Journalist/culture & social affairs (Sunday Times/BBC/Guardian). Writer/Coming Undone, Body Count (book/screen/stage). Chair/Gordon Burn Prize. Campaigner/NSPCC
Sep 1, 2024 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
🚨🧵School & Absence//
When I began making ‘Terri White: Finding Britain’s Ghost Children’ with the BBC in 2021, I shared the education secretary’s absolutism, driven by the poverty of my early life (I needed education) and the severe abuse at home (I needed school). I was wrong
School is the best place for many, not all. And kids with SEN, illness, in poverty, are being failed, losing education through NO fault of their own. BP’s Sun Times column touches on some of these (though NOT poverty 👀) but leans heavily on ‘runny noses’, kids & parents who DGAF
Jul 17, 2024 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Quick (LIKELY UNPOPULAR) 🧵on school absence/register announced today. I started out on BBC doc (Terri White: Finding Britain's 'Ghost Children') convinced register must be part of solution. But now am not convinced at all. In my opinion it won't tackle absence/safeguarding probs
Kids in elective home ed are NOT absent and not counted in absence figs (which are kids registered in school & not attending, not kids deregistered & educated at home). Q is: why are those kids absent? Statistically kids w/SEND, in poverty, care experienced, w/mental health probs
