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.

My guess would be that school has become too rigid and one size fit all. Too much pressure for good results. Inclusive for sen children providing they can just get on with it.

Longer breaks give businesses time to actually set up proper child care services for the summer. There are no shortage of excellent programs in my area. We have 12 weeks to cover. Only 2 of them are hard to find camps for, the ones at the tail ends.

staff are a mix of teachers, university students, and teens. My dd works at one every summer.

I don’t think you meant to quote me. I wasn’t talking about pyjamas x

I was a child in the 70s, I knew one school refuser, and there were regular runners from school. I remember us watching 3 teachers chasing kids across the neighbouring fields on a regular basis. Usually bring brought back over the shoulder of the senior teacher. School refusing isn't new. It's the scale now that's more worrying.

I think a mix of lack of specialist provision, one size fits all, regimented schools, the ridiculous uniform rules, can't take blazer off etc, detention for minor infringement, locked campuses, all are utterly nuts and not good for anyone. The social contract was also broken during covid when education suddenly became optional and childcare. Some kids also struggle with the transition from nurturing primary to nutty academy type schools.

I WFH but actually work and need them at school, sure it's the case for lots of people so doubt it's the correlation. Think it's scare mongering myself. Perhaps covid revealed that kids could stop and the world wouldn't end.

Is it though? I WFH and none of this is true, I chose in person meetings and choose to go into the office at least once a week. I walk and see people, I take my children to activities. Are we saying the same for Stay at home Moms?

Not many people 'dress up' for going to the office nowadays, especially if its not customer facing.

I think it's more to do with the various issues in schools which have probably escalated since the pandemic. Correlation doesn't equal causation.

Disruptive behaviour
Bullying
Children with SEN not being able to cope
Extremely high academic standards

All of these things mean more and more children are finding school hard to cope with.

Btw I also wfh part of the week and ds1's attendance is 100%, ds2's is 99.5%. That's due to luck this year, nothing else.

I think these kinds of school refusal issues tend to be dominated by Anglophone countries. I don’t think any of our EU neighbours have anything like this- and most of them have school systems that are far less flexible and far more unforgiving.

Evidence?

I'm from abroad and also have 'school refuser', who is autistic and now home educated.
It's UK govt policies that are causing most of the problems.
From inflexible attendance to uniforms through the long school days to kids having to be sent in sick.
Last month it was home education getting bashed in the name of ideology. Apparently they are absent too much. It's conflating home ed and school kids on roll and not attending.
Whatever suits the agenda of the day.
We are moving abroad in a month or two finally.
Schools with 4hr school day, no uniform, stay home when sick. Makes a lot of difference to whether child can or cannot cope with school.

So, is working from home much more widespread in the north than in the south?!

DH and I run our own businesses and have always worked from home altho I do site visits and events so not always at home but I'm rarely dressed up smart. DH is from home 95% of time since covid.

Both my DC love school and have never asked to or tried to skive off. Admittedly they're still young but still not something we've experienced here.

Oh yes @Shinyandnew1 I think I read that in an article in the Times last month Yorkshire and the Midlands I think it was in that article.

As a later poster states, different requirements.

Germany 8am -12pm
A few offer Whole day or they can go to Childcare/Hort/HW club in the afternoon
But essentially:
No uniform so no sensory issues
Shorter day so easier to mask
If you fail, you fail - and resit the year, so many parents pay for tutors. The culture isn't all schools hoisted by the same petard so the pastoral system isn't skewed towards lates/attendance. It would be commented on but the punishment ultimately is kids fail the year than parents are fined and it is absolutely a Qualifications-led country
SEN are often all herded off into Special Schools (this is another issue in itself) so the focus on Inclusion at all costs with no £, is not what we have there
Do not misunderstand me - I don't think it works for SEN either and am sure the Jugendamt get involved
Biggest thing about Germany is that Home Ed is illegal
There will be school refusing I am certain, but as so many additional needs are lumped into Foerderschulen with no sodding qualifications, I am not sure what happens to them. It is odd that you tend to not see SEN visibly, they are almost hidden
Happy for any Germans to tell me different.Am genuinely curious to hear their experience.

don’t think any of our EU neighbours have anything like this- and most of them have school systems that are far less flexible and far more unforgiving

I'd like to hear more about the school systems in other EU countries.

What's the curriculum like?
Whats the length of the school day/term?
What's the testing like and at what age? What is done with the assessment data-is their school inspection regime based on it and does it lead to loss of staff jobs if inspections are deemed a 'failure'?
What are the fines for absence?
What is the schools/gov line about sending pupils in when they are unwell?
What are the uniform expectations?

Oh and just because 8am-12pm primary schoolers can stay later/do other things doesn't mean they do...very often, parents are picking them up at noon to take them home for lunch then they have the whole afternoon to do HW then chill.
The pressure to perform comes at the end of primary when they have to do well to go onto Gymnasium...where the formative assessment is insane.

Baveria
maths German science (HSU it covers all sorts) PSHE MFL R.E or ethics
8am-12pm
Term time similar to here
Testing formative 1-6 throughout with emphasis on year 4
May have comparison between Bundeslaender but teachers are Beamte status and lauded
No idea about fines
If kids are sick, they're sick
No uniform rules at all

That's actually a good point which I thought of before but more the fact the Mum was just at home. A sil has never worked and her Mum used to take LO to school. The dc knowing they were both at home had a lot of mysterious ailments and reluctance to leave the house. Tje adults were pretty lax about it and attendance diabolical and yes just for the reason they didn't want to go and were given in to. Xx

Slovakia here..
Day is 8-12, full two months off during summer. If parents work kids go to afterschool club, but that's fun, not more sit down learning.
Curriculum is more varied, kids still have art/languages/music etc timetabled.
Testing is continuous throughout the year, you collect marks for assignments and twice a year you get big mark. If you fail you get to try again in the summer or held back. they are changing it to words based assessment soon.
No ofsted and none if those fed to anything like it.
No fines for absences. Kids can be off for five days before paper from GP and up to twice a month. If too many kids sick the school closes for a week.
No uniforms at all.

I'm not German but wanted to move there (but home ed is illegal, so can't).
When visiting and spending plenty of time it struck me that in Getmany (and most of Europe) autistic kids don't stick out as much.
I think it's partially the culture. People say what they mean, unlike in UK.
So, much less stress working out what person means when they are asking for something . Also less crowded and noisy.
My eldest could pass for NT abroad.

Really interesting about the EU i never knew the schools ended at 12pm. Is that for all ages?

They increase lessons gradually but I didn't get to Uk reception hours until I was 16 or so!

Secondary I think was 1pm I've slept since.
I don't know rhubarb mine stuck out a mile. Would fit in better now though, absolutely, but would find the continuous assessment pressure too much.
In France they have two months in Summer and also resitting iirc

My oldest is 11 now and I think ready to go back to school.
If he went to state mainstream abroad he could be given various things like only doing as much as can, not be subject to continuous assessment etc. System lots more flexible.
But I will be sending him privately (those aren't like UK private schools at all). He will be in class of 6 and the whole school is 18 kids. They have art therapy/ therapy dog etc. It's all just lots more chilled