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This short film "Unauthorized Absence" is released today on You Tube at 15:30 with the following blurb..
Anna, a single mother, fights to protect her nine-year-old daughter Thea, a bright child who experiences severe school-related distress and is trapped on a three-year waiting list for an autism assessment. As school scrutiny mounts, the authorities repeatedly misread Thea’s distress as defiance, subjecting both mother and daughter to escalating pressure. With fines and prosecution looming, the institutions Anna turns to for help respond not with support but with hostility and blame, reducing Thea to just another “unauthorised absence.”
Unauthorised Absence is an emotionally intimate drama about neurodivergence, school attendance fines and the human cost of an education system in crisis.
I have no connection with the film or film makers but as a parent with a SEN child I recognise the struggles and it's often reassuring its just just me that has these struggles with the education system.
I used to work with an organisation that supported children and families in this situation. One of the biggest issues is we try and shoehorn these kids into the same education model and schools as everyone else, making no exceptions. The parents fight tooth and nail for their kids to remain in that system, where the harsh reality is there need to be greater provision of specialist schools and units who are trained and understand children with a wide range of needs. Even "lesser" issues such as ADHD or high funtioning autistic children are thrown to the wolves in the mainstream education, they are bullied relentlessly and the teachers don't know how to educate them.
Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 14:33 - Nov 10 by ITFC_Essex
I used to work with an organisation that supported children and families in this situation. One of the biggest issues is we try and shoehorn these kids into the same education model and schools as everyone else, making no exceptions. The parents fight tooth and nail for their kids to remain in that system, where the harsh reality is there need to be greater provision of specialist schools and units who are trained and understand children with a wide range of needs. Even "lesser" issues such as ADHD or high funtioning autistic children are thrown to the wolves in the mainstream education, they are bullied relentlessly and the teachers don't know how to educate them.
Really tough. Parents want their kids to go to a mainstream school - as is their right and choice.
Reality is the current schooling funding and provision is barely enough to delivery education to children without additional needs and requirements. To deliver the right support and education to those that need more assistance isn't just a case of 'more' teachers or LSAs.
It's about providing an environment where they can excel and get the best out of themselves and whilst I know that some schools have fabulous SEND provisions, the vast majority don't have the space, setup, funding, resources etc to deliver for the numbers needed.
Ade Akinbiyi couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo...
I haven't watched the film yet obviously, but will. However I am here to say that based on my experience of being a school governor and married to someone who works in a school the pressure on schools from the DfE and Ofsted to improve attendance figures is intense. It's not necessarily backed up by the kind of financial and other support that make it achieving those improvements easy.
Without watching the film it's hard to comment specifically but I'd like to know more about the tagline - "She Asked the School for Help. They Fined Her Instead". A fine would normally not be a school's first port of call and pretty much every school would much rather have more sophisticated and sympathetic tools at their disposal than the blunt instrument of a fine.
I see that the film has got Cathy Tyson in. A deliberate casting choice perhaps, based on a level of physical resemblance to a certain high profile head teacher?
Those schools that work hard to be as inclusive as they can become in some senses victims of their own values in that they end up attracting more intake from children and families who for various reasons find attendance difficult. And are Ofsted interested in that? No, they're not. And it can have a devastating impact on a head teacher's career and health.
[Post edited 10 Nov 14:52]
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Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 15:05 - Nov 10
Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 14:51 - Nov 10 by soupytwist
I haven't watched the film yet obviously, but will. However I am here to say that based on my experience of being a school governor and married to someone who works in a school the pressure on schools from the DfE and Ofsted to improve attendance figures is intense. It's not necessarily backed up by the kind of financial and other support that make it achieving those improvements easy.
Without watching the film it's hard to comment specifically but I'd like to know more about the tagline - "She Asked the School for Help. They Fined Her Instead". A fine would normally not be a school's first port of call and pretty much every school would much rather have more sophisticated and sympathetic tools at their disposal than the blunt instrument of a fine.
I see that the film has got Cathy Tyson in. A deliberate casting choice perhaps, based on a level of physical resemblance to a certain high profile head teacher?
Those schools that work hard to be as inclusive as they can become in some senses victims of their own values in that they end up attracting more intake from children and families who for various reasons find attendance difficult. And are Ofsted interested in that? No, they're not. And it can have a devastating impact on a head teacher's career and health.
[Post edited 10 Nov 14:52]
Obviously we haven't seen the film yet.
I know from experience the pressure we were put under to get my son to attend. The SEN teacher at his school and a SEN teacher at another local school both stated that following an educational psychologist report that he shouldn't be in a main stream school and that they couldn't guarantee his and others safety if he was. However, the assistant principal who was also responsible for attendance tried to put immense pressure on us a family to get him to attend. Every time we managed to get him yo attend we'd end up collecting early due to incidents!!
If a child refuses or doesn't want to go home then questions are asked about the home life and parents, however when a child refuses to go to school its the child or parents fault. Schools should be a safe inclusive place teaching the next generation to be independent free thinkers, instead the concentrate on attendance and teaching children to regurgitate facts and figures.
In my opinion the education system in the UK is not fit for purpose.
"If a child refuses or doesn't want to go home then questions are asked about the home life and parents, however when a child refuses to go to school its the child or parents fault. Schools should be a safe inclusive place teaching the next generation to be independent free thinkers, instead the concentrate on attendance and teaching children to regurgitate facts and figures."
I doubt that there are too many teachers or other people working in schools who would say everything's rosy in education, especially when it comes to SEND. However you're being quite reductive in your description of what schools do. At least most of them.
The pressures and the incentives acting on schools to have attendance at a certain level are intense as mentioned previously. Taking a principled stand against the diktats as an individual in that system is a challenge at best, more likely foolhardy.
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Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 15:32 - Nov 10
Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 15:23 - Nov 10 by soupytwist
"If a child refuses or doesn't want to go home then questions are asked about the home life and parents, however when a child refuses to go to school its the child or parents fault. Schools should be a safe inclusive place teaching the next generation to be independent free thinkers, instead the concentrate on attendance and teaching children to regurgitate facts and figures."
I doubt that there are too many teachers or other people working in schools who would say everything's rosy in education, especially when it comes to SEND. However you're being quite reductive in your description of what schools do. At least most of them.
The pressures and the incentives acting on schools to have attendance at a certain level are intense as mentioned previously. Taking a principled stand against the diktats as an individual in that system is a challenge at best, more likely foolhardy.
And this is the issue in so many aspects of life. I'm sure there are plenty of teachers that realise that certain children shouldn't be in mainstream education but, because of pressure from the DofE, pressure the families to do so!
It's incredibly hard for people at the sharp end of any institution to push back even when they know they should.
Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 15:32 - Nov 10 by TwoKnightsInIpswich
And this is the issue in so many aspects of life. I'm sure there are plenty of teachers that realise that certain children shouldn't be in mainstream education but, because of pressure from the DofE, pressure the families to do so!
It's incredibly hard for people at the sharp end of any institution to push back even when they know they should.
I am also aware of instances where parents know their child shouldn't be in mainstream education, have a place at a specialist school available to them but opt not to take it up and place their child in a mainstream school they like the look of.
And then complain a few months into the school year that the school isn't meeting their child's needs.
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Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 16:08 - Nov 10
Parent's with SEN children who have difficulty with mainstream education on 15:32 - Nov 10 by TwoKnightsInIpswich
And this is the issue in so many aspects of life. I'm sure there are plenty of teachers that realise that certain children shouldn't be in mainstream education but, because of pressure from the DofE, pressure the families to do so!
It's incredibly hard for people at the sharp end of any institution to push back even when they know they should.
From my aspect as a former school governor for nearly 20 years, in general there is a lot of great work between the school, parents and L.A to find the best solution for the child. It is dealt with great sensitivity and certainly do the best they can. The system has come under great pressure over the years due to lack of external provision, increasing numbers of children receiving SEN plans and insuffficient financial provision for schools to be able to provide 1 on 1 teaching if required etc. Schools have always been a bit of a one size fits all and it is easy for some to be marginalized at both ends of the spectrum if the proper support can not be put in place, it is a recognizable frustration for the school, the child and the parents. From my experience at my school pressure on attendance on SEN children was not really a factor due to a high attendance figure anyway, there was a little bit of margin therefore, but even so I don't think pressurizing parents of SEN children would have been likely or appropriate. I understand that it could be a concern for schools on the fringes of 95% attendance due to the OFSTED requirements. I have not seen the film but just hope the school is not portrayed as the bad guy, it is obviously more nuanced than that.
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