ABSTRACT
Research shows that good relationships between teachers and pupils are essential in combating truancy and re-integrating truants back into the classroom. This chapter, therefore, provides guidance on: • successful teacher behaviour; • classroom management skills; • findings from research into school effectiveness from both primary and
secondary schools; • effective pastoral care; • OFSTED evaluation criteria on the quality of good teaching; • a checklist on the outcomes of research into effectiveness and truancy. Box 11.1 presents evidence on the main reasons (in order of importance) for the causes of truancy at six very different secondary schools in the Midlands in the estimation of the staff teaching in the schools. This box is interesting for the following reasons: (a) it shows the range of diversity among the six schools; (b) it suggests that teaching and teacher-related problems are key in most of
the schools; (c) it indicates the importance of curriculum issues; (d) it suggests that the staff now appreciate that most truants miss school for
educational reasons. Clearly, the reasons given in Box 11.1 would change school by school, region by region, in any other similar analysis.
