To think that mass non-attendance at school is COVID-related?

[ThatDearLilacBird]

It seems like the impact of Covid is still lingering in terms of attendance. Whether it’s fear of getting sick, lingering health concerns or a change in routine during the pandemic, it feels like there’s a pattern of kids (and even parents) being less motivated to go back to school in full force. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me overthinking it?

More likely due to it being the summer holidays.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

That was 5 years ago!

For many it’s violence related. They’re basically too traumatised by the endless, unaddressed violence in school to attend. If you had to go to work every day knowing that one of your colleagues was likely to start chucking chairs around would you want to go in?

Is there mass non-attendance?

In which areas and what are the statistics?

Where are you? Scotland?

In most other areas of the UK. It is still school summer holidays, so schools currently have a 100% absence rate.

I don't think most people give covid a great deal of thought anymore. Perhaps a little more in autumn or winter when seasonal vaccinations are due, but otherwise mostly not.

Honestly, yes. For me personally, pre-Covid, my kids were going to school unless they had been vomiting. I was brought up like that, a cold is just a cold type thing. But I'm a lot less strict on that post-Covid. If they wake up not feeling great with a cold, they can stay home.

The change in routine, and initially being told to absolutely not come in with a cold was a big factor there I guess.

I suspect that for some it made them realise that they didn't actually have to go to school. The ties had been severed. Students also got behind and have been unable to make up the knowledge gaps so checked out. The ramifications will be felt for a lifetime for some.

People will still be blaming Covid in 20 years time. Humans love a ‘reason’ because it excuses them of responsibility for things.

Lifetime prospects will have been damaged, for some.

I think people need to stop blaming covid for everything.

It's gone.

People need to get on with life.

People don't attend school for multiple reasons. Covid would just be an easy excuse.

That was 5 years ago ffs!
Or are you going to still have that attitude when the DCs are unable to get, let alone keep, a job?

Agree.

The government will be blaming covid for years to come.

That’s a part of it and makes me think it’s less about one root cause and more about an ecosystem that broke down. COVID might have been the match but things like school violence, mental health backlogs, SEND needs being unmet, and the weird flexibility of post-pandemic routines are all fuel on the fire.

My son always struggled with school but was at his happiest immediately post lockdown. The mitigation measures put in place to stop infection spread meant staggered break times (quieter playgrounds), one way systems (quieter corridors), a soft start and fewer visitors and interruptions during the day. He coped pretty well. It was the “return to normal” that did it for him, everything became too loud, too busy and too chaotic when he had become accustomed to the quieter atmosphere. He was out of school for 2 years, he just couldn’t cope. We’re still dealing with the fallout now.

So yes, Covid was a catalyst but not in the way most people think.

Covid was definitely a catalyst in my house. Then compounded by both my girls getting ASD diagnosis's in high school, poor behaviour by classmates (fights/shouting/loud non compliance), large high schools being a completely inappropriate environment for them both, senco's overwhelmed and unable to do their jobs due to workload, the knowledge that they could study online...

There is actually a noticeable trend in mass non-attendance post-COVID, backed by stats from both the UK and internationally. In England, overall absence rates rose sharply during the pandemic and haven’t fully returned to pre-COVID levels. For example, unauthorised absences in secondary schools are still about 80% higher than before the pandemic and chronic absenteeism (missing 10%+ of sessions) doubled from 17% to 38% in one study. Primary schools saw a similar, though slightly smaller, shift.

It’s not just illness anymore, it’s a mix of disrupted routines, mental health, trauma (like violence, as others have mentioned) and families reevaluating school as a given. One school leader even described it as “an existential crisis in attendance.” There’s solid evidence that COVID cracked something and the effects are still unfolding.

(Sources: EPI, LSE, Attendance Works, DfE)

I’m in the Uk yes, no need to be obtuse. I’m fully aware it’s the school holidays. The post wasn’t about this literal moment but about broader patterns in school attendance post-Covid. There’s been a noticeable shift in attitudes and behaviours since the pandemic and many schools have seen persistent issues with attendance ever since. That’s what I’m referring to.

There's quite a lot of judgement there from you, based on a tiny snippet of information! You know nothing about their ages, frequency of being ill, academic ability, their own attitudes to being off, their ambitions, literally nothing, so why you think they're going to be unable to get a job is baffling!

It was a perfectly reasonable question. Scotland is in the UK too, but returns to school around now, before much of the rest of the UK.

You didn't give the information in your OP about what you were basing your question on. It therefore isn't being obtuse to ask where you are and what you meant. Nobody is telepathic.

I think it's partly COVID and partly the triple whammy of social media giving vulnerable kids no respite from school, a hugely overstuffed and deliberately difficult curriculum that was only fully rolled out in 2018 which does not suit many neurodivergent or less academically able kids, and the ubiquitousness of academy trusts using ridiculously punitive and non ND friendly behavioural systems.

A huge preponderance of kids with EBSA are autistic, and most have years of "surviving not thriving" in school before they stop being able to attend.

Let's wait until the war starts and see what effect that has.

School attendance officer here. Covid is definitely still having an impact attendance has not gone back to pre covid levels many parents think it was OK to keep them off during covid so still ok now. Attendance levels for children on PP is much lower than non PP children

I think that for many people Covid caused us to look around critically at daily routines. It’s a bit like the boiling frog analogy you do all the things you do every day cause you are too busy to look around and take stock, more and more gets piled on and you just cope because it’s what you do and you have to keep putting one foot in front of another.

If DS was ill he went to school unless his leg was hanging off, exactly as I was told by my parents and they were told by my grandparents.

Covid caused most people to re-evaluate the ‘norms’ I’m not soft with DB and his attendance last year was 97. Something percent, but I do keep him home if he has a bad cold (not a sniffle) or a bad stomach, whereas before I might have told him to suck it up.

Similarly I would have struggled into work with the same, but now I would work from home or take a day off instead, and I think we’re all better for it.

I agree with PP that in some ways schools were more pleasant under Covid restrictions, less noisy and chaotic and I can see that for neurodivergent kids that might have been a blessing and getting back to pre-covid norms could be very challenging.

it’s also quite well documented that children’s development was hampered and behavioural issues seem more prevalent now. Coupled
with the pressure cooker effect of stats, league tables etc. I think a combination of factors have made schools less pleasant places to be overall.

I think it's due to more parents WFH.

My mum had to be on the train to work at 8.43, so everyone was dressed, breakfasted and out of the house by 8.05. If we were too ill to go to school, we couldn't be left in the house alone, so it was a massive pain for her - changing meetings, dealing with stroppy clients, placating arsey bosses. So the expectation was that we took 2 aspirin, put a tissue and some throat sweets in our pocket and off we went.

If you work from home and just need to log on at 9, getting everyone dressed and out is not so much of an imperative and might even be a right pain. If you've got a child with a sniffly nose, it's easier to say 'Stay in bed with the tablet, dear and I'll pop up and see you after I've finished my first couple of hours work.'

If you're a teenager who is finding school stressful, a home with the heating on, wifi running and mum/dad in the home office upstairs is a comforting place to be.