To think there have to be some clearer reasons for the rise in school attendance problems?

[FloorWipes]

Inspired by this article https://unherd.com/2024/02/the-tragedy-of-britains-school-refusers/

How specifically has the pandemic affected things? Why is the environment so inhospitable to the neurodivergent?

Will be interesting to see if attendance goes back up with children too young or not born before lockdown.

I ave a friend who works at Brentwood. They don’t do much academic stuff.

For one it's not 'school refusal ' it's barriers to attendance. Wording is important. Modern schools aren't set up for ND kids, back in my day is was individual desks all facing forward. Much more suited to ND kids rather than round a table facing and being close to each other. COVID brought things to a head when kids were shown that going into school isn't the only thing available and education is falling apart at the seams due to underfunding and shit government.

stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/school-on-fire/

Lots of factors over the past 50 years have contributed to the perfect storm we see today:-

1- School sizes - we have fewer and bigger secondary schools making it harder for those who struggle with noise, crowds, etc. It also makes it more likely to need transport to schools further away, making kids suffer the often awful conditions of noise, disruption and bullying on school buses.

2- Comps - we used to have different types of school for different (broadly) types of children, i.e. grammar for academic and technical/sec mod for non academic. That meant kids could, generally, go to a school more suited to them. With comps, you're fitting square pegs in round holes - no academic kids are forced to do academic stuff they're not interested in and incapable of, at a young age, and only allowed to choose subjects they are interested in for GCSE years, by which time, many have lost interest and become disenfranchised.

3-Subjects havn't changed with the times. We're still teaching things to memorise, facts to learn, which is bad enough for those academically able, but painful for those who aren't. In Maths, there's no point trying to teach pythagoras or simultaneous equations to kids who havn't mastered the basics. Same with English trying to teach Shakespeare to kids who can barely read or write. Kids who struggle to learn will soon become bored and disruptive.

4-Lack of discipline - teachers seem frightened to discipline kids, so some classrooms become warzones with disruption, noise, etc., which are obviously harder for "quiet" children to cope with.

5-Classroom layout. Quiet kids are generally happier working on their own, on a single desk, all facing the same way, and not in the clusters/groups of modern classroom design.

Quite simply, it's mostly down to bad behaviour which affects "quiet" children the most, who need a quiet and calm environment, whether in the classroom or the school bus. A few decades ago, poor behaviour wasn't tolerated and was nipped in the bud, maybe helped by smaller schools, so the noise/disruption wasn't so bad.

Money - we're 14 years into a govt that does not care about state education.

Unmet needs - SEND schools are full.

Pandemic - the genue is out of the bottle now, won't ever go back in. The govt said home schooling was an acceptable alternative so now it is.

@ShareTheDuvet apologies if I misread but I'm not sure why you would reference your son's situation on a thread like this if not to compare and say "look, all kids would rather not go really but most do so it must be the parents being weak". If I was wrong I apologise but I hope you can understand it comes from a place of such frustration at being constantly told that the issue lies with the parenting, or lack of and whilst in some case that's true, it's not at all the case for EBSA. I think any discussion of school absence in the media or anywhere else should focus very clearly on what kind of absence they are talking about.

If you look at falling attendances as a whole, without specifically focussing on long term EBSA, then parents WFH has a lot to do with this I reckon.

My primary school child was off school ill on Monday & Tuesday. If I wasn't off or able to WFH then I would have had to take it as emergency annual leave.

Now, if it was pre Covid and WFH, we might have forced them in. probably wrongly as they weren't feeling great with tummy upsets etc, , as we hadn't really any other options.

I know my DC's attendance has dropped for two reasons

1. We no longer care about the schools aggressive attendance monitoring and targets, and unfair incentives such as soft play days vouchers for local entertainment outlets for perfect attendance
2. When it's 50/50 with them not feeling well, they don't go in as we can be at home with them without it affecting work. We basically don't send them in sick anymore .

I realise bigger issues are being discussed here, and I massively worry about the devastating change to Comprehensive school that is in the future, but in the overall big picture I think it counts?

Yes, I’ve wonder that also.

100% agree with this, especially point 3, always thought the same.

@SleepWhenAmDead should add don't move to Derbyshire hoping to get independent specialist school without being prepared for a battle at SENDIST. Their SEND sept are amongst the worst in the country and are likely to get worse as have it on good authority they will be bankrupt by the end of the financial year,

@Riverlee

"Aside all the mental health issues that arose, I think the pandemic taught children that school was optional. Prior to then, you went to school. Everyone did. It was a default setting, and adults mirrored this with going out to work. "

++++

I was going to write exactly the same (although probably not as well worded!)

All of this

www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/blog/my-daughter-couldn-t-go-to-school-what-i-wish-i-had-known/

I wrote this for the young minds charity website in 2022. It was then picked up by The Metro and they added in 'after covid' into the title (as that was the Engle they wanted) . But that wasn't the reason. I think covid definitely hi-lighted the problems of some students (undiagnosed ND)

I think a lot of the issues boil down to children reacting to their environment - they pick up on stress and anxiety levels of adults around them. And let’s be honest: the world has gone crazy with regards to mental health and self diagnoses and expectations around these. No wonder this spreads into schools as well.

*angle they wanted!

In the metro the comments section was particularly unkind (yes I am lazy, can't be bothered' etc) which couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm also being threatened with fines, court and prison for her non attendance. So so stressful and utterly wrong.

On top of reasons around the schools themselves I do think some teenagers are practically feral these days and think they can get away with doing whatever they want. This means that because of their terrible behaviour at school, schools have to bring in rules such as locking the toilets to stop vaping, sexual abuse, drugs etc. That then means that other children are affected by these rules and start to get anxiety over school leading to school refusal.

My boys' school has very strict rules over not answering back etc which some people in our city think are harsh and would never send their kids there. But actually with everyone knowing the rules the behaviour in general is a lot better than the other nearby school, and my son with minor SEN has got all the way to Year 11 with minimal problems. And their toilets have never needed to be locked.

In many cases yes. But also, in some cases it is school refusal and not just barriers to attendance and a lot of workers will tell you that there are a number of children and adolescents who reject any kind of adjustments or alternative provisions.

That's just fact and all of the SEND workers that I know will acknowledge that fact.

To be honest, it makes sense. The idea of organised, formalised and imposed education is something that we as a society think is hugely important.

It doesn't mean that everyone in society will view it as such. There are many cultures who have different views about what constitutes education with varying views of how education should be imposed or not imposed.

Yeah the school l linked to needs an EHCP.

Getting one wasn’t too hard. Not sure how Sheffield differs from Derbyshire though.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Not sure about Sheffield we are in Derbyshire dd went to Brantwood left with a full clutch of GCSE's. She has EOTAS now for A levels therapies etc.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Thank you for linking to Kenwood. Involved in local support groups and it is another possibility for parents to look at as the distance is doable from here.

I wanted Dd to have some friends which is why l didn’t want EOTAS.

She will get speech therapy there and they do supported study periods and no homework. They recognise that ND kids need to regulate when they get home. Lots of stuff on how to build relationships.

It was just lovely. 3 separate medical professionals have said how good it is.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow had I not had to fight DCC to get placement dd would have done Alevels at Brantwood but they did everything in their power to frustrate the process. Dd had SSEN from 3 then EHCP when they moved over so not as if we were starting from scratch but they well deserve the reputation they have. Dd loves EOTAS, me far less so, 30 plus hours pw of professionals in your home is hard work thankfully I can get out when tutors and TA is here and PA goes out with dd as well or I'd be climbing the walls.

I worked in attendance and unfortunately some parents can’t be bothered, in no way the majority but we can’t pretend it isn’t a thing at all.