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

[NeedAnUpgrade]

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.

Presumably, though, he didn't cease to exist? I wonder what happened to him.

I would imagine he went to one of the many special schools we had in the area then. Most are now closed.

I left at 18.

There was nothing like the pressure on exams like there is now. Some people didn’t bother to turn up for theirs.

We had loads of time off due to snow, failed heating and caretakers strikes. No one cared.

people were always absent. They were only chased up if it was all the time.

l don’t remember much pressure. We had uniform, and it was enforced but not like now.

Education policy moved children out of special schools though because special schools at that time before the mass closures often weren't allowing pupils access to education or qualifications. It was basically out of sight out of mind. Oh well they aren't bothering the "real" pupils so they don't matter.

They should probably just have raised standards in special schools though, or (radical idea) any time a special school was closed they ought to have split the funding given to that school between other local schools, or given it directly to the nearest school or split based on where the pupils moved to. I don't know how schools are really supposed to practice inclusion without the required staffing and training.

Does this sound like an effective way of educating a population?

No not at all. But lm just trying to point out why it was less stressful then.

@Naptrappedmummy

"Half of jobs have a ‘smart casual’ dress code and the other half have a specific dress code or work uniform."

I would love to see the source for this completely unbelievable stat. Because I can think of dozens of occupations that have neither: the vast majority of self-employed trades, most outdoor and agricultural occupations, the whole of higher education, most of the entertainment and creative industry, and a lot of independent retail.

Half of jobs have a ‘smart casual’ dress code and the other half have a specific dress code or work uniform.

Source?

Jobs I've done without either: factory work, Royal Mail letter sorting, building site work. On the sites and the factory floor, you had to wear PPE but it was up to you what you wore with it. Most people wore tracksuit bottoms for comfort and warmth. Managerial types toured the sites in PPE over suits 😂

So straight away, that "statistic" is bollocks because two halves make 100%, yet I've just proved that some percentage of jobs have neither a uniform / strict code nor a "smart casual" code, so it's impossible for half of jobs to be strict code or uniform and the other half be smart casual.

You prompted me to ask my parents about this, my Dad left at 13, before 1964 - bright, but couldnt stay still or out of trouble, went into farm work, never looked back. My mum left at 14 in '67, she has no memory of what the law was, her dad just took her out of school, she was needed to work at home, nobody stopped him. She wanted to stay in school and had very good grades.

I have two anxious ND kids at secondary.

When I was in school the behaviour was shit but it was smaller, more personal, and there was way, way, way less exam pressure.

Our secondary now is huge and keeps expanding. Some of the behaviour is absolutely awful. They are v strict about petty things, which is stressful for my kids.

I think a lot of teachers are very stressed too, there is a high staff turnover, one of mine has had about 6 mentors in two years. One has four different maths teachers. So combined with the huge school, staff just don't know the kids as well.

I’m thinking of teenagers particularly here but I do think there’s something in the fact that nowadays there is not really any need to go out, due to screens. Many adults live this way and it’s no surprise that some teenagers don’t see the need to leave their homes anymore either.

I think the point of the last few posts are that back in the day we had options

Clever = O levels maybe A levels even smaller group went to uni

Medium. O levels/cses went to jobs. Training in the job or college prehaps. I went into vet nursing. No need for fancy courses. Trained in house with one day at college.
My friend went to nursing. Same. Trained in house. With a course part time.

We are early 50's

Most of my friends had a similar experience

Now you need a degree and dept for the same career

Low achieving kids . Did Cses and a vocational job or shop/hospitality/factory work but the jobs were there.

I could leave a job and get a new one within a few days just by asking around.

Everything is so hard now.
It's depressing.

I do see what you mean but I think the government can’t win on this one. If they somehow siphoned off the less academic children into other routes early on they would be accused of condemning children too early, or underestimating them. It would probably be assumed to be class based, leaving the higher achieving routes to the wealthier or better supported children.

Equally if they said ‘no university for nurses’, people would be outraged they were depriving nurses of the professionalism they deserve, especially when nurses now have higher promotions than in previous years.

There’s a lot of apprenticeships out there too (check online), which haven’t been filled.

To be honest I think a lot of teenagers and young people just aren’t as proactive in looking for work as they once were, and don’t have the initiative to know a good opportunity when they see one.

Re lack of initiative issue. Maybe that's due to kids not having part time jobs as commonly now. I was working from 15.

Now it seems hardly anyone will take you until GCSEs are sat so no opportunity to work young and have the satisfaction of own money.

I do see what you mean but I think the government can’t win on this one. If they somehow siphoned off the less academic children into other routes early on they would be accused of condemning children too early, or underestimating them. It would probably be assumed to be class based, leaving the higher achieving routes to the wealthier or better supported children

Yes. And this is what GCSEs were intended to address, to get rid of the O level/CSE divide, though the relationship between social class and academic attainment still obtains.

Part of the issue with that is that older people need jobs.

we have a tourist attraction near us that has been almost a right of passage for local teens since it opened. However, in the last 5/10 years the jobs have more and more been taken up by older people who would previously have retired. They don’t have any restrictions on hours they can work and don’t disappear off to Uni or full time after a couple of summers.

Parts of this thread are interesting and insightful. It’s hard to filter out the uneducated bile dressed up as a differing opinion.
I am unsurprised to see the usual comments about how children lack resilience when I have found children with SEND to be the most resilient and the standard “labelling children ” line has been trotted at least once. Funnily enough, we only “label” certain conditions. How many people comment “oh you don’t want to be labelled with arthritis?”.

I was a school refuser due to mental health issues. It wasn’t called that in those days. I was a “truant”. You can shut your eyes and pretend it didn’t happen but it did. Just because you didn’t see it, did not mean it wasn’t there. It wasn’t that uncommon. I spent much time in and out of adolescent psychiatric units with children like me. These days, I imagine it wouldn’t have come to that. I’m so grateful my parents never saw me as a “labelled child lacking in resilience who was probably going to ‘opt out’ of work“. I have a degree, a profession and I have always worked. I am recovered from my mental health issues and I am happy and settled in life. I thrived at college and uni and work. School was a tough time for me but life was still out there and I am able to be a productive person.

I don't understand the comments about there being so much more pressure on exams these days. I'm a 1950s kid and went to a grammar school. There was immense pressure from school and parents to do well in exams (I didn't) and we had 'exams' at the end of every term, the marks from whch went into our school reports as well as cumulative marks for homework during the term.

It's a long time ago but disruptive behaviour was absolutely not tolerated. Any miscreants were sent to the headmaster/mistress where they received a hairdryer type dressing down. Not many people needed to be sent more than once.

I don't remember any extracurricular activities apart from athletics during the summer term at grammar, but we did have weekly swimming lessons at primary (the only bit of the week I enjoyed).

That’s so shocking. 😳

Can you say what part of the country you’re in? Though could be anywhere I guess 😔

Yes forced homework reading when my son was 7 which I had to sign every bloody night. He didn’t want to do it. How about reading for pleasure eh?!

Im so glad my son has left all this education malarkey. Including all the OTT sex education at primary school. Some good teachers trying their best definitely. But the whole experience age 4-18 was often neurotic.

Good point @IHS

Sounds like your experience in the 50s was exam pressure but good behaviour. My experience in the 90s was little exam pressure but bad behaviour was rife.

Our secondary has constant testing/exam pressure AND awful behaviour, in a much bigger school. Feels like they have the worst of both worlds.

We had SATS in year 3 and year 6, CATS in I think year 7, end of year exams every year in every subject until GCSE, then AS levels, then A levels, and mocks for all of those. This was in the 2000s.

My experience of Secondary (grammar) school in the 70s. Low to non existent pressure. And it was a grammar, though a fairly poor one. Primary school - so lovely - and zero pressure. Not like the drama over SATS now which is totally ridiculous.

My son left school 3 years ago and sometimes there was so much pressure on him, including stats and exam projections (at age 12, which made my son cry as he thought he was going to fail in 5 years time!). Ridiculous and I complained but was told to get lost basically. This, in a comprehensive. Some of these “educators” - usually more senior teachers - need to get a bit of humanity and get a grip.

Also for the non-academic it must be hard. As I said my son has left school now and I’m just glad its over 🙂

This is it in a nutshell. All the WORST bits of school and so few of the good bits. Throw in unparented, feral children and disintegrating schools and the real question is - why do so many children actually GO to school?