School replaces fines with awareness courses

A north London school has swapped truancy fines for parents for education awareness courses.

The head teacher of Netley Primary School in Camden, Gareth Morris, decided to try a different method to tackle the number of children regularly missing lessons - and has been praised for the success of his approach.

Inspired by speed awareness courses offered to drivers as an educational alternative to speeding fines, the "empathetic" approach asks parents who are at risk of receiving a fixed penalty notice to attend four sessions which highlight the risks of persistent absence.

The courses have "dramatically" improved attendance for eight out of 10 families who have taken part so far, the school said.

"The feedback from parents has been incredibly positive, especially around highlighting the anxiety their children feel from missing school," Mr Morris said.

He added that if attendance remained low, parents would still receive a fixed penalty notice - but when the school did see improvements they "just continue to offer enhanced support and monitor".

He also praised the "essential" work of Netley Primary's full-time support worker, Simone Sarosh-Cambridge, whose job it is to monitor attendance and offer a support package to any child flagged on her list for repeated absence, but also to work directly with children to build their confidence.

Ms Sarosh-Cambridge's role is mostly funded by the Richard Reeves Foundation. According to Camden Council, a number of the borough's schools provide similar support roles through charitable means or existing budgets – but it's not an expense all can afford.

Camden Council highlighted Netley's leadership in a report published on 10 November that outlined the borough's vulnerability on school attendance.

Camden's rate of persistent absence is higher than both the inner London and national average, with more than one in five pupils missing more than one in 10 of their lessons.

In February, a council report ranked the borough 29th out of 32 for primary absences, and 30th for secondary schools.

Stephen Hall, CEO of the borough's education partnership Camden Learning, told the council's Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Committee on Monday that the borough was making progress and had narrowed the attendance gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils.

But there is still a "disproportionate" number of disadvantaged children, he said, particularly pupils with special educational needs and disabilities missing their lessons too often.

Turning to what was driving the problem, Mr Hall said Camden had the highest sickness absence rate of all inner London boroughs, but he also raised the issue of unauthorised holidays during term-time.

Mr Morris agreed that a "shift in culture" and the cost of airfares since the Covid pandemic had led to families repeatedly asking to take vacations during term time.

"If we take out holidays during term time, then our persistent absence has reduced significantly," he said. "However, a fixed penalty notice is not enough to deter these holidays as the fine of £120 is significantly cheaper than the thousands of pounds a family can save by going in term time.

"A wider discussion about radically changing the approach of how school terms work is needed."