19th April 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
400,000 pupils miss month of school
Figures just released show 400,000 children were persistently absent from England's schools in the past year and missed about one month of school each.
About 62,000 youngsters missed sessions without permission on a typical day last year.
These figures, published on Wednesday 28th March 2012, on the BBC news website is truly alarming. A whole month of school amounts to a huge amount of tuition time lost, some 120 hours of teaching time. What a difference that time could make! Imagine tutoring a child for 120 hours, you could turn that child’s grade around!
These students are probably not enjoying school, not enjoying the process of learning. It could be that they have fallen behind and just don’t understand what is going on in class anymore. I’m sure we could all sympathise with having to sit still and listen to something that means nothing to us for an hour at a time.
These children need catching before they fall. There are several voluntary agencies with whom we work, which offer tuition to children who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity. If you have the time, please consider volunteering for even just one hour a week. It could really make the difference to some kids.
However, not all the children who play truant, or even 1% of them (most likely), will be in touch with charities such as we support. If you hear parents complaining about their child, or you know some children who play truant, perhaps the offer of tuition might enable them to reconnect with the school teaching they are missing. Keep our children from failing themselves, open up the offer of reconnection. Get involved when and where you can, every hour counts.