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Parental involvement
in multi-ethnic schools
Extended absences
Being
seen to be fair
Fairness seems also to be an issue in the handling of what was found to
be a point of real concern for many minority ethnic group parents, and that
was the question of extended absences overseas to visit relatives.
There is increasing anxiety about levels of extended absences from schools.
A similar and related concern is that of 'unauthorised absences' by gypsy
traveller students. However, travelling families have a special position
in law recognised by Section 199(6) of the 1993 Education Act, which "protects
parents from prosecution if it can be demonstrated that they are engaged
in a trade or business of such nature as requires them to travel from place
to place" (OFSTED,The education of travelling children, 1996).
This is very different from the position of minority ethnic group parents
who nevertheless have a very natural desire for their children to meet and
keep in touch with relatives whose distance makes visits expensive and to
whom longer visits seem to make more sense. A common feature, however, is
the threat of exclusions from school which gypsy traveller parents previously
faced and which these other minority groups now seem to face if schools
do not recognise and work sensitively with parents.
In the year 1996/97, 6% of Tower Hamlets' students were away at any one
time. Tower Hamlets has conducted research which suggests that students
taking extended leave were twice as likely to leave school without any GCSEs
as regular attenders (TES, 16 January 1998). Communicating such facts
to parents is important in helping them to understand the seriousness of
the issue.
Overall, parents of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin who took part in the
focus group acknowledged the contentious nature of this subject and the
possible misunderstandings that could arise between parents and schools.
For families, the issue was the length of time they would be allowed to
take away, without losing their children's place in the school. They also
wanted to discuss the willingness of teachers to provide work for children
to do whilst they were away.
There was a view that many parents did not understand the disruptive effect
of an extended absence on their children, especially secondary school children,
and that these parents needed to have this properly explained. On the other
hand, parents thought that there was not enough understanding in schools
of the importance of the visit to the traditional homeland nor of the practical
difficulties entailed in arranging this kind of holiday to fit in with the
British school year.
The parents interviewed had experienced a range of responses from schools,
from "If you leave before the school officially closes your child will lose
his/her place" to "I went to the school and told them and I am going for
such and such a time and could they give [my daughter] some work, and they
did. They gave her a whole set folder with a lot of paper work in there
with reading books and everything and she did all that while she was abroad."
It was acknowledged that some families did not inform schools of their plans
to go and also that a child's place could not be held indefinitely by a
school. The main problem lay in the secondary school as the disruption to
the child's education could have longer-term effects on examination
results. Students themselves admitted to the disruptive effect of a long
absence from school.
Fifteen-year-old girl: "It took me such a long time to get back into the
swing of things. I had lost so much time in school and my mind was just
like, on my holiday and my family in Pakistan and that."
On the whole, parents felt that a mutual arrangement could be arrived at
between a family and the school, and that reason and common sense should
be the prevailing factors as illustrated by this discussion in a focus group
meeting of Pakistani parents:
"But the teacher told me that there is a waiting list. If
school is being started 3 September, and if you come on the 8th or 9th,
the other children who are on the waiting list, they'll come and you've
lost your children's place ...."
"September is a very important time because of moving classes, it's a
change to a different teacher, different year and all that. I suppose
Christmas is the best time to go because everybody is unwinding and it's
a holiday period ...."
"Well, the best way to do it is to sit down and have a word with the Headmaster
and see what he can do. And if they say 'No', then I mean, why not come
back two weeks before, what's two weeks? It's only a holiday at the end
of the day and you have to come back."
"It all depends on the school teachers, you know, if they are helpful.
If you go and ask them nicely I am sure they will help you out."
In the year in which our study took place, 38 children went away on extended
absences at Alton Primary School. New LEA rules had been introduced to attempt
to cut down on these extended periods of leave. The new school rules as
Alton implemented them permitted a maximum of four extended weeks' absence
in a year, with two optional extra weeks allowed only for emergencies. In
addition, Alton had recently sent out a letter to parents saying that they
did not expect to have any extended absences in the National Curriculum
Assessment years (Years 2 and 6). If parents did take children out during
the National Curriculum Assessment year, the children's names would be taken
off the school roll, and they would not be given a place on their return.
The parents we interviewed in the school understood the reasons for such
a rule, and seemed willing to comply. Like Brook Primary School, some of
the parents were paying for private tuition for their children to support
their transition to secondary school, in addition to paying for Bengali
classes. There was real concern that their children should do well in school.
It seems, from our discussions, that what is needed is a consistent approach
across all schools, and one which aims to balance the needs of the family
with the effects of an extended absence on the children's education.
In some LEAs, it might be that fixed holiday dates might be reconsidered
for the whole borough, to give parents more flexibility to arrange leave
in the more appropriate seasons. Some account might be taken through 'value
added' calculations to lessen schools' particular anxieties about absences
in years where National Curriculum Assessment results were crucial for the
school's position in the league tables, giving recognition to minority group
families' pattern of life. Given firm and clear national parameters developed
in full consultation with the relevant minority groups, equity of treatment
would be transparent, and exclusions avoided.
*NB: the names of schools have been changed.
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