If you work in education, what do you think is causing the current attendance issues?

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I’ve read quite a lot on this recently. DD1 is 10, she’s always been reluctant to go to school. She had a spate of UTIs, stomach aches, headaches etc. She’s had a bit of time off sick but we only triggered the attendance letter recently as it went below a certain threshold. DH and I have always done our best to get her into school, being reassured that she’s ‘been fine all day’ by her teachers. It all came to a head this year (yr 5) after a complete meltdown, several anxiety attacks and refusal to leave the house. She’s now on a reduced timetable at school and on the waiting list for an ASD assessment.
Academically she’s ahead but just can’t seem to cope with the school environment.

I’m just wondering what those who work in education think the issues are. Am I just a terrible parent? Although I’m not sure what else I could do. I suspect a complete lack of funding in education has had the biggest impact on schools and students. Especially those with SEN.

Why the concern? Im relieved my daughter has a diagnosis ( use of word diagnosis not label)

Its opened up lots of doors to support her education. Its made me understand her much much more and support her in the right way.

Jars have labels, not people! ffs

People are entitled to undergo an assessment and be given a diagnosis to describe their experience and explain why they've been struggling all their life. Do people know that those with ND have a reduced lifespan, more MH problems and a nine times higher rate of suicide than the general population? People like to know who they are, they need to know who and what they are in order to navigate, and cope with, their lives.

For those of us who struggled for years and had no idea why that "label" is a lifeline, let me tell you.

I think covid seemed to break the solid rule that school was a must but I think school refusal has been rising for years prior to lockdowns. I think increasing anxiety amongst kids is an issue and it seems ever more wide spread. Why is anxiety rising? Life is often fast paced, kids can be out at school and wrap around care for a full working day's length of time and they are tired. Sometimes its exposure to social media either at home or via their peers. Parents are more anxious, over worked, have mental or physical health issues. Teachers are spread very thinly and have a wide range of kids with different needs to try and cater to and class sizes getting bigger and bigger over the years. We have a child in P1 at the moment who has very significant issues, the parents feel that in a specialist school he would suffer as children's learning tends to go at the rate of the most disabled child but fail to see or don't care that their child is holding the other kids in his class back and we can hardly even talk about it because it will be seen as discrimination.

It does feel like behaviour is very bad in some kids now compared to when I started teaching and this impacts on all the children. Lots of children get no discipline at home and teachers are very limited in what we can do. Even a child who assaults a teacher will not be excluded.

I don't remember School refusal being a thing when I was at School or even 20 years ago, kids simply had to go in, their parents made them go. Now often parents say they cannot make their child do anything.

I live in a affluent area, my children are both diagnosed with autism and dyslexia. Those diagnoses are not badges hung around their necks they are useful to give them the tools they need to succeed.

That they refused school baffled me, because school is the norm.

Neither has had a 'schooled' secondary education because they found school traumatising. Both are intelligent, my eldest is on track to 3 A*s in his A Levels and had an interview at Oxford University for his chosen subject.

Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) otherwise known as school refusal is not restricted to certain types of people, there are doctors, lawyers, and all kinds of people who are struggling to get their children the right kind of schools or the right kind of support in school.

For some of us who were "made" to go the trauma is still there many years later.

@Fliopen I hated school myself, that's why I became a teacher to try and give kids a better experience. If parents feel its the best choice to take kids out of school and home educate then fine but most don't they just repeatedly give in to a child while keeping a school place open to them because it makes life easier for themselves and don't put any serious effort in to ensuring their child gets a decent education, then when the child fails they blame the School, they can't have it all ways.

No, it isn't. When were you last in a workplace? People often remotely, dress codes are nothing like what they were if they exist at all, lots of jobs are flexible with timekeeping as long as the work gets done.

Don’t think you meant to call SEND ‘afflictions’. 🤔

Not a teacher but this is my experience;

DD has dyslexia. Primary school were woefully inadequate at supporting her, making sure reasonable adjustments were actually in place. Little understanding of the amount of effort and energy that had to go into keeping up with her peers just a shrug that she could so didn't need help. Classrooms at primary were chaotic and noisy and that's just the way it was, she had a separate space but it was more often not available to her. Secondary school have not been great either but classrooms are quiet.

DS has had a lot more minor illness since covid. Since I now largely wfh he can stay in bed. I was probably guilty of 'presenteeism' when i worked in an office.

Gone are the days when you could just go to work on time, do your job and return home. Now, you have to engage in any manner of fun filled, pro social team building activities. Go out for lunch together, have lots of meetings, zoom get togethers, celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, be happy it's Tuesday days, Mandy from accounts had her nails done day etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the endless chat about Love Island, Naked Attraction etc. Plus the loud music and voices. If you're not perceived to be happy, bubbly, outgoing and a laugh you're not part of the team.
Ds works in an environment like this.

After going through mountains of paperwork when applying for my two DCs diagnosis I can see that I am likely ND. I worked in an office setting for a long while but did not cope well. I now have a good job that I am great at. I work totally from home with flexible hours. Everyone has the option to work from home as they please or book onto a desk at our sites. They are a global market leader and believe this is the future.

My DS has ADHD and autism. We believe he would manage well in a role similar to my husbands, he is a builder.

Neither myself or my DH managed that well at school but we both do fine at work.

Because the modern education system is a broken wreck. Stressing children for years in overcrowded, unattractive, understaffed environments. What could possibly go wrong?

I try and explain this to people all the time.

Agree parents at home
Screen addiction
Out of routine/in negative routine of hanging out with mates from covid/strikes
Overcrowded schools affecting ND kids
Softer parenting who wont push kids to go in if ill/anxious etc

Fewer fun school activities:
(primary age dc has been on 1 trip in 3.5yrs!!!
No swimming if pass the assessment
Breakdown in friendships from covid/strikes

Behaviour of other kids:
Secondary lots going to behaviour support

Homework
Secondary none marked so cant see errors
No feedback from teachers

Rewards
No class rankings etc ...low motivation

Some kids will b e far behind and got no catchup funding. Those who didnt pass sats are unlikely to pass gcses. You can see they would give up.

y7 dc missed a lot of geography and history and science from y3 up. So doesnt see importance now they are individual subjects.

however looking at the data the increase in fsm attendance meant like over 1/3 were over 19% time missed!

everything being wrong in uk doesnt help even public transport delays and strikes.
cost of getting to school.

the bus cost per year has gone up over 100% in 2 years. Now nearly 1k for 20min journey

logically kids at home would have bee n a bit bored before after a few days

Schools are microcosoms of society, and for many diffetentbreasons are not brilliant places...

I want yo read this thrwad in full and mull.over it but agree covid broke tne notion of school being an absolute part f lives.... the teaching wasnt adequate during covid but the government saw this as acceptable so now parents see school as something that isnt essental

Screen ‘addiction’ calms ND
’Negative’ routine of hanging out with mates? How is having friends negative?
Softer parenting?
Fewer fun activities? Most teachers are on their knees. There’s no time for them to organise ‘fun’ activities. They’re just battling to survive.
Secondary going to behaviour support? What behaviour support is this? Schools are cut to the bone, not many have the luxury of behaviour support.
Secondary homework? The idea is students assess themselves……. It’s not about teachers ‘not’ marking it. We used to mark one big homework every 1/2 term. But when exam classes needed support something had to give at times..,
Class rankings are not used in education. They were deemed to be nether necessary or helpful.

Any more digs at teachers?

ND students shouldn't be viewed as a problem. They're actually more likely to suffer at the hands of the bullying, disruptive and malicious ones. Being ND isn't intrinsically a problem for many students, other people and the environment can be though. Some of these schools sound like a war zone. How can you learn if you don't feel safe?

A sanction for being late to a lesson. This is a clear example of the absurd micromanagement of children. How about, why are you late, a brief conversation and move on? Not a data file (black book) of micro misdemeanours. This then triggers a rather rude long boring letter about how pupil x will never amount to anything because of being 1 minute late to a lesson.
I know DP's daughter was hospitalised in a car accident. A month or so later he received a letter pointing out his daughter's attendance.
What COVID has taught people is to question the veracity and validity of our oldest institutions and the way we administer society.
I think the concept of school is overbearing and outdated. It's similar to the idea of an office, WFH has given people a sense of freedom and control.
Education needs a similar shake-up.

You have done exactly my point.
Instead of asking how late were they, do they have a history etc etc you have assumed it is 1 minute late and absurd micromanagement, neither of which is true

I'm a teacher (primary). My DH teaches secondary. We have a daughter who really struggles with school and has terrible anxiety and poor attendance. Waiting for an ASD assessment so issues possibly down to that. Other factors are:

• Lack of teachers. Means there is either a lot of cover sessions (in the hall in large groups, working in silence), or totally unsuitable teachers who teach poorly.
• Extremely strict rules and systems. NY quiet, anxious DD is terrified of getting a detention for forgetting a pen one day.
• Nowhere near enough pastoral or SEN support for those who need it, due to lack of funding
• Dull and uninspiring curriculum

A sanction for being late to a lesson. This is a clear example of the absurd micromanagement of children. How about, why are you late, a brief conversation and move on? Not a data file (black book) of micro misdemeanours. This then triggers a rather rude long boring letter about how pupil x will never amount to anything because of being 1 minute late to a lesson.

Do you really think a brief conversation about why the student is late is really going to work? Because I can tell you it doesn’t…. I presume you don’t work in a school?
Also why should the rest of the students have their lesson held up for this chat because Johnny was hanging around in the loos with his mates?
And yes pupils who are repeatedly late miss a crucial part of the lesson (the teacher explaining what work they need to do). It might seem ‘boring’ to you but it can make a big difference to a lot of pupils just being on time, especially those with SEN who will spend the rest of the lesson trying to catch up.

I don't work in education but work closely with schools.

There's lots of complex reasons but I feel strongly that schools are not meeting the needs of lots of children and young people. To be clear I mean government policy, school policy and trends about how schools are run and am not commenting on individual teachers having to enforce the bullshit.

Lots of school policies are ridiculously strict and inflexible.
There often is a lack of nuanced approach to behaviour, attendance and stuff like uniforms. A lack of understanding or empathy around a child finding school difficult.

Stuff like sending kids home because they're in the 'wrong' shoes is pathetic. Uniform policies are ridiculous and the way they are enforced is so poor.

Schools make kids line up to have their equipment inspected, pencil cases aloft.

I saw a comment the other day about a kid being sanctioned because they had their coat on in the corridor on a cold day. Wtf, can a child not decide if they're cold or not?

Primary kids having to move around the school not making a noise.

The use of isolation and other sanctions doesn't help.

You end up with kids who are anxious and worried. Or disillusioned and just give up.

We just don't get the benefit of the doubt anymore. I'm a successful, lifetime career teacher. I would never give an unreasonable sanction or not listen to a student or give several warnings. Yet parents leap to worst case scenario over and over again. I have one parent , I'm on the 4th child of hers now. The other three have had a fab time and all enjoyed my subject. I got a foul email from her, when we met and I said " look I'm really surprised , you know me well from your other three and have never known me to be anything other than fair and reasonable, what happened? " she actually apologised and later sent flowers.
I think the constant barrage of culture wars and increasingly hostile media is putting people into fight mode first rather than getting facts first

I think teachers also are getting flak because they're on the receiving end of anger and alienation about covid and lockdown responses in education. They're the 'face' of the system.