Questions Thread

[Haydos]

My school never used to call when we didn't attend. We just had to write a note with a fake parent signature and hand it in the next day. It does seem a bit extreme to chase everyone who is not there. A typical big school has about 2000 kids, I'd guess at an absentee rate of about 7%, that's 140 phone calls to make every day, assuming roughly 2.5 minutes on average to complete each call, that's 350 minutes, or just short of six hours, every day. So you're employing someone whose sole purpose is to call people who aren't there. It's probably a £15k per year job, which costs the school say £20k per year all in. That's £10 per kid per year. Money better spent on improving the experience of the kids who do turn up, I would say.

I obviously don't have statistics but I'd say most contact/have their parents contact the school. On another note this never happened at my old school. We were just questioned about it the next day by our form tutor and were told if we didn't bring in a note from parents then it would go down as an unauthorised absence (which you were only allowed a very small number of per term.

[BoneDog]

Who is 'Mark' on this forum? I get the gist he runs the site. Does he post on here too?

Think he's the owner, and he does post sometimes.

[Finnegan]

Who is 'Mark' on this forum? I get the gist he runs the site. Does he post on here too?

He posts, yes, he just doesn't get involved in a lot of the crap.

Post a thread singing the virtues of contemporary post-rock and he'll come out from his hidey hole.

Edited 26 January 2013 by Finnegan

[The Year Of The Fox]

Think he's the owner, and he does post sometimes.

Forgive me for being thick- How do you mean own? Did he buy the domain (think that's the right word) name? Why does he need donations to keep the site running?

[Finnegan]

Forgive me for being thick- How do you mean own? Did he buy the domain (think that's the right word) name? Why does he need donations to keep the site running?

He registered the domain and built / runs the forum.

He needs donations because Foxes Talk is a huge forum with a lot of traffic, a "free" forum wouldn't handle the volume of posters here and it'd crash all the time when it's bandwidth limit was exceeded.

[Haydos]

1. I guess you missed the subtlety but I didn't question the tracking of attendance. I questioned the waste of scarce financial resources in ringing and writing to every kid who misses a session.

2. I think every day, I just don't think like you. Yes I state my opinions and then read the responses and answer them and continue to do that until the situation is clearer in my head. Maybe I change my mind a little, maybe a lot, maybe not at all.

3. Other people disagreeing with me is neither a surprise nor proof of wrongness. Just because lots of people do it doesn't change anything. They clearly think like you.

4. And you think that telephoning sick/truant kids really changes more than perhaps using that money to make class sizes smaller , or improve teacher's skills - both of which have been proven to improve a student's education?

5. I don't know how old Dan is but I doubt he'd be described as a kid. telephoning him was a waste of time and resources.

6. I missed loads of days of school throughout sixth form, and guess what? I've managed to suceed in "life". Education isn't organized optimally for students, it isn't efficient and some of it's cogs are not good at what they do. Resources directed there would be far more beneficial than telling kids who know that they are not at school that they are not at school.

7. I'll continue not thinking and leave the world to you, Plato.

In a school of 1000-2000 you don't think it's important to track unauthorised absences. I am opposed to that because I can think of several people I used to go to school with who'd bunk off because they were depressed. I also unfortunately know 3 people who have died in car crashes on their way to school. I just believe that a few (most absences appeared to come with a note/call from parents when I was at school) phone calls from reception isn't go to take up a great amount of time or resources.

I guess without any statistics on the matter it's a bit of a pointless argument.

[The Year Of The Fox]

He registered the domain and built / runs the forum.

He needs donations because Foxes Talk is a huge forum with a lot of traffic, a "free" forum wouldn't handle the volume of posters here and it'd crash all the time when it's bandwidth limit was exceeded.

Cheers for that, makes sense!

[Mark]

[The Year Of The Fox]

Hi!

Do you recieve many donations? How do you run it if none are received?

I'm insatiable for info today

[Guest]

Time to donate people.

[Captain...]

My school never used to call when we didn't attend. We just had to write a note with a fake parent signature and hand it in the next day. It does seem a bit extreme to chase everyone who is not there. A typical big school has about 2000 kids, I'd guess at an absentee rate of about 7%, that's 140 phone calls to make every day, assuming roughly 2.5 minutes on average to complete each call, that's 350 minutes, or just short of six hours, every day. So you're employing someone whose sole purpose is to call people who aren't there. It's probably a £15k per year job, which costs the school say £20k per year all in. That's £10 per kid per year. Money better spent on improving the experience of the kids who do turn up, I would say.

When I was doing it they had 2 full time members of staff concentrating on keeping kids in school then 5 temps full time on minimum wage at the start of the year for 2 months then kept 3 of us on full time after that the reason being that most drop out after the first few months, it was only for the 6th form, a.levels and GNVQ vocational stuff, no idea how many pupils they had under the scheme, but we weren't really working flat out.

[Mark]

Hi!

Do you recieve many donations? How do you run it if none are received?

I'm insatiable for info today

I did initially but not so much of late, I added a few adverts to help cover the costs over the last few years and to help pay for a better server that doesn't crash on matchdays.

[The Year Of The Fox]

I did initially but not so much of late, I added a few adverts to help cover the costs over the last few years and to help pay for a better server that doesn't crash on matchdays.

Well this will sound like arse licking but its a quality site!

[Guest]

In a school of 1000-2000 you don't think it's important to track unauthorised absences. I am opposed to that because I can think of several people I used to go to school with who'd bunk off because they were depressed. I also unfortunately know 3 people who have died in car crashes on their way to school. I just believe that a few (most absences appeared to come with a note/call from parents when I was at school) phone calls from reception isn't go to take up a great amount of time or resources.

I guess without any statistics on the matter it's a bit of a pointless argument.

Absences can and are noted without the need for a phone call. If someone is "depressed" then I wouldn't have thought the failsafe was telephoning them when they're skiving. i'd hope that it would be picked up in another manner.

3 people died in car crashes on the way to school that you know - You must be in the highest percentile on that stat. I've never known anyone killed in a car crash whether on the way to school or at any other time in my whole life (which I'm guessing is much longer than yours). My advise to you would be to be careful who you accept lifts from at your school. And back to the point what difference did phoning them on their mobile have if they were dead/dieing? I'd also think that any parent in this situation would have heard from the emergency services before the school contacted them and certainly wouldn't appreciate a call asking them where there son/daughter is (and perhaps inferring that they are skiving) as they lay their dieing.

Have a think about it and tell me if you agree.

[Guest]

Hi!

Do you recieve many donations? How do you run it if none are received?

I'm insatiable for info today

He got a small donation from me the other day. I donate a small amount each year in return for being called an idiot.

[Guest]

I did initially but not so much of late, I added a few adverts to help cover the costs over the last few years and to help pay for a better server that doesn't crash on matchdays.

I think you need to remind people occasionally. Call it a site birthday - throw up a thread and ask for a small contribution. Paypal covers the world.

Well this will sound like arse licking but its a quality site!

So send him a quid for every 500 or 1000 posts you make.

[Mark]

He got a small donation from me the other day. I donate a small amount each year in return for being called an idiot.

Cheers, I didn't know who that was from.

[Guest]

Cheers, I didn't know who that was from.

Yeah, that email address doesn't really show any links to me. anonymity is often good.

Your site merits that and more, you're doing us all a good service.

[Haydos]

Absences can and are noted without the need for a phone call. If someone is "depressed" then I wouldn't have thought the failsafe was telephoning them when they're skiving. i'd hope that it would be picked up in another manner.

3 people died in car crashes on the way to school that you know - You must be in the highest percentile on that stat. I've never known anyone killed in a car crash whether on the way to school or at any other time in my whole life (which I'm guessing is much longer than yours). My advise to you would be to be careful who you accept lifts from at your school. And back to the point what difference did phoning them on their mobile have if they were dead/dieing? I'd also think that any parent in this situation would have heard from the emergency services before the school contacted them and certainly wouldn't appreciate a call asking them where there son/daughter is (and perhaps inferring that they are skiving) as they lay their dieing.

Have a think about it and tell me if you agree.

Fair enough. I'm just looking for points to back up my opinion to be honest. Like I said in my last post, my school never did this, I'd be interested to know how many did because it does actually sound a waste of time. (I still don't think it's an amount that would add up to anything financially significant).

Also, 2 of the death were school run related, other one wasn't. Still a pretty crazy statistic. Don't know many other people who know 3 people in their year that died in crashes.

[BoneDog]

My last donation was about three years ago, so am overdue another. I will send one in this week. I don't like to brag but it'll be in the £9.45 range. High roller.

My family have banned me from talking about some of the stuff I talk about on here so am grateful for the opp to say what I want when I want sort of thing at the end of the day yer get me.

I wasn't going to donate again until August, but this place has gone uphill since Webbo became a mod so have put forward the date to sometime this week.

[Guest]

My last donation was about three years ago, so am overdue another. I will send one in this week. I don't like to brag but it'll be in the £9.45 range. High roller.

My family have banned me from talking about some of the stuff I talk about on here so am grateful for the opp to say what I want when I want sort of thing at the end of the day yer get me.

I wasn't going to donate again until August, but this place has gone uphill since Webbo became a mod so have put forward the date to sometime this week.

Frigging creep.

[Orkneyfox]

Shoot guns at school? That's where we're going wrong nowadays, no rifle lessons! If we had shooting lessons when I was at school I'd have been there every day.

We also had a Bren gun but I don't think we ever got to fire that, Tuesday afternoons, CCF -Combined Cadet Force, attendance was compulsory unless you were a conscientious objector or in the School Orchestra.

[Webbo]

My last donation was about three years ago, so am overdue another. I will send one in this week. I don't like to brag but it'll be in the £9.45 range. High roller.

My family have banned me from talking about some of the stuff I talk about on here so am grateful for the opp to say what I want when I want sort of thing at the end of the day yer get me.

I wasn't going to donate again until August, but this place has gone uphill since Webbo became a mod so have put forward the date to sometime this week.

I love a bit of flattery.

I haven't donated for a couple of years, I will when I get paid soon.

[The Year Of The Fox]

We also had a Bren gun but I don't think we ever got to fire that, Tuesday afternoons, CCF -Combined Cadet Force, attendance was compulsory unless you were a conscientious objector or in the School Orchestra.

Were you at Welbeck College or something?!

[Orkneyfox]

Were you at Welbeck College or something?!

No, just an ordinary Grammar School back in the day when we had Combined Cadet forces. I did briefly go to a boarding school with it's own glider but as it had to be launched by a team of boys pulling it along it never flew.