To think that mass non-attendance at school is COVID-related?

A child entering yR now should have little direct impact from the restrictions in 2020-2022, but if they have any health/ development issues their access to early intervention will have been more delayed than a child of that age in the 2010s.

A few children with exacerbated delays in a class can have a significant impact on their 27 classmates.

DS1 had a paperwork trail relating to autistic traits back to age 2½. He was referred for assessment in 2018 at 7½ and diagnosed late 2019 by the time he was 9.
DS2 has just started referral for assessment at 12. There have been niggling issues for a few years, but it's been so difficult to unravel whether it was a temporary Coz Covid, or a deeper underlying issue that didn't show up obviously before his 7th birthday in deepest lockdown. Most of the time he was 7, it was illegal to play with other children. It took two years for him to develop close friendships afterwards. School brushed off his dyslexic traits as Coz Covid because of losing 6 months of y2/3, but when he was privately assessed (no LA assessment) he was found to have a very spiky profile and significant issues.
Fortunately we can pay privately because an NHS wait in our LA would mean no diagnosis before y11 which is a tad late to be helpful.
DS2 has been significantly hindered by the two year age gap putting him post-Covid compared to DS1. This is despite educated parents who can afford to fill the gaps in the public sector.

Thousands of DS2s have been left to flounder and disengage by the gaps and delays in the public sector.

Yes, for some of us the school offered so little that there was in fact not much difference between covid and not turning up at all.

Should state that I dont blame the school for this either. They were between a rock and a hard place.

Lack of funding in schools and lack of SEN support. In my LA it is almost impossible to get an EHCP so that the school recieves extra funding to educated that child. In my LA it is not uncommon for it to reach the stage where a child has a complete breakdown and is out of school for years before the LA will do anything. It took me 84 weeks and two tribunals (both conceded by the LA) to get my son an EHCP even though educational professionals employed were saying he need one when he was three!
Overstuffed and dull curriculum means that the school day is intense from Y1 and children don’t want to go to school.

Massive secondary school which are overwhelming for neurodivergent children. I went to an ‘average’ sized secondary school of 600/700 pupils. 1,000 pupils was considered a large school. My old school now has 1,200+ pupils all crammed into the same hall, canteen and corridors. One local school has a 2,000 pupils. I think there is one school under 1000 pupils where I live.

Draconian academies with zero tolerance uniform policies. School shoes break two day before the end of term and mum doesnt have the money to replace until she gets paid then straight to isolation for you until shoes are bought. It doesn’t matter if this happens on a Thursday you get home from work at 6pm and all the shops are shut you must have shoes by Friday at 9am or it’s isolation for you. As a child from a low income family I would have rather have missed school than be publicly shamed and sent to isolation for the day for being poor.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It's this for us. For me COVID lockdowns helped me to sort my work life balance and realised that my dd missing a few days of school isn't the end of the world. So we now take a few 1 day trips each year for either a weekend away or a day trip and she misses school that day. I'm really honest with the school, we never lie or call her in sick. School is very important and she is fully engaged and supported at home to ensure she is learning, but we don't aim for 100% attendance anymore as it just isn't important

Unfortunately Covid is still very much here. I know several people who are ill with it at the moment. Viruses do not disappear when you stop thinking about them they aren't like tinkerbell in Peter pan! I do think some of the absences are covid related, kids are still getting covid and covid has also caused a rise in other illnesses too as after having covid people are more vulnerable to secondary infections caused by immune suppression. There are also many children with long covid.

I think there’s a mix of reasons - some became homeschooled because lockdown showed those children fared better out of school, some will have struggled after lockdown, some will be struggling whilst waiting for help (whilst thresholds to access help increase, along with waiting lists). It would be irrational to assume that attendance (especially when most absence is due to illness) would decrease when covid is added into the mix - it’s always circulating at varying levels and kids aren’t magically spared the impacts. Studies show that people are more prone to other infections after covid too. Obviously the tens of thousands of kids with long covid now will also affect attendance. More will get it from the wave we are currently in. Teacher absence due to sickness has also unsurprisingly increased since covid hit.

Their older siblings will be able to, and when you consider blended families and some of the age gaps involved, even more likely.

The behaviours in Downing Street enabled and supported by the then Prime Minister and his attitude to honesty and rules I think have contributed to a feeling that too many things are optional, schooling is not the only one.

I agree with the suggestion that wfh or even hybrid working may have had an impact.

Yes, but some schools provided very little work. So many parents supplemented and did homeschooling themselves. A lot of people were surprised that either how little was provided or how quickly their kids could get through it without the distractions for classroom.

There's certainly a subset of parents that took the opportunity of covid to see whether they could do a better job themselves, and found that they could!

schools were smaller, less pressured, teachers were more respected and behaviour was generally better - the environment was totally different. Actually quite a lot of kids, by mid-secondary age voted with their feet and would start "blue collar" jobs at 14/15/16.

Schools went online during Covid, it was a very different thing to homeschooling.
Or just simply not turning up half the time.

Society has changed since covid, school kids aren't immune to that.

With increased working from home and hybrid working, plus an increase in flexible working patterns, the idea of being out of the house from x to y time Monday to Friday, has disappeared for many of us.

There was a realisation for some kids, that they learn better out of school, or less stressed at least. Coupled with that, some parents will be feeling more confident in homeschooling after covid.

It means that more of the kids that were just about coping but not thriving, are now at home instead. That's not necessarily A bad thing.

Covid busted the 'myth' that the best way to learn was to be in school. It also shattered the idea that everyday of attendance counts, when kids were off for months at a time, or because they happened to cough several times.

You see it on here a lot, many new parents are more anxious, social conventions around things like kissing babies has tightened up. As a society, I think we're a lot more anxious now, which means people err on the side of caution with attendance more.

But everything's changed. McDonald's is no longer fast food. When you go on holiday in the UK, swimming slots have to be reserved (never came across that before). Things that were drop in, are appointment only. There's less spontaneity.

I think it's okay there. Life evolves, society evolves, and who may be the old school contract is either evolving or needs to as well. Too much of school requires squashing children into boxes, and if they don't fit, tough luck. Many, if not most would benefit from a more flexible approach. Schools need to move with the times, and for some that might mean a more hybrid approach, with elements of home learning, flexibility etc, to mirror what's happening with the rest of society.

The pupils starting school this September will not be able to remember COVID so it is up to their parents to not remind them, or behave as if school doesn't matter. Why reflog this horse?

Hopefully the COVID effects will be slowly dissipating.

I really hope your child recovered well. Here you just have to go private. I’ve had friends take out bank loans for MH treatment for their kids. It was well worth it but my goodness we shouldn’t need to do it.

I must admit Covid was a real eye opener as to how little actually got done at school. My primary aged child did her days maths in under 2 minutes one day. The entire day of learning in 20 mins. Makes you wonder quite how bad the disruption is.

Worth pointing out that it's been more like 3 years than 5. This time 5 years ago, we still had a loooooooot of the worst restrictions and public health messaging to come.

That said, I don't subscribe to the view that this must have a set shelf life either.

I think there has been a shift in attitude since the lock down , prior to it we were constantly having it rammed down our throats how vital school attendance is and the consequences of low attendance alongside the threat of fines.
Then we had the ridiculous rules of a pupil having contact with their uncles next door neighbour but ones budgie who tested positive and so everyone in the class within a 10 mile radius got sent home to isolate alongside their own family members,i think my child was sent home twice on top of her own positive test isolation.
But at the same time you could walk around The Range / Home bargains etc and of course while all this was happening the government were screwing around and partying.
That 5 years seems like a blink of an eye ago but we were treated like idiots for a long time ,people don't forget and any respect for authority has been greatly affected .

I’m glad people are keeping kids off when they are not well although it’s sadly not something I’m noticing around where I live. Sick of sniffly kids spreading their germs to everyone around them non stop from September to June. Even if it’s just a cold, the first day or two can make you feel miserable and I doubt kids will be taking much in anyway in terms or learning. Let the poor kids recover in bed.

If your DC self harms, CAMHS just tell you to store blades, knives, pencil sharpeners etc and medication somewhere the teen can't get them. Which, funnily enough, I had already done. I'd just missed one tiny blade in a bedroom.
They literally don't have any capacity for children who are self harming. They don't see you any sooner. My DC managed to get hold of a blade in school as they said they couldn't fully supervise them there.

Such a good thread!

The ridiculously strict discipline in some schools must be very off-putting.

No going to the toilet apart from break time as they are locked.

Ludicrous uniform regulations and detention if you don't comply.

Lunch box police.

To name but 3 annoyances. Schools are not the welcoming places they used to be.

Oh and let’s not forget that “uneducables” only stopped being a thing in 1970. So exactly how far back would you like to go?

Possibly. But some kids go through a hell of a lot of trauma when they are young due to childhood illness- missing months and years of school, in hospital, treatment etc. They are expected to just grow up and get on with things, despite the disruption to their early life. They aren’t generally given a get-out clause in the same way as ‘covid children’ are. I do appreciate that some kids have awful home lives and it’s these kids I feel suffered the most.

I’ll admit I look at this through my own lens (I was a seriously unwell child) so maybe I see it all a bit differently.

But I just feel that the covid lockdowns needs to stop being an excuse.

God help the kids of today if a war hit!

I think poverty and home circumstances have a lot to do with school refusal

CAHMS started in 1987 , developed properly in 1995. Even before that , there was still a mental health service for children , just part of the adult services.

And let’s face it , years ago no one gave a shit whether kids were in school and how long they stayed in education for , regardless of the official lines.