The single biggest problem in education today: children aren’t at school. Labour has a plan to get our children into school and learning again. Excellence must be for everyone.

You’re tone deaf. Children are absent primarily because of illness. We’re in a raging pandemic. If you want to get more children into school, stop ignoring covid and advocate for clean air.

No clean air policy to protect kids from covid?

I’m just wondering if you’ve given any consideration to the fact that schools are a large vector for disease transmission and we’ve done nothing to address this *even during a pandemic*?

Of course pupil absences are high! We’re still in the middle of a raging pandemic, with Covid cases potentially about to hit record levels and no one is doing ANYTHING to reduce the spread in classrooms. If you want to improve attendance rates, you need to prioritise THIS 👇🏻

Please can you explain why your plans to tackle the causes of school absence fail to even mention the rampant spread of illness in schools? ILLNESS is overwhelmingly the main driver of pupil absences. We have the tools to fix this but first you need to acknowledge it. 🧵👇🏻

@bphillipsonMP some SEN parents would disagree with you. @martinimarie, @Beth_Tastic, @paulridley6 or I will willingly talk to you. At your convenience

You know that Long Covid can affect speech and language, right? You know this stuff, don't you? 🤬 The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists have an excellent set of resources on this if you don't. ♥️👇

You might want to look at their current experience of a school day. An over emphasis on academic subjects, a culture of perpetual test preparation, condensed days and chronic underfunding. Bring back the lunch hour would be a start. Make the day something to enjoy not endure.

Er, read the room. The #SEND room. The #Autism Room. The #MH room. Please. Of those who struggle with school attendance 92.1% are neurodivergent, 83.4% are autistic (Connolly et al 2033). What does Labour propose for these children?

No, the single biggest problem in education is the recruitment and retention of staff. Solve that and this is what will help give staff the time to deal with attendance.