Attendance and holidays
Recent guidance and advice from the IBSA and DFE has been issued this month in regard to Granting Leave of Absence in Independent Schools and the DFE statutory guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance, and the legal consideration I must give as headteacher when granting leave for family holidays. To quote Section 37 and 38 of the latter document:
“All schools have the power to grant leave of absence at their own discretion where a parent who the pupil normally lives with… has asked in advance and they deem there to be exceptional circumstances. In deciding whether a leave of absence should be granted schools are expected to consider each application individually taking into account the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind the request. If a leave of absence is granted, it is for the school to determine the length of time the pupil can be away from school.
Generally, the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.”
A family holiday. Out of term time.
We therefore will be updating the Attendance Policy, for the Governing Board to agree and ratify, and in doing so, strengthen the School’s current position, support my legal duty and achieve legal and regulatory compliance.
This will come into effect in September 2025. Please be aware of this as you arrange your holidays for the coming academic year, and forgive me when I am resolute in my refusal to authorise any term-time holidays or leisure activities in the future.
Social Media, Deepfake imagery and Child Protection
You may have noticed a pause in our social media activity.
In its recent announcement, the Home Office has acknowledged that, since the start of 2023, there has been a worrying rising trend of AI-assisted ‘deepfake’ images of children in particular. The HM Government proposal announced last week to create new offences is targeting the equipment and technology, and supply chain of AI-generated or manipulated child sexual abuse material. However, the creation and sharing of these images already constituted a crime, and this has not deterred criminal gangs online who in some cases have sought to target schools’ digital media (websites, SM etc) and individuals.
This is not meant to alarm pupils, parents and staff, but heighten your awareness. We, ourselves, have experienced the harm caused when staff images - myself included - have been used in most unsuitable ways, we suspect by ex-pupils shortly after I have requested to be removed from the school. It is deeply upsetting and never fails to hurt, no matter how thick the skin.
Our advisors, the ISBA and its legal team, have been giving careful consideration to how to address the growing safeguarding threat posed by this technology, and the changing expectations of parents, while balancing the longstanding expectations of many schools that they can make lawful use of images of pupils (including online) to help promote their activities.
Stock image - not one of our pupils!
To fully - but maybe excessively - protect our pupils, we may consider removing their images from social media and our website. My team and the Board will discuss if this is a balanced and reasonable action, or whether other options are as effective. Perhaps clever photography, for example, can celebrate our pupils’ activities without identifying them. We welcome input from parents who have informed opinions on this matter.
Please understand our concerns and the balanced way that we may go about addressing these issues.
Artificial Intelligence
To effectively address the multitude of cyber safeguarding issues, education is paramount. It is evident that pupils must be taught about both the dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence. As such, we are continuing to implement our AI policy and strategy in classrooms and offices. This includes introducing a clear AI assignment strategy, which will determine the level of AI usage permitted for specific tasks. Additionally, we are implementing age-appropriate AI digital literacy skills to promote the secure and effective use of AI prompts, critical evaluation of AI suggestions, and the protection of personal data. Ethical and environmental issues surrounding AI development will also be discussed.
My increasing use of AI — and I believe our school and staff are ahead of the curve in this regard — brings to mind Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I often receive a slightly patronizing, Marvin the Paranoid Android-esque response from Gemini: "What a great question, Richard. Brain the size of a planet and you ask me to spell check your grammar..." (Anyone under 40 may need to ask AI about Marvin. How ironic).#
We will be delivering some training to parents on AI shortly after Easter. I hope you will be able to join us.
Uniform
Some things don’t change, and our older pupils are currently challenging us with untucked shirts and ever shorter skirts. Please take a moment to read Mrs Pargeter’s letter emailed earlier this week. She and the entire staff have my support - and I assume yours also - in correcting the pupils as their vague attempts to be somewhat rebellious result in a deteriorating state of dress. You can assist simply by ensuring both shirts and skirts are long enough. If you are reluctant to buy new uniform when they only have two years left, please consider our preloved website. All funds go back into the school, not into another company’s coffers.
Not exactly a jovial journal this week, but reasonable, important and necessary.
Have a lovely weekend nevertheless.
Richard Pollock
Headteacher