were made to the police in England and Wales. Also, twice as many reports of transgender individuals going missing were made than the previous year.”
The impact on children when they go missing can be massive. Lives can be lost due to abuse or because children become exploited by gangs and county lines. According to Children Society:
“46,000 children in England are thought to be involved in gangs. There is likely many more.”
Gangs take massive advantage of young people as they can be easily manipulated. All of this further proves why safeguarding children should be treated with the utmost diligence and a clear focus on children missing education needs to be addressed.
Alternative provision sites like EDClass can help monitor attendance and keep children safe when implemented in schools.
EDClass can help with attendance & attainment
EDClass provides one-to-one support for students and in-depth safeguarding procedures that can keep students safe.
Engaging content can keep children informed and also the gap analysis method can assess students’ performance so they can reach their educational potential.
Our established team will endeavour to keep children safe and within education and on to a better life.
If you would like some more information then please call 01909 568 338, send an email to mail@edclass.com or book a free trial of our platform here.
