Reigate Psychology Service

This is a banner which has been hung in at least three schools in York by the South Bank Trust, a MAT.

It is harmful to young people and their families, and it is dishonest.

1. This is not how learning works. Learning cannot be equated to minutes at school. Young people are not ‘learning’ every minute they spend at school, and ‘not learning’ every minute that they are at home. This under-values everything that young people do at home.
2. This is not how time works. You can’t add up lots of random five minutes and say that this is the equivalent of a day. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s a rhetorical trick, a sleight of hand.
3. This is not how statistics work. Yes, we know that those who struggle to attend school also do less well in exams – but we don’t actually know that this is causal rather than correlational. Those who find school easier will also be those who find exams easier. Pressuring those who find school hard to get there five minutes earlier every day won’t magically turn them into people who find exams easier.
4. This is not how mental health works. Telling young people who are already struggling that the only way to get a ‘best start’ is attendance and punctuality at school is going to have a negative effect on those who can’t achieve this. Those who have chronic medical problems, or mental health problems. Extra pressure will make their problems worse, not better.
5. This is not how motivation works. They are trying to use fear to get children into school, but if a young person is anxious about school, using fear to motivate will make them more anxious. When a young person is struggling with their mental health and they come to see me, a psychologist, they will often say things like ‘I’m never going to amount to anything, because I can’t make it to school every day’. Or ‘I’m going to fail my GCSEs and then I’ll never get an interesting job’. They’ve been told this at school. They feel defeated by life before it has even begun.

I’d like to see the risk assessment which is done before putting a banner like this up. I can see that the MAT want to promote attendance, but any policy should be assessed for potential unwanted effects. We can’t assume that any intervention - even an apparently 'motivational banner' won’t have a downside.

The messages that we give our young people matter, and if we tell them that their chances of success are being damaged for life, they may just believe us. At a time in their life when they really need hope, we’re giving them the opposite.

It’s just not true. School isn’t the only place to learn, and young people can succeed in many different ways. We need to help our young people see a future for themselves, no matter whether they can attend school or not.

To book one of our last few sessions of online support, available in the Bath and Bristol area, contact us via our website today;
www.reigatepsychologyservice.co.uk