Drop term-time holiday ban, urges petition

A petition demanding the government reverse a ban on schoolchildren in England taking holidays during term-time will be delivered later.

The 126,000-signature document will be given to the Department for Education.

Campaigners say many families cannot afford the higher cost of a break during the school holidays.

The DfE said it was giving schools more freedom to set term dates – potentially meaning parents could book cheaper holidays.

‘Educational’

Until last month, heads could grant up to 10 days’ leave a year for family holidays in “special circumstances”.

Since 1 September, head teachers have no longer been able to grant any absence outside school holidays except under “exceptional circumstances”.

The reference to the 10-day limit has been removed from the regulations.

A petition against the ban, started by a parent and hosted on the 38-Degrees Campaigns By You website, had attracted 126,275 signatures by Tuesday evening.

The petition says the ban will “adversely affect” families who cannot afford the higher prices charged to holidaymakers during the school holidays.

“Also not all businesses can allow their staff to be off all at the same time”, says the petition.

“All children who have a good attendance record should be allowed the opportunity to enjoy quality time with their parents on an annual holiday of up to 10 days once per year.”

Craig Langman, the parent who started the petition, told BBC News his six-year-old son still recalls a holiday the family took to Rome during term-time two years ago and has done school projects based on the trip.

“It was probably more educational than being in school to be honest.

‘Blanket ban’

“He still remembers the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum.”

Mr Langman says the cost of breaks during the school holidays can be three times as much as during term-time.

“I am not asking kids to have a guaranteed extra two weeks on top of their existing 10 weeks’ holiday each year – but this blanket ban on term-time holidays with the threat of a fine is almost killing families.”

He argues that the decision as to whether to grant a request for extra days off school should remain with head teachers.

“I feel that most MPs in the government had holidays with their parents when they were younger so why do they think they have the power to stop our children’s generation from enjoying the same lifestyle,” says Mr Langman.

“Soon only rich kids would be able to go on holiday and that’s unfair on everyone else.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “If children aren’t in school they lose out on valuable learning time and have to waste more time catching up. That’s why children shouldn’t be taken out of school during term time unless absolutely necessary.

“We are giving all schools the freedom to set their own term dates, for example David Young Community Academy in Leeds operates a seven-term year starting in June. This means that parents and teachers can benefit from cheaper holidays at the end of September.

“We want schools to consider changes to term dates that will work for their pupils and their families.”

Childline has launched a mobile phone application to help combat the issue of “sexting”. The Zipit application allows users to refuse requests for explicit images of themselves by instead choosing a response from a range of options.

The charity says that sexting among teenagers, in which sexual images or videos are sent via mobile phone or the internet, has become so common that “it is considered mundane”.

Young people in London are increasingly more likely to attend university than their peers in the rest of England, a study has found.

A report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England found that London had the highest levels of participation between 1998/99, with the proportion becoming greater still by 2011/12, rising from 35 per cent to 48 per cent.

Young people in London are now 43 per cent more likely to go to university than young people from the North East, the region where young people are least likely to go on to higher education.

Source: CYPNow

Child protection experts at the National Crime Agency (NCA) have warned that institutions such as schools, churches and care homes are still not safe from child sex abusers.

A report by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), which is now part of the agency, said that more needs to be done by the institutions as well as sports clubs, youth groups, charities and companies, to protect children.

Peter Davies, director of the NCA’s CEOP Command, said: “This work has to be done by the very institutions which are allowing this abuse to take place. Vigilance, strong leadership and management, and a safe environment to report are essential for institutions and form the foundations of safeguarding.”

Source: CYPNow

SEN pupils are six times more likely to be excluded from school

Children who have a statement of special educational needs are significantly more likely to be excluded from school than those without, latest government figures have revealed.

The statistics from the Department for Education show that 8.2 per cent of pupils in England with a SEN statement were excluded during the 2011/12 school year, compared with 1.4 per cent of their peers.

Exclusions were also much more common among children in receipt of lower-tier SEN support, with 9.5 per cent of those with School Action Plus status and 4.6 per cent of those with School Action status excluded over the course of the year.

The most common factors for excluding a pupil with SEN were physical assaults on adults and persistent disruptive behaviour.

However, SEN pupils were far less likely than their peers to be excluded for bullying, theft, drug and alcohol-related reasons, sexual misconduct or physical assaults on pupils.

The figures also reveal stark disparities across the country, with Wokingham and Telford & Wrekin councils having the worst records for excluding pupils with a statement of special educational needs.

Out of Wokingham’s 680 pupils with a SEN statement, 13.1 per cent had received at least one fixed-term exclusion in 2011/2012. In Telford & Wrekin, 13 per cent of its 960 pupils with a SEN statement were excluded.

Other council areas among the most likely to exclude pupils that have a SEN statement are Sandwell, where 12.8 per cent received an exclusion at least once, and Derbyshire, where 12.7 per cent were excluded.

At the other end of the scale was Havering, where just 3.3 per cent its 545 pupils with a SEN statement received a fixed-term exclusion.

These figures have been released as part of a wider DfE report, Children with Special Educational Needs: An Analysis 2013.

Among SEN pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, a quarter (24.6 per cent) were excluded at least once during the school year. Just 0.4 per cent of those with profound or multiple learning difficulties were dealt with in this way.

Kate Fallon, general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists, said: “These figures indicate that some teachers and staff are not used to dealing with pupils with behavioural or emotional difficulties. In that case, a whole-school approach to training may be needed.”

She pointed out that the figures also indicate schools are far more willing to exclude a pupil for assaulting an adult rather than another pupil.

“When a teacher is assaulted, it places a fear on them and an anxiety about their own skills. Exclusion is some schools’ way of managing that,” she says.

SEN pupils were also more likely to be excluded permanently than their peers, the figures show. While 0.5 per cent of pupils with School Action Plus status were permanently excluded, this happened to only 0.1 per cent of those with no special educational needs.

A Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman said: “We have recently carried out a comprehensive review of our Behaviour Strategy and we are confident that this will lead to fewer pupils from all categories being excluded from schools in the borough.”

Source: CYPNow

Primary school aged children are indulging in risky behaviour online, a survey has found. The BBC reports that a survey by the ISC2 IT security education group found that many nine- to 11-year-olds share personal information and play games  rated for much older children. Meanwhile, 18 per cent of the 1,162 children questioned said they had arranged offline meetings with friends made via the internet.

Source: CYPNow

Around 46 per cent of children aged between 10- and 14-years-old have seen their parents drunk, according to research published by Drinkaware today. The survey, carried out by ICM, also revealed that 29 per cent of children have seen their parents drunk on more than one occasion. Drinkaware is launching a campaign to raise awareness of potential issues around children and alcohol. The charity also wants parents to consider their role as positive role models to their children.

An amendment to the Children and Families Bill will see a requirement placed on schools to make arrangements to support children who have medical conditions. The aim of the amendment, proposed by Education Secretary Michael Gove, is to help improve educational outcomes for children with long-term health problems. The Department for Education will work with schools, health organisations and parents to draft statutory guidance, which will be subject to a consultation early next year.

Source: CYPnow

NCAS Conference: Timpson unveils children’s services innovation programme

The government has launched a sector-wide initiative to harvest and test “adventurous” ideas that professionals have to improve services for vulnerable children.

Launching the children’s services innovation programme at the National Children and Adults Services Conference in Harrogate, children’s minister Edward Timpson threw down the gauntlet to all sectors and organisations involved in providing children’s services to come up with ideas that have “limitless ambition”.

Timpson said innovative ideas and work were sometimes unable to flourish because of regulatory and organisational barriers.

“I need you to confront head-on the structures that are getting in the way of innovation and better outcomes,” he told children’s services leaders at the conference.

“It is a call to frontline staff and experts in the field to develop better ways of constructing and managing services.”

“I want to support and liberate you to improve faster, get better value for money, do the job you came into the profession to do,” he said. “But to do this, I need you to demonstrate to me what you have to offer.”

Timpson added that those ideas “with the most potential” will be tested next year.

“I want to know what helps and hinders enterprise. Ask yourself what is stopping me from innovating and doing things better?” he said.

“If you need help to get your idea off the ground and you’re facing regulatory or other barriers then I want to hear from you. Come forward with your most adventurous ideas.

“If there are barriers in the way then let me know about them and I will knock them down.”

The initiative will be led by Clive Cowdery, chairman and former chief executive of think-tank the Resolution Foundation.

Andrew Webb, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, welcomed Timpson’s announcement.

“There are many areas where we can see opportunities for innovation and we are keen to ensure appropriate evaluation is built in.”

Source: CYPNow

What is appropriate supervision?

Legislation which came into force during 2012 and 2013 brought a reduction in the numbers of people applying for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. There is no requirement for volunteers or governors to be subject to a DBS check as long as they are ‘appropriately supervised’.

In September 2012, the Department for Education (DfE) published statutory guidance on the supervision of volunteers, and other workers, who are working with children, where there is no requirement to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate for those people. This guidance covers ‘regulated activity’, which is essentially working involving instructing, or caring for children and young people.

The legal obligations for organisations are:

• there must be supervision by a person who is in regulated activity;
• the supervision must be regular and day to day; and
• the supervision must be ‘reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure the protection of children’.

The supervisor must therefore be someone who has been subject to a DBS check and oversees the work of the volunteer when they are in the school or organisation. This supervision must be at the same level each time the volunteer is in school and should not reduce in quantity or quality.

As ever, the use of the word ‘reasonable’ creates a level of variation in this protocol, which means schools should ensure they have a clear policy of how ‘appropriate supervision’ is implemented in the school. A paragraph to this effect should be included in the organisation’s Safeguarding Policy’.