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.

You seem very well placed to comment, can I ask what changes should be made? (My oldest is in reception so no knowledge of the curriculum yet)

That's absolutely not how home education has to be. It's up to the parents to get their teens into community based social activities like sport, cadets, drama, art, volunteering etc. My ND ds had social opportunities whilst being home educated and he went on to attend college and managed fine. He does lots socially now, has friends and is off to uni in September. He wouldn't still be with us if he'd carried on attending school. It was that bad.

Schools are not going to dial down on the rules and regulations and the obsession with attendance figures and attainment data one tiny bit unless the government stops making those the things on which Ofsted judges schools. It's as simple as that.

I was a teacher and l think schools are desperately short of money.

There needs to be more emphasis on the creative subjects and enough staff for all the children with extra requirements. The content needs slimming down and Ofsted need to fuck off to the other side of hell then everything would relax.

No uniforms in secondary either. I started teaching in 1996. The late 90’s/early 2000’s were a golden age in education . Everything was sourced properly.

The fact that there are people who think that two years of in and out lockdowns, closed schools, being drip fed trauma, huge family upheavals etc won't have a socking great impact on children for many years to come is insane. We are going to see the ripples of this for years.

I am less stringent on attendance now. In COVID the government didn't prioritise school. Then teachers went on strike. Whilst I understand what happened in COVID, and actually support the strike I think I should have the same leeway, as school can't be that important right? To then have record breaking GCSE and A-level results during COVID and straight after proves there was no disadvantage to missing school right? I will be taking secondary age kids out of school this year for a holiday, something I thought I wouldn't do.

I agree with this as a significant factor. 20 years ago most parents would have been working full time in an office or other work environment away from home. Children staying off school meant one of the parents having to take time off work with no notice.

Many parents worry more about being harsh or pushing their children I think.

School is mostly a horrible, oppressive environment with a rigid curriculum and in secondary, just tests and pressure and ridiculous rules.

I think part of the issue is that different kids need different types of school. I went to one where there were rules for absolutely everything, including compulsory after school activities. Girls had to wear knee high socks, boys couldn't wear short sleeve shirts in summer until the relevant deputy head said so. I loved it. I knew what was expecting of me in every scenario whether I chose to follow it or not as well as the consequences of rule breaking. My eldest child is exactly the same. He wants rules and rigidity.

Dc1's friendship group comprises a variety of children some of which would thrive in the sort of school that dc1 would loathe.

One size doesn't fit all.

So many things! If I could only choose 5 bullet points though, they would be:

Funding
The system is chronically underfunded. Buildings are falling apart, resources are not fit for purpose. Teachers spend their own money on basic things like pens. It's utterly shameful.

Inclusion
Controversial, but we need to stop banging this drum. Yes, of course, we can try to make the learning environment accessible for more children. However, it is always going to be the case that a significant minority of children need specialist or different provision. Failing to provide this fails both those with SEN and those without. (This IMO as a SEN mum, so even more contentious).

Curriculum
It is overful, especially at primary. There are so many irrelevant things we have to teach these children, which are then abandoned at secondary. What is the point? It squeezes time for the more creative subjects out and kills the love of learning. No 10 year old needs to be spending weeks on fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases. We do not need them to all have identical handwriting, like Victorians. As long as it's legible, who gives a shit? Not secondary schools, or employers...

Discipline
At secondary in particular, the balance of where this lies is all wrong. Whether my son is wearing a jumper or not in hot weather has no bearing on his ability to learn. Is the uniform he is wearing the correct items? If yes, then at 16 he should be able to decide how many layers he wears without asking permission from anybody else. Likewise, it's not rude for him to not respond to a teacher who refuses to pronounce his (perfectly normal) name correctly after teaching him for over a year. It's rude of them not to use his name correctly. I will die on that hill.
Meanwhile, there are kids dealing drugs who get away with a slap on the wrist. Ridiculous. I agree with previous points around over surveillance here too. Your parents would not have known you wore socks with personality to school, but these days there are apps that teachers are made to log every tiny indiscretion on and it's really quite disturbing. I think you get away with more self expression in prison.

Holidays/Timetabling
We do not need 6 weeks in summer, and we can definitely give children more than 20 minutes to eat lunch. My daughter is in primary and only gets 15-20 minutes to eat, she's not allowed longer because they get shuffled off outside and can't take what they haven't eaten yet with them. She's a slow eater. She's hungry.

I work across primary and secondary schools in a very deprived area.
Not enough funding is to my mind a major issue. Pay support staff more money, attract a wider range of people to the roles. Children like consistency, not a revolving door of disinterested supply staff.
More SEN support, more specialist provision.
More funding for CAHMS to deal with the growing crisis of MH in our children.
Covid has a lot to answer for…
Poor attendance is a major safeguarding risk, so many children are getting drawn into CSE and CCE, again more funding to give kids alternative options.
More focus on non-academic subjects.
Basically the government is failing our children’s education and their futures.

Thanks to everyone who replied. When you at the parent with a school refusing child, everywhere you look you are made to feel like you are to blame.
I don’t doubt there are a tiny minority of parents who really don’t care if their child gets an education but of course the vast majority do.
It feels like the whole education system in this country is failing. The sad thing is, how many kids will do badly at school because they don’t fit a government check box.

I completely agree about ND burnout, but then it begs the question, what has changed.

I know several girls with ASD who are no longer in school, or on restricted timetables. At least two of their mothers are also diagnosed, or suspect that they are also autistic. But they could cope with school. So what has happened to cause this shift?

Within the national figures for absences the highest percentage is due to illness. It's clear talking to parents and children that since covid people have become more reluctant to send children in who are a bit poorly, like with a cough. The second highest percentage is children being taken out of school during term time, which is inevitably for holidays. So you could say that a significant reason for the absence figures is that parents want to get cheaper holidays (which is understandable in a way).
It appears that some people have come out of the covid period deciding that, as children managed without attending school then, it's not that important now. So there is a general trend for parents to not be as bothered if their child misses some attendance. They don't appreciate how far behind some children got during the pandemic, either due to them not completing the work set for them, or because some schools were a bit rubbish about it. Or both. Either way - it's been a real struggle for the children and their current teachers to help them fill the gaps from that time. Now, when they are dealing with a child that's been off for a week, or even two, on holiday, teachers are expected to somehow adapt their day to bring that child up to date on what they missed, while still delivering quality education to the others in their class. Think about a child who was in a small group having interventions for 4 weeks, who then vanishes for a week of that time. Are the school expected to give them 1-1 support to make up what they missed?
Some people justify keeping their children off by the fact that they consider their child isn't well supported in their school for whatever reason. Those situations existed before covid, and it's not a major factor in the current absence figures.

My theory is that home is full of screens now in a way it never used to be.

Children used to be bored at home. They’d go to school as the alternative was some terrible day time TV. Staying home now is gaming or social media. School is work and the social element has been closed down in more recent years due to the strictness of the Academy Trusts.

My two really struggle with the school environment. They’re in primary school at the moment so goodness knows how they’ll cope when they each reach secondary! Their teachers are amazing but they’re so stretched. Lots of children with problems. School drop off is carnage, so many crying children clinging to their parents for dear life screaming please don’t leave me here (mine included) I just don’t remember it being like that when I was at Primary school. I know two parents who have decided to deregister their children this year and home educate as it was so difficult to get them into school.

In my opinion the curriculum moves too fast and there’s too much pressure and not enough support. My eldest child in year 4 is learning things I wouldn’t have learnt until secondary school. They go through it all so fast she can’t keep up. The really bright ones are fine, the rest are just left to fail or their parents have to put in a lot of effort at home to help them keep up. Not all parents have the capacity to do that. My youngest comes home with red raw eyes saying she’s been crying all day in class because she doesn’t understand what she’s supposed to do, but she says the teacher just ignores her crying. It breaks my heart, I know they’re busy but it’s just heartbreaking as a parent to think of your child struggling and nobody helping them.

I'm not sure screens is it. Videos have been around for decades, by the late 80s the majority of British households had one according to wikipedia. There are people who are now middle aged and could've spent all day watching their favourite films while they were off school as kids. There were popular home gaming options by that time too. If it were about tempting screen options at home, we'd expect to be able to trace the beginnings of the behaviour to the 80s.

Your point about the social element of school being closed down is thought provoking though.

We are still using the traditional Victorian teaching methods and wondering why it's not working ? It's akin to sending a horse and cart down the motorway.

I agree.

So it does beg the question, along with lots of others, of why bums on seats in schools is really necessary?

OK, tin hat time, but it is social control. Children being taught an approved education and in school for set hours. Parents then working set hours and all being on the hamster wheel of life.

Then it must be a global conspiracy because it’s the same in virtually every country worldwide.

Agree with @LeviOsaNotLeviosaa about discipline. The problem is, schools have little power to stop really bad behaviour, so they focus on the trivialities in order to look like they are doing something. They pretend that nit-picking about sock colour and size of earrings encourages general rule-following, but it's a lie. It actually makes kids have less respect for the rules, because a) they know all that crap has no effect on their learning and b) they see the really bad behaviour go almost unpunished. Teachers deal with the fall-out all day every day, and SLT just blithely go on inventing new bullshit initiatives and sets of snappy-sounding, fake school values all beginning with the same letter.

There’s films (which you would have to watch on repeat as they were expensive or had to be rented) then there the entire world at your fingertips via a smartphone. With every TV show and film known to man, social media, the chance to talk with likeminded people, learn about anything you wish… not at all the same.

Of course it is. Society has always been managed, it is behind the success of civilization, we need the majority to act in the majorities interest.

In less democratic societies schooling, both length and content is more controlled by the state.

Covid is a great example of how those in charge control the masses.

We are still using the traditional Victorian teaching methods

Are we? The same Victorian set of subjects, maybe. I don't think the teaching resources, media, methods or atmosphere of a 2024 classroom probably bear much resemblance to those of a Victorian one. Mine certainly don't.

What ‘traditional Victorian methods of teaching’ are we still using? I’m intrigued.

We are still using the traditional Victorian teaching methods and wondering why it's not working ? It's akin to sending a horse and cart down the motorway.

We're really not!
It seems as though your history education was lacking though.

I didn't say it was the same. I said the situation you described, having no screen based entertainment other than daytime TV, had gone by the late 80s and that if your theory was right we'd expect to see the roots of the issue then. With absence presumably growing every year as screen access did. But we don't.

Also, it wasn't just films, people taped stuff off the TV too and things were swapped around. To say nothing of pirates! My community were low income and all this was going on. You certainly didn't have to buy or rent expensive films to have access to things you wanted to watch on video.

This was all very well established during the childhood of people who are middle aged now.