1 in 5 children missing school

[ladykale]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66701748.amp

I don't understand these stats in the U.K. a proportion of children suffer from mental health and SEN issues which are not well supported in school, but that can't be 1 in 5!

Mental health/SEN aside, interested to hear from mums on here - do you let you kids not go to school if they don't feel like it or push back a lot?

How come school attendance rates are much higher in other European countries and very high in developed Asian countries - are their children not subject to similar mental health challenges?

Are these children at home or on the streets while they don't attend school?

In response to OP

Not on the streets, no.
At home, usually in her bed most of the day.
Occasionally doing something creative and some of the little school work that is set for her online.
On the 3 year waiting list for ADD/ASD assessment while I battle with her mainstream secondary school over her needing a placement at a SEND provision.
Worrying me sick as her beautiful soul and personality seemingly ebb away as she feels worthless and unable to learn like everyone else.
The suicidal thoughts have passed now she attends private counselling I can barely afford, but it's getting her through at the moment.

No this isn’t true.

When l was a secondary teacher l had to give a load of homework just to get through the syllabus,

Are you waiting for CAMHS assesment? Which part of UK it is , if I may ask? Have you tried accessing Community Peadiatrician in the meantime? They usually are quicker to access

Avoidance makes anxiety worse, so if during COVID children were able to not attend at all this became self perpetuating.

Most treatments for anxiety involve gradual exposure but I'm not sure schools know how to implement them properly (as they aren't mental health professionals).

Ironically the emphasis on mental health then makes other children worried about worrying - I get a bit worried -maybe I "have anxiety" - which makes the anxiety worse.

I speak as the parent of a child with SEN and social anxiety which we are working on very hard.

I don't have a source for this stat - its from an organisation that advocates for pupils with SEND. But they said that 80% of persistent absentees have either autusm or adhd.

@Ponderingwindow wow how lucky are you to have had so much support for your child. If only this was the case for all children.

Unmet SEN underpins a huge amount of EBSA.

Waiting lists for assessment stretch into years.

Lack of funding presents appropriate and timely support.

I am a professional working full time in an allied field. Advocating for my child's SEN to be met in an overwhelmed mainstream setting is like a part-time job, taking up hours each week with emailing, liaising, form-filling, meetings and appointment. I have the resources to do this but I fucking rage against this system which sees parents and families with less time, resources and capacity fall short of provision for their children simply because advocacy snd access is so impossible. For shame.

My DS is also in a specialist school and has a good deal of these life skills lessons.
Some are amazing (e.g. they have a small farm area and he learns things there we'd never be able to cover).
But quite a bit of it most families would naturally teach. I'd rather he did science in their lab which is never used than make cakes which we do at home.

Like @TheMotherSide I spend hours every week trying to get the needs of my two children with SEN met. Things are going pretty well for us now and attendance is good, but only because I've put in a huge amount of work, including taking my LA to tribunal. Six months ago we were were thinking of not sending my son to school until we managed to get a place at a school we thought would address his needs, as his mental health was suffering. We've managed to turn things round but the effort has been immense.

I laugh when I get messages from school saying we should arrange appointments outside of school hours. We've spent YEARS on waiting lists. Like I'm going to ring up and say oh please delay my son's appointment three months so that we don't miss school.