Pizzas, iPads and praise: pupils collect prizes for school | Instruction

Pizza and iPad parts are offered to pupils as incentives to improve school attendance, according to a new report that says that sunglasses are less likely to work.

While some schools in England are using fines, detention and letters that are in the absence, others prefer an approach based on prizes, with bicycle and iPad prizes, travel and “praise” bicycles that pupils collect and then exchange chocolates or postcard items.

Another incentive used is a ticket for the school dance for pupils in the 11th year, with the attendance a key criterion to be authorized to participate.

The study of the National Foundation for Educational Research (Nfer) has found schools that have combined prizes with sanctions have reported that they had seen a greater commitment of pupils with frequency policies.

“The pupils of these schools seemed to be motivated to participate, since they saw a tangible benefit to do it,” says the report.

“On the contrary, those in schools led by penalties were more likely to perceive frequency policies as punitive and unjust, in particular if they felt that their absences were due to circumstances outside their control”.

The absence of the school has been a key concern for the government since the frequencies collapsed after the interruption caused by the pandemic. According to the Nfer study, the disease, the challenges for mental health and the term holidays were common causes of absence.

Latest figures published by Department for Education He revealed that the number of pupils who were “seriously absent” in England reached a maximum record last year and even unauthorized absences also increased in total.

The secretary of education, Bridget Phillipson, supported the use of parents’ fines for not participating Anna Maxwell Martin described them as “cruel and idiots”.

Matt Walker, head of the senior research of the Nfer and co-author of the relationship, said: “Participation is strongly linked to the educational results, so they are absence rates.

“The responses to the study suggest that schools should consider priority to encouraging and individualized approaches in addition to punitive sanctions”.

The study, voices of the classroom-comprehension of how secondary schools support pupils who return from the absence, is based on a survey on 600 teachers and leaders of secondary schools in England, as well as face-to-face interviews with staff and pupils in nine secondary schools financed by the state.

Daniel Kebede, the secretary general of the National Education Union, said: “The message is clear: fines, punitive actions and corruption do not work.

“More students are fighting with anxiety and unwanted sending (educational needs and special disabilities) that lead to greater absence and less are obtaining individual support, specialist contribution and pastoral backup they need to return and stay at school.”

Pepe di’Isio, secretary general of the association of school and college leaders, said: “The appropriate prizes and sanctions have their part to be carried out, but an individualized support that quickly identifies because a pupil is absent from school and helps them return to the classroom as soon as possible, it can be extremely effective.”

Paul Whiteman, the secretary general of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “These results echo to what the school managers tell us about the serious limits of the fines of parents in improving the frequency of pupils”.