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Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

Truancy: why it’s risky for parents and children

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Although you may not realise it, truancy can not only affect your child's attitude towards school and their ability to learn, it can also affect you as a parent. Read on to find out why.

If you go out shopping during school hours between November and December with your school-aged child, don’t be surprised if you’re stopped by someone demanding to know why your child is off school.

This is called a ‘truancy sweep' and is conducted nationally twice a year by multi-disciplinary teams made up from the police, welfare and social services. The teams trawl supermarkets, shopping malls and high streets in search of children absent from school without permission, and with 85 per cent of local authorities taking part, there’s bound to be a sweep near you.

Truancy – a growing problem

Figures released at the beginning of autumn 2007 showed that the overall rate of unauthorised absences stood at record level. Notably, education authorities say that parentally condoned absence is a bigger problem than ‘regular truancy’.

During the truancy sweep in March 2007, more than 10,000 children were stopped over a three-week period. Of those, 5,000 did not have a valid reason for not being in school - 20 percent of these were from primary school, and 35 percent of these truants were with an adult.

Stopping truancy

Generally, the sweeps act as a deterrent and schools see improvements in attendance during and immediately after. They also help highlight other problems pupils may be experiencing, such as bullying, being a young carer, and examples of pupils who have been excluded or moved from another area but are not registered with any authority.

For some parents, truancy sweeps highlight the seriousness of non-attendance and parental responsibility, and schools see a rise in absent notes and the number of ‘first day' contact by parents.

However, other parents feel humiliated and mistrustful at being stopped in the street. Sweeps have had little effect on those who fall into this category and who do not see unauthorised absences as a problem. The same is true for parents who are unable to influence their child's behaviour.

How poor attendance can affect your child

  • Children who fail to attend school regularly will find it difficult to keep up with school work and so may fall behind, leading to feelings of failure
  • Children - especially primary-aged children - miss out on the social side of school life, which can affect their ability to make and keep friends
  • Children who are not in school are most vulnerable and are easily drawn into crime. Research shows that children who play truant are more likely to offend than those that do not
  • Research also shows that less than 40 percent of pupils in secondary schools with an average of 15 days or more absence get five good GCSEs
  • Poor attendance patterns can also make life difficult later when a child is ready to look for a job.

How poor attendance can affect you

Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their children are properly educated, so if your child misses school regularly - even if they miss school without you knowing - the Local Authority could take legal action against you.

At best, this may result in a visit or letter from an education welfare officer. At worse, if attendance does not improve, it could lead to parents being fined up to £2,500 or even imprisoned.