WFH causing school refusal to increase.

[rivalsbinge]

I read a thought provoking post on LinkedIn a comment about school refusals being so much higher since WFH became more "normal"

In essence the thought was a lack of everyone up, dressed out the door, it's now kids up breakfast dressed smart, out the door with parents in PJs or leisure wear going back home to work and the kids knowing that parents are at home makes them more likely to want to also stay home.

Obviously the parents do work but the kids (age dependent) are not seeing this and are thinking work/ school is now optional.

I did think this poster may have a valid point but interested in what others think, I'm also not talking about SEN and other considerations.

There are a number of things he seems to be unaware of! The existence of parents who didn't have a 9 to 5 Mon to Fri office job prior to 2020, for example. SAHPs and shift workers are fictitious, it would seem.

The Chief Inspector of Ofsted needs to reflect on a) the difference between correlation and causation and b) their own organisation's contribution to the SEND crisis in schools, including the lacunae in their inspection framework, ignoring of parental evidence of SEND children being failed, and in some cases subjected to harms, and the messaging this sends to SLTs and Trusts on ignoring legal obligations with impunity.

Absolutely.

This is all just a distraction though-he won't and can't do anything about WFH or the length of school holidays. He knows they are contentious issues and would rather people were talking about those over half term, than discussing how crap his report card idea is!

My DD was far more likely to go into school if I was wfh .... she felt safer there knowing I could collect her more quickly if things got too much for her.

This was long before covid, 2016/17 and thankfully we had the set up to enable wfh and I had a very understanding boss at the time.

My husband has worked from home since lockdown and I have worked either part time or been on maternity leave. Never had an issue with my children going to school.

Totally agree school aren’t fit for purpose, children are suffering, there’s also a few threads on here regarding teachers leaving the profession. But instead they blame the parents.. if they don’t work their settings bad examples, if they work they don’t spend enough time with their kids, if they work from home they’re not sending kids to school…never the school or the education system fault apparently

Covid may not have affected the kids for which I am grateful for. However the teachers and support staff around running a school weren’t immune. We had two staff undergoing cancer treatment, three pregnant staff and various other staff that were considered in the vulnerable category. Kids spread diseases as they can’t social distance and even washing hands isn’t done properly and they couldn’t/wouldn’t wear masks.
All the government said was open the windows like schools were protected by some magic forcefield. School staff weren’t even put on the priority list for vaccines and had to wait until their age group was called up.
so hindsight is wonderful but schools can’t function without staff

While I was working from home my kids had time off basically if they were near death! And I say that as someone with a child prone to school refusing too. Since stopping work, I would be more inclined to allow them the day off but still haven't since I stopped. WFH certainly didn't give me a different attitude to it over me being in an office though - I was still working!

I wfh and there is a whole bunch of threads on linked in where parents who work from home are calling this absolute bullshit as if you have evr tried working from home with kids then you know how utterly ridiculous it is to suggest that parents are allowing this. It is impossible to work with kids at home. In fact it is so stressful I can't imagine anyone actively encouraging their children to stay home while they work.

I don’t think it is linked to WFH but commercial landlords need people renting office space again so need to convince people that the office is best.
In terms of school refusal, especially amongst children with additional needs, flip it around. If children were refusing to go home it would be a safeguarding issue and it would be investigated as to why they didn’t want to go into that environment but school refusal is minimised. If that was an adult that could not cope at work, they would go off sick or change jobs. Both of those options are nearly impossible for our children. Learning doesn’t happen when you don’t feel safe and the environment is stressful.

That’s completely rubbish and obviously spread due to the current agenda to get people back to the office. There is WFH-bashing right left and centre right now.
A parent who wfh DOES NOT want their kids around. If a child doesn’t understand that they are going to school while their parent goes to work (regardless of the location of work), then that’s a parenting issue.
WFH is the best thing that came out of the pandemic, it has helped so many people with their mental health, work like balance and general wellbeing. There is no chance I am going back to an office based role and if my company enforces that I am quitting.
The ones at the top not supporting WFH don’t generally contribute to day to day family life and therefore have no clue what benefits it has brought (to their wifes)

My daughters know I work from home on non-office days. No, I don't tend to wear workwear when not in the office, but not PJs or athuleisure-wear either. WFH allows myself and my husband to organise school drop offs and pick ups between us (1 DD has special needs and can't do wrap-around care). If it wasn't for WFH, I'd either be not in the workforce at all or in a local minimum wage job which fitted school hours.

Attendance-wise my DDs are at 98% and 100%.

I personally don’t think the rise in children being absent from school is anything to do with wfh parents. There is just a huge change in attitudes towards education and people don’t seem to value it. There have always been people who don’t value education but there was a strict expectation that children attend - that’s gone out the window for those people. Then there are all the sen cases which have exploded. And those parents just following the social media trend that it’s fine to miss school if your child has sen. Whilst I welcome the more inclusive approach to learning styles, I don’t think that sen kids or any kids should be missing school. There is going to be a huge deficit in educational standards across the uk which is going to be impactful for economic productivity, and there will be a huge number of people who won’t be able to get good jobs in 10-15 years’ time. I find it all very alarming. I’ve seen people’s ‘curriculum’ for their ‘home schooling’ and it’s nothing more than life skills (cooking, shopping, basic numeracy and English language).. Of course there will be loads of home schoolers who do a brilliant job at providing a great education but it’s a pretty varying standard to say the least. It’s a mess and Bridget’s tinkering is doing nothing positive at all.

I work remote (not always from home - sometimes it's in a ski resort!) - if my kids ever asked to stay home just because I was home it would be a firm no and they'd go to school!

I'm not sure there is any truth in the story - sounds like another Ofsted leader confusing what they think with the actual truth.

Or maybe we all just need to get on with it? As someone who went through school with several neurodivergencies, I do feel we need to quit the constant thing about needs not being met and just get on with it. That’s what I had to do I made it through fine. Life is hard and you do just have to get on with it. I worry we’re teeing our kids up to expect an easy life when it’s anything but

No it’s rubbish. Why would wfh make the kids not go to school?? The parents working don’t want the kids at home. Wouldn’t those sat at home on benefits be more to finger point at??

It's got absolutely nothing to do with WFH. What about all those families where one parent doesn't work outside the home? Why are their kids not demanding to stay at home?

No parent wants to be WFH with kids bouncing off the walls , shouting over the top of meetings, demanding food and attention and all of that.

If parents are leaving kids at home for no reason they'd have the school on their backs

What is your thinking about an alternative? Are you suggesting a shift away from capitalism?
Maybe schools are fine but people just have crazy high expectations these days.
everyone wants everything for free. Any economy needs productivity. Where is that coming from? I was listening to an 18 year old thr other day who said that working wasn’t good for his mental health and it’s too stressful so he doesn’t work. What happens when everyone says that? Surely this is a huge problem and we end up being downgraded to developing country status and all the implications of this

I rarely work from home - but when I do I wear PJ bottoms and a plain top. No one can see my legs!

from what I see on many, many screens people working from home dress much more casually than those who come into the office.

Its entirely up to them of course, but I know many are still I their PJ bottoms until lunch😊

I don’t know about that. Why did it not happen before? I think it’s more likely that parents now just play the school refusal card and that’s that. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t come to school when I was at school. Unless they were really unwell.

Utter crap. My kids are more disinclined to go to school on the two days I’m in the office (partly as it’s up earlier for before school club obviously 😆)

They may have suggested to open the windows etc but they were closed completely for weeks on end, if not months.

I agree some people will have been compromised of course, but the majority of the public weren’t. It’s neither here nor there now as it’s done and dusted and as you say hindsights wonderful.

I do believe that was the catalyst to this ‘school is optional’ carry on.

Aside from as PPs have mentioned the aspect of perhaps there being a lower threshold of keeping poorly children home if a parent is wfh, this notion that this having a big affect on school avoidance is literally crazy.

How old are you, out of interest? I find there can be a lot of variation by age here.

40s