The absence epidemic

[MelodiousThunk]

An interesting article in the Guardian today discussing school absence. Unfortunately it doesn’t discuss the elephant in the room which is bullying, nor the schools which sweep it under the carpet (“you should be more resilient”) or which employ teachers who are bullies themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/02/children-are-holding-a-mirror-up-to-us-why-are-britains-kids-refusing-to-go-to-school?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

thanks for posting. Great article but I agree with you, there should be far more mention of bullying and probably also stress teachers and peers with toxic behaviour. Ever case study in the article suggests those who struggle are autistic or have adhd instead of recognising that many perfectly lovely, wonderful, sensitive children are facing misery due to peers who lack empathy. Bullying is indeed the elephant in the room here.

I think another major issue is reduced school budgets which make it very difficult for schools to provide the necessary support that some children need to feel safe and successful at school.

My son had terrible attendance last year due to a medical issue: we struggled to get appointments and follow ups with the doctor surgery, which impacted his health and wellbeing. I think the NHS being under such strain plays a part.

I agree re: the aspect of bullying incidences too.

@MelodiousThunk , interesting article. Your comments about bullying and resilience is so true. What I heard happening to some children and honestly if this was in a high pressure finance job…it would be employment tribunal time. I can’t correlate why it is not ok to happen in the work place but ok in school….show kindness and build resilience. Therefore allowing some other children to join in this behaviour because everyone does it. Also, in the work environment you could move quickly to another company unlike school.

@PeachPieStreet same. 7 months including 25 days in hospital plus numerous appointments to get a diagnosis.

I'm really sorry to hear that @DisquietintheRanks - that must have been such a worry for you.

I do wish Ofsted would stop bashing schools over the head with attendance. Monitor it yes - important for safeguarding and to ensure schools are not taking the easy route with challenging children - but it leads to blanket attendance policies which takes up unnecessary admin time and ironically makes it harder for schools to help those who are struggling with attendance, for whatever reason that may be. Attendance is AN issue, but it is never THE issue.

You appear to be suggesting that the article focuses on children who are autistic or have ADHD, when there are also many perfectly lovely, wonderful, sensitive children who also struggle? Is that what you meant?

I have a daughter who has great difficulty going to school (severe anxiety). DH and I are both teachers and understand the importance of education but how do you force an extremely distressed child into school. Unfortunately many secondary schools seem to be horrible places to be at the moment. Either rife with bad behaviour and bullying or draconian prison camps. And pastoral support is often woeful due to underfunding.

@greyflannel I see how that can be misunderstood sorry, that is not at all how I meant it. I just mean that many children can struggle for no other reason than being exposed to toxic peers and struggling at school does not always mean a child needs a diagnosis or that the diagnosis explains why they experience school as a scary or hostile environment.

The majority of non attenders have SEND issues. My ASd Dd couldn’t cope with school environment.

Nothing offered as a replacement.

Thank you for clarifying.

Interesting YouTube presentation about contextual safeguarding relating to children’s safety in schools. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bCFZQcaIgDM

parents are often incorrectly held responsible for attendance issues when in-fact schools are often unsafe places.

The limited uk school system seems to suit only a percentage of children. The children failing in school and school refusers need something different to succeed, which is currently not provided. Yes many of these children might be ND. It seems children and parents are voting with their feet, prioritising their child’s well-being and deregistering to educate otherwise. What’s needed is a proper shake up of the education system and a move away from one size fits all.

Quite. If I were to violently assault one of my work colleagues on the way home I doubt very much that HR would shrug their shoulders and say “nothing we can do” just because it didn’t happen during work hours or on work premises.

Every child I know who has gone on to college (we don’t have school sixth forms in our county) has mentioned how wonderful it is to be surrounded by people who actually want to learn, and by tutors who actually treat them with respect. I tell DS he just has to stick it for another four years but of course that is a lifetime for a kid. I wonder if the secondary schools could learn anything from the colleges. Of course the main issue with secondary schools is half the kids don’t want to be there and make it hell for everyone else.

I do agree that bullying is a reason but this if anything is reduced now from the past, it was terrible when I was at school - the article is about why things are worse now than the past which is what we are all wondering. 20,30,40 years ago children with send did exist yet the numbers were far smaller, why are today's children so much more anxious, so many more conditions etc - it's not just better diagnosis (giving a name) there's evidence that psychologically at least todays youngsters are in a bad place even before covid, why? Social media is cited but I'm sure it's a lot more complex.

School attendance, parental involvement etc are factors in a huge complicated situation

And yes no answers just questions from me. My dd had attendance under 50.% by year 10 ... asd

There is so much more pressure on kids that’s why SEND absence is increasing,

25 years ago there was no pressure on kids for results. Now they are under unbearable constant pressure at secondary all the time.

As you say, with colleges, all the students who are there have chosen to be there, and it is also easier for colleges to ask students who are violent, or really seriously disruptive to leave, than secondary schools. In terms of bullying, schools unfortunately do have limited options- it is very difficult to exclude before it gets physical.

Most school sixth forms are a nicer environment than KS3/KS4 as well. Part of that is choosing to be there, I'm sure, but I also think there's an element of maturity involved, Y12s in general are often much nicer to be around than Y9s.

Colleges and sixth forms also tend to have smaller class sizes, and the students get free periods within their day which allows them to decompress- they don't have to be on all the time.

I think KS3/4 would be much nicer for everyone in lots of ways if students were in classes of 20 max, I'm not saying it would necessarily make persistent absence less of an issue, but it might help some students. But there's no way that's going to happen without significant funding being pumped into schools.

More downtime in the school day might also help in some ways, but again you need space, you need staff to supervise it... it all costs money.

Many schools feel overcrowded, and I imagine they are hellish for anyone with sensory difficulties or who has anxiety- again, having more space costs money.

I also think the waiting times for ASD and ADHD diagnosis probably don't help- ASD is 2 years + around here.

More downtime in the school day might also help in some ways

I agree. My DC gets a 15 minute morning break and a 30 minute lunch break. The rest of the day they have form time and 3 long lessons of 1.5 hours each. I know the school does it to reduce bad behaviour around transition times but I think it's too much time for kids to have to focus without breaks, especially those who find the classroom environment challenging. They need some opportunities to decompress.

Agree. My son refused school for a bit, having previously always loved it. He is well behaved and very bright and loves learning. Eventually I got to the bottom of it and realised it was his teacher. Complaining made her behaviour worse. After a final straw moment I told school he wasn't going back until they moved him to a new class. He immediately started enjoying school again and has loved it ever since. But school never wanted to acknowledge how out of order her behaviour was.

I am also astounded how long bullies are kept in school, it seems the priority is to keep the bully at school not the wellbeing of the other children. My st ep son was badly attacked by another boy at secondary and we then learnt that this child has a long track record of doing these attacks yet somehow still remains at the school

Agree about health as well. All our clinic appointments are during the school day, and these days dentists appointments have to be too. Some of the children's clinics don't run at all in the school holidays, I guess because staff need holidays too.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I agree a 10-6 schools day would help most teenagers as the my can sleep in and stay up later with more breaks. Do they really need to be supervised on breaks tho we used to go out on the yard without supervision and walk into town on lunch without issue. The same kids will be home alone on a morning or evening. Behaviour seems to deteriorated since they can't leave the school site during the day.

One of our local schools has noticed kids trying to avoid lessons as school avoidance has gone through the roof... so their response to kids struggling like mad and trying to hide out anywhere on site after parents have been harassed like mad to physically get them into school is to come down heavier on them when they're there and avoiding lessons by longer and harder stints in a new "expanded" isolation block as punishment.

That's going to help.

The education system is becoming more and more rigid. Almost like Victorian! I don’t know how that’s going to help kids stay in school. IIts all about saving money.

Ckasses should be small and learning should be fun. Not some prescriptive shit which kills the joy. It’s joy that’s missing.

@CoffeeWithCheese exactly, the SLTs at many schools appear to be bullies themselves - something that seems to be
confirmed by many teachers. These people wouldn’t last 5 minutes outside of the bizarre environment that is the U.K. education system, but they’re they prosper. It’s far easier to blame the victims than address the root causes. And of course what bully is going to punish their fellow bullies, even if they are 30 years their junior?