Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 8 February 2017.
I know, Cabinet Secretary, that you and I both share the same view and priority to get as many children into school, as often as possible. But there is one small area that does concern me, and that’s the area of children who are persistently sick. I have had a number of constituents come to me, where their children have either had the bad luck to have a series of tonsillitis bouts, where they’ve been off for one or two weeks at a time, or have some kind of condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome. And, because those children’s attendance records are therefore plummeting—these are parents who are involved in their children’s care, involved in their education—they’ve been receiving letters threatening them, telling them that they will need to have strong words with their children and, basically, implying that they are bad parents, and their children are not pulling their weight. Could you please just clarify the guidance that goes out to schools, so that we target those who don’t go to school because they don’t want to go to school, as opposed to those who would like to go to school but can’t go to school, so that these children do not feel under even more pressure? The attendance book has a smiley face on it, and when that smiley face no longer smiles, those children do feel very, very hard pressed.