Heartwarming reason boy who was always late for school suddenly started turning up

The heartwarming story of a young school pupil who started turning up on time after being repeatedly registered late has been used as an example of attendance issues in the UK education system.

Former Cardiff teacher Cllr Rhiannon Birch, who is also a cabinet member for education at the Vale of Glamorgan Council, used the anecdote to highlight the need for a deeper understanding of children's lives to address attendance challenges. She also emphasised the necessity for school governors to be more informed about such issues.

Cllr Birch said: "I had a boy who came into my year 7 form and he was late consistently, so he was always in trouble and after a couple of weeks I took him to one side and he came out with he had been washing and dressing his three small sisters and taking them to school every day because his mother was a long term patient in a mental hospital and his father was a taxi driver who worked overnight."

She continued, revealing the reason behind the boy's punctuality problem: "This only came to light because high school started at 8:40am and primary school started at 9am, so he had never been late before, but if we hadn't done some digging we wouldn't have known and that was a complete barrier. We were able to put things in place in order to make sure he could be that attender."

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Birch added: "I think it is very important that governors, who come into this with the best will in the to help children, perhaps don't have experience of those kinds of difficulties that children perhaps face.", reports .

Council data reveals that Vale of Glamorgan schools saw an increase in days lost due to exclusions, with 1,000 more than the previous year. During a meeting of the Vale of Glamorgan Council's learning and culture scrutiny committee on Monday, October 7, it was reported that attendance at both secondary and primary schools across the county had seen improvement over the past two years.

However, an education official from the local authority also informed the committee that attendance levels had yet to return to pre-pandemic figures. Amanda Geddes, acting lead inclusion manager for Vale of Glamorgan Council, shared that the council was offering advice and guidance to teachers, and a campaign launched in May 2023 to boost attendance was being updated for the current academic year.

Cllr William Hennessy, a member of the scrutiny committee, queried the number of fixed penalty notices issued by the council for non-attendance.

The committee was informed about a pilot project at two secondary schools where enforcement officers conducted home visits to caution families about penalties for continued non-attendance. Ms Geddes explained this action was taken when all other options had been exhausted by the school and parents were not engaging.

A council officer has revealed that roughly 60 fixed penalty notices for truancy were dished out last year, but this figure pales in comparison to other local authorities in Wales, with some handing out up to a staggering 500. Moreover, the council's latest report on school attendance for the academic year 2023/24 exposed an alarming rise of 1,003.5 days in lost classroom time due to exclusions, a significant jump from the previous year.

The report also highlighted a troubling uptick in permanent exclusions, totalling 12 for the current year. Falling attendance figures are worrying educators too, as Llantwit Major School was called out for a 6.8% fall in attendance since pre-pandemic levels.

Pencoedtre High School, located in Barry and currently under special measures, was specifically cited by council officer Ms Geddes for its troubling attendance record since September. Shedding light on the situation, Ms Geddes remarked: "[The school] started off really well and then there was a dip."

She further noted a concerning fact that over half the student body at Pencoedtre High boasted an attendance rate below 90% in September.