To think the Ofsted inspector who blames WFH parents for low attendance is probably just resentful?

[JandamiHash]

The Chief Inspector of Ofsted is blaming parents who WFH for the demise of school attendance https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-16/parents-working-from-home-makes-children-feel-school-is-optional-ofsted-head?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0ULgukQnTsabNTlcJRBI4kVQsMYkhCPK_KA4lUAgVkxOocYfo3onmRNHU_aem_nuBknA_QEGgfA93CaTPagg. Apparently none of us want to take our slippers off so we let our kids stay at home while we work.

He makes some REALLY weird points like his overworked dad he didn’t see much as his inspiration to go to school. And also MPs making sure they spend weekends with their families is a bad work ethic.

I know MN is a good example of whenever WFH threads are brought up, non-WFHers come on dripping with resentment over WFH and implying WFHers don’t really work. AIBU to think this man - who has somehow been knighted - is basically doing that? I’m not sure how much inspecting he does now, but Ofsted inspectors aren’t any superior or harder working just because they spend a few days working away from home at a time (something BTW I’m expected to do, at least 1 overnight a month).

Also as someone from a household where 2 of us WFH, I can’t think of anything worse than having kids flapping around us while we try and work. I’m FT, and this week I’m off Weds-Fri, as is DH. my DD11 will be at home tomorrow with strict instructions to keep away unless there’s a serious emergency (she’s secondary and old enough to take care of herself) and at a friend’s on Tuesday. My DS is 8 and is going into a holiday club tomorrow and Tuesday as his neediness is unbearable. Both have somewhere between 97 and 99% attendance so far this academic year.

YABU - “He’s got a point”
YANBU - “He’s wrong/resentful”

You again assume!

Kids of teachers also suffer with anxiety and struggle to get into school at some times. What you mean is that teachers manage to still work alongside their children who are struggling with anxiety and so you assume they do not have attendance issues or the parents wouldn't be in work?

What do you think makes children of teachers not have anxiety?

There might not be evidence in the article but those of us who work with children and families and have been EWOs in the past know that the biggest factor in school refusal is a parent being at home. There are always outliers of this and not every school refuser has the same reasons for the refusal even if the factors match but there is usually something about the anxiety linked to the parent being at home (vulnerable parent, exciting parent, unreliable parent, colluding parent) influencing this.

I think the headline distorts what he is saying - and your OP does the same, I’m afraid. What he’s saying is quite measured as PPs have said.

It’s not working from home per se as clearly not too long again, most families had a SAHM, who would be much more present for the kids than someone wfh. It could be - as I think he’s saying - that the societal idea that we all get up and dressed in the morning and leave the house, has waned a bit. And that’s worth discussing.

If adults think feel entitled to “duvet days” or to roll out of bed to work in their pyjamas five mins after waking, that’s going to make children less inclined to get up and go to school.

Can I ask two other things OP?

1. why are you and your DH taking the same three days off, when you could take different days and not have to give your 11 yo strict instructions to leave you alone?
2. and why do you describe your 8 yo as having “neediness” that is “unbearable”. Do you mean he wants to interact with his parents when they’re in the house? Like a primary ages child would!

@StrivingForSleep you seem to be deliberately missing the point. My discussion about demographics was to show that this is much more akin to a mental health issue than something systemic, such as a change in schooling. Otherwise, systemic changes tend to negatively impact one particular group of people.
If you wait for an EHCP, roughly a two year process from start to finish in my area, what is happening in those two years? What is your child doing? Some parents, particularly in the SEN community, seem resistant to any sort of parental input.
For my personal experience, I am a year on from starting the process of getting an EHCP for my child. Her EBSA has nearly resolved BECAUSE SHE IS HAPPIER. I am much more consistent with her, we have more downtime, we are doing more self compassion work. Yes it could be a fluke but it's not been an EHCP which has made a difference and I know plenty of children with EHCP's who are not regularly attending school.

I think his points are really quite valid. Habit forming is important, and normalising getting up and leaving the house for work, and changing that norm, has knock on impacts to children who aren't yet mature enough to understand the different nuances of work.

But it’s not statistical. There are no statistics linking WFH parents to low attendance. Just speculation

As Ive said if you work with schools (I dont work in a school) or you work in a school you know this, its not speculation

But nobody works in every single school. So she's not wrong about the need for actual statistics if anyone wants to claim something is statistically true.

You are presenting yourself as someone who is taking these comments extremely personally.

I hope you find peace with whatever is causing you to respond in this way.

There's nothing in the times one that isn't in the itv one you linked, most of it is word for word the same. ITV has left out a figure showing attendance rates being worse since COVID, but this information is summarised in the itv article anyway.

Not sure why people are being so strange here.

Also the itv article is not an abstract. It's just a slightly abbreviated version

@HeyDrake I am not missing the point. You seem to be missing mine - I haven’t mentioned anything about the cause of EBSA and my post was purely about you misunderstanding EHCPs. So directing a post saying EBSA is akin to a MH issue than a systemic one towards me is irrelevant to what I posted.

I appreciate many have to appeal, sometimes more than once, but if the 2 years from start to finish doesn’t include at least one appeal, parents don’t have to accept that. If LAs breach the statutory timescales, they can force the LA to act, via JR if necessary.

Under section 19 of the Education Act 1996, if CSA DC can’t attend school full-time, LAs have a statutory duty to ensure they still receive a suitable full-time education. This is separate to the EHCP process and should begin as soon as it becomes clear 15 days will be missed. The days don’t need to have already been missed or consecutive. And provision should begin by the sixth day of absence at the latest. Again, where this isn’t forthcoming from the LA, it can be enforced.

Some with EHCPs don’t attend school, that doesn’t always mean they aren’t receiving an education. An increasing number of children and young people have EOTAS/EOTIS/with or without a C on the end. For many of them, school will never be appropriate. DC on the roll of a school but unable to attend need a review of their EHCP because it clearly isn’t meeting their needs.

I'm not a parent so nope again - assumptions that are not correct! More deflection by suggesting something that isn't true.

I don't have skin in the game so nope you're wrong - again!

No I read a C&P of another article. Thats how the media outlets do it which was why it’s the same text. I then read the full Times article and haven’t changed my mind one bit. Or are you just ignoring that part?

Oh yawn at the “haven’t you got anything better to do fnar fnar”. You’re here too love otherwise how would you know I post “every hour of every day”?

Also I don’t work Sundays. Not many people do.

I think I must have bruised your ego when I didn’t agree with you. You seem REALLY annoyed at me

<Dons hard hat> it’s definitely all those things but I think the modern permissive parenting styles have a lot to do with it as well.

I do work in a school and we have not found any link between persistent absences and parents WFH. In my school, the majority of kids with persistently poor attendance actually have a stay at home parent, or a single parent family or from lower socio economic backgrounds.

I never said you were a parent 😂

But you’re coming in strong for someone who doesn’t have ‘skin in the game’ 😂

Anyway, happy Sunday whippy.

Persistent absences? Or just absences that have increased?

And in my posts Ive tended lump 'a parent at home' together, apart from one because I was asnwering a point

Sure - and BTW I know what you mean about the attitudes changing, but I think they were always changing anyway but COVID expedited them IYSWIM

1. We’re going away for a few days and because it’s the end of the financial year approaching we don’t have loads of annual leave left. Normally we would tag team
2. Yes exactly - it’s only unbearable when I’m trying to work though. It’s not fair on him for me to always be (metaphorically) pushing him away when he wants to interact with me. Which is why I never WFH when he’s around. I promise I savour the neediness when I’m not working, I’m very aware he’s my last baby and I’ll miss the “Mum can you play avengers with me” one day (maybe)

But parents not leaving for work when their kids leave for school is nothing new.

I get up because someone has to take the kids to school. People will work night shifts and be laying in bed whilst their children get ready. Some people are part time and so won’t be leaving the house that day. This has been the case for decades

It makes ore sense to teach children that hard work can be achieved within the home - which is not hard for them to understand

Yes, it's a very narrow, Mon to Fri 9 to 5 normative view of work. As if nobody ever worked shifts before March 2020.

Ah, so that's why ds' head teacher asked if I work from home full time now when we were discussing his attendance.
I've worked from home for a good 10 years before I had children.

You only know this for your set of patents though. And unless you actually collect data on parents working patterns, which I’ve never heard a school doing, you don’t know this.

Yes exactly. There’s a reason everything is C&P from other sources these days! I think some people are Isley that they wrongly misrepresented The Times article as being data driven and compelling when it really wasn’t

Once upon a time I worked with child protection services and almost every case I came across had low absence as a factor. It was one of the ways Victoria Climbie was missed by authorities IIRC. I’m not saying that all families with low attendance have a safeguarding issue as times have changed significantly, but it is still a factor within children involved in social services and I think the focus should be places like that.

Any pupils whose attendance dips below 95% is automatically flagged so we look at the data for this. Our schools attendance is negatively affected by persistent long term absences which have increased significantly post covid.

Another factor which is definitely contributing is parents who take their kids on holiday. I can't comment on this in a measurable way as usually parents don't disclose. But it is painfully obvious when a kid comes back from a week long 'tummy bug' with a tan.

I will say as a parent having a WFH partner does make it easier for us to provide care when DC is sick as partner can shift his hours around. So whilst we would never keep off of not sick we can accommodate sick days a bit better.