School absence pupils to be helped rather then punished

As reported by the BBC, children missing from school for long periods will be supported instead of being punished under a new pilot programme in Glasgow

Overall school attendance has dropped across Scotland since the disruption of the Covid pandemic.

Under the new scheme, psychologists and community workers will visit homes to help pupils overcome anxiety, stress and mental health issues.

The project is being launched across all of Glasgow’s schools next week.

The 12-month pilot will initially target children who attend school less than 60% of the time and is expected to work one-on-one with at least 250 pupils from secondary and primary schools.

The scheme, called REACH, is being run jointly by Glasgow City Council and the charity Quarriers.

The Scottish government said it was providing local authorities with funding to help with poor wellbeing and mental health.

Glasgow City Council’s principal educational psychologist, Barry Syme, said the aim was to intervene early to support young people and help divert them from the adult mental health system and much worse outcomes and more expensive interventions.

He said: “Instead of looking at it as a problem and punishing families for non-attendance, we looked at the underlying reasons for that.”

Mr Syme said the term “emotionally based school non-attendance” was used to describe when a child feels unable to attend school because of stress or other wellbeing barriers.

He added: “Covid prevented a lot of young people experiencing opportunities because they were at home and that is going to be a real challenge and we probably haven’t seen what the impact of that has been.”