It seems to have been coined by Robert Halfon, MP in response to Centre for Social Justice figures on pupil absence. Take the phrase ‘ ghost children’, for example. Yet their views on what matters seldom set the terms of the public conversation. Schools know all too well that removing mandatory restrictions does not bring us any closer to being back to normal. Political discourse may have shifted to the challenges of recovering from the pandemic’s impact, but schools and their communities are still dealing with the unanticipated dilemmas of what to do right now, let alone when (or if) the disruptive effects eventually subside. We are only just beginning to take stock of what schools, families and pupils have learned from the experience of the past two years. This comes at a time when one of the clearest lessons from the pandemic is just how detached Whitehall decision-making is from the realities schools experience on the ground. Attention from the mainstream media and an intervention from the Children’s Commissioner have put school attendance at the top of the list of Covid legacy issues for government to deal with.
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