Post-Covid school absence effect needs 'reversing'
GettyA "post-Covid" effect needs to be reversed to improve attendance in a town's schools, councillors have heard.
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council official Mandie Rowlands said there was a generation of children who felt like they did not need to go to school and instead had a "choice".
She said the issue needed "reversing" but it was not going be solved overnight.
"It's probably a five to 10-year plan," she said.
According to latest statistics, secondary state schools in Stockton had a 9.6% absence rate in the week starting 9 June.
This was compared to a 8.4% rate across secondary schools in England.
Ms Rowlands said: "We want to improve our attendance figures, reduce suspensions and permanent exclusions."
She said there needed to be better communication between schools and parent carers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
"[We also need to] raise the aspiration of children that they actually want to come to our Stockton schools as well," she said.
'Upskill school staff'
She said her team, which go into schools to support families, was not a "blue light service".
"We've got 73 schools in Stockton, five advisors - it's quite a stretch," she said. "That's why we need to target those ones with the highest level of need now."
She said the team was looking to work better with schools to prevent the issues that families face escalating "too quickly".
She said it was trying to upskill school staff to recognise signs of issues at home earlier, such as children arriving late, to enable faster interventions.
"That does mean a change within schools as well, because not all school staff feel confident in having conversations with parents about those changes," she said.