Attendance – profound breakdown

There has been a profound breakdown in parental attitudes to the idea of full-time school attendance in the years since the Coronavirus pandemic, a recent study has found.

Researchers on the project undertook focus group conversations with parents across the country, from all types of background to find out what was driving the sudden drop in attendance. Overall absence is up by more than 50 per cent since 2019 and persistent absence (pupils missing 10 per cent or more of lessons) has more than doubled.

The conclusions of this work should worry anyone who believes in the importance of education. Many parents no longer believe it is their responsibility to ensure their children are in school every day: the idea that every day in school matters has been abandoned by some mums and dads. Parents in the focus groups were clear that school closures during the pandemic had shifted this attitude in an unprecedented way.

The report’s key findings:

• Covid has caused a seismic shift in parental attitudes to school attendance that is going to take a monumental, multi-service effort to change
• Parents no longer believe that every day matters
• There has been a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between schools and parents across the socioeconomic spectrum​
• The mental health crisis in young people is a huge, compounding issue around attendance
• Term-time holidays are now entirely socially acceptable across all socioeconomic groups
• The cost-of-living crisis is driving more families into poverty and this is an underlying driver of poor attendance in families from lower and no-income groups ​
• Despite popular political and media perception, the increase in parents working from home is not driving the attendance crisis ​
• School level attendance systems feel increasingly draconian to families and yet they are not sufficiently robust or accurate. This undermines the relationship between school and families​
• Sanctions are seen as both irrelevant and antagonistic across all parent group.

The Covid pandemic has caused a “seismic shift in parental attitudes to school attendance” that will take a “monumental, multi-service effort to change”, according to new research.

Government data shows one in five pupils were persistently absent from school last year, with an attendance gap between poorer children and their better off peers widening. Home education has also soared in the wake of the pandemic.

Public First held focus groups across England to investigate the rise in pupil absences since 2019 and found a “fundamental breakdown in the relationship between schools and parents across the socioeconomic spectrum”.

Recent research, supported by charities Impetus, Khulisa and School-Home Support, has found an “increased willingness among parents to take children on holiday during termtime”, a rise in mental health problems and the cost of living crisis were among the “factors” driving lower attendance.

The report recommended…

• A review of how schools and the wider education system communicate with parents and the messaging
• A review and potential abolition of absence fines, which are ‘deeply unpopular’
• Support for schools to provide intensive, nuanced support to families for whom attendance is a significant issue
• Better joined up working and signposting to para-educational agencies including those in mental health
• Improvements to the accuracy of school-level attendance monitoring systems so that information shared with parents is accurate
• That the government highlight the importance of coding attendance to schools – it is impossible to design strategies without this
• Fund schools better, because other strains on education system are manifesting in the attendance crisis
• Invest in SEND and CAMHS to significantly improve attendance

‘Life’s too short’

The report warned a “range of push and pull factors mean that the impetus to attend every day has been lost as parents wrangle with the cost-of-living crisis, their children’s fragile mental health, unmet special educational needs and post-Covid ‘new normal’ society”.

One mother of children aged five and 10 from Manchester said: “Pre-Covid, I was very much about getting the kids into school, you know, attendance was a big thing. Education was a major thing.

“After Covid, I’m not gonna lie to you, my take on attendance and absence now is like I don’t really care anymore. Life’s too short.”

Parents reported that having a child at home had “got easier” since Covid.

But “despite popular political and media opinion, the increase in parents working from home is not driving the attendance crisis”.

Some parents, particularly those from wealthier social groups, said they did work from home more post-Covid, but “all agreed that this would not make them more likely to have their children off school”.

‘Two weeks a year won’t make a massive difference’

The report also pointed to a “radical shift in the way term time holidays are viewed, and the scale at which they are being taken”.

Parents across all social groups “talked openly about taking their children on holiday during termtime, and those that did not were very sympathetic to it”.

One mother from Bristol with a 15-year-old said holidays were “so expensive going during school holidays, for some people it’s the difference between having or not having a holiday…and for me I’ll definitely be taking them out”.

“We always took them skiing in February half term to try and comply. Now I look back and I think why on earth did I do that? Why didn’t I just take them out for a cheap week in January? I would almost say skiing is an educational holiday.”

One mother from Newcastle with an eight and 10-year-old said they had “ages off school” during Covid “so two weeks out in a year is not going to make a massive difference to the fact that the damage has been done”.

‘A fundamental mistrust of schools’

Meanwhile, parents from poorer families “expressed a fundamental mistrust of schools”, the report found.

They “do not think that schools and teachers have the best interests of their children at heart”.

Many of them identified their children as having “varying challenges which would impact on their schooling, such as SEN, being bullied, or being long-term sick”.

“They did not feel supported by schools in tackling or improving these issues.”

More affluent parents “also expressed a disenchantment with school, although they felt more disengaged than angry”.

One of the mothers from Bristol said: “They do come up with the statistics, don’t they, you know, if you miss one week of school, it’s the equivalent of dropping a grade at a GCSE or something like that.

“And I just think, because we’ve all been lied to so much, that we are becoming a bit more militant. And I just think they are our children at the end of the day and it’s our life, and we can do what we want. I think, you know, good for us.”

A father from Newcastle said: “You can’t live your life around what the school wants, and what the local authority wants, because their expectations are a bit unrealistic. Let the parents parent.”

Mental health and SEND concerns

Parents also talked “at length about their concerns about their children’s mental health and how this impacted upon their attendance”. They “often blamed schools for not doing enough to support their children”.

Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said schools “absolutely have a role to play in encouraging good attendance, but the reality is they cannot address the issue alone”.

“The government has said tackling pupil absence is a major priority, but we haven’t seen the level of resources required to turn the current situation around.”

A mum from Manchester said her 11-year-old daughter was previously “well into her sport, confident, outgoing, and then we were put on lockdown”.

“Now she gets herself worked up about situations. And then obviously, because she gets herself worked up, then she’s getting headaches, stomach aches, she feels sick. So she misses school due to it now.”

The intersection of SEND and mental health challenges “came up frequently”.

“Across the social spectrum, parents felt like any child who needed additional support for whatever reason were not having their needs met, and that this was significantly impacting upon their attendance.”