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Absentee figures 'do not reflect improved school'
A LEAGUE table of absenteeism among East Riding schools does not reflect the improving picture at Goole's secondary school, states its headteacher. A LEAGUE table of absenteeism among East Riding schools does not reflect the improving picture at Goole's secondary school, states its headteacher.
Although the figures, published by the Department for Education and Skills (DES), show Goole High School as having the second highest percentage of unauthorised absences, at 2.3 per cent, they cover the autumn term of 2008 and spring term of 2009.
Since then, headteacher Danuta Tomasz says, a huge amount of work has gone into combatting the issue of pupils taking time out from school without permission.
In addition, she says the figures can be misleading as they could simply be showing that some schools are better than others at getting absences authorised.
"First of all, these figures are way out of date and reflect more what we were like a year ago than where we are now," said Ms Tomasz.
"We were visited by Ofsted at about the same time as these statistics would have been real and the comment in their report recognised all the school was doing to improve attendance.
"Sometimes it takes time for progress to be made especially when you are changing cultures.
"However, we recognise that absence of any sort is unacceptable.
"We now have a team of dedicated support staff who work closely with our year managers and teachers on tracking and following up every single absence - be it a day or a lesson.
"We have made such improvements overall that we have been asked to share what we do with other schools."
Ms Tomasz said getting absences authorised relied on a parent or carer contacting the school to explain why a child was away.
An unauthorised absence was also one that the school had not accepted as being a genuine reason for being away.
"So, it could mean that a school with a high figure of unauthorised absences is stricter on how it will define what can or can't be authorised," she said.
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Weather for Goole
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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