How To Stop Your Child Truanting

Truancy is when a child doesn't attend school, and there could be a whole range of reasons for this. It's important that children go to school, not only for their formal education, but because it also teaches them about social interaction, discipline and prepares them for adult life. VideoJug advises parents on how to make sure their child attends school.

Step 1: Communication

It's important that you have open communication with your child, so they feel like they can talk to you if they have a problem at school. If your child is truanting, you need to find out why. There are quite a few reason for why a child could choose to truant. It could be because they are finding school difficult and that could be many different reasons. It could be socially. It could be in terms of learning, it could be in terms of particular classes and teachers. It could be because they don't feel properly equipped for school.

Step 2: Encouragement

When talking to your child, be positive about school and make sure they know that you consider school extremely important. Encourage your child to get into a routine so that they attend school punctually every day. There's a lot you can do to make sure your child attends school. Firstly by equipping and preparing your child adequately, by making sure they get enough sleep, that they manage their time, that they organise themselves with the equipment and uniform that they need and that they go off to school well fed and well prepared in general.

Step 3: Your responsibilies

In the UK it is a parent's legal obligation to make sure their child attends school between the statutory school ages of 5 to 16, and failure to do so can result in fines or even a prison sentence. Don't organise any activities such as holidays, shopping trips or doctor's appointments for your child during the times that they should be at school. If your child does have to miss school for any reason, make sure you ask permission from the school.
If your child truants without your or the school's permission, you need to make it clear to your child that you strongly disapprove. If your child has been caught truanting, don't just shrug it off or make excuses for them.
This a very serious issue and you do have to do something. First of all get as much information as possible. You may well need to involve people outside of the school if they're not already involved, such as the Education Welfare Officer, but what you've got to do is research the reason why your child is not attending school, and those could be many and varied. And you need to understand what's going on so that you can correct whatever is not right for your child, so that they are able to attend school because, apart from missing their education, they are then vulnerable to other dangers by not being in school.