I watched a Panorama documentary last week about attendance levels in secondary schools. It documented that post pandemic, school attendance levels have not returned to what they were prior to 2020, and this becoming a concern for ‘the powers that be’.
The documentary highlighted the different reasons why young people may not be attending school, personal familial circumstances, an autism diagnosis and, in another case, severe bullying. However, the ‘Children’s Commissioner’ in her interview was still advocating for 100% attendance and was under the complete misapprehension that this would be possible.
And this made me angry.
For what they documented was only the very small tip of a very big iceberg, and iceberg which is becoming more complex, and more challenging as time goes on.
Firstly, and very logically, 100% attendance means that children should be going into school when they are sick and feeling physically unwell. You would have thought that after a 2-year pandemic we would have learnt something about the spread of viruses and the best way to recover is to rest and take care of yourself!
But, on a more serious note, to locate the problem with the young people and the only measuring factor whether they attend school or not ignores the bigger picture and what is really going on.
In the work I do supporting young people, the numbers being unable to attend school consistently is increasing and has done since 2020. I have never seen challenges like it, their reasons are wide and varied but are all centred around one thing, mental health. The biggest challenge for our young people is the expectation that they attend school, no matter how they are feeling, and that us parents will be penalised if they don’t. But what is not considered is the damage we may be doing to these young people if we do not listen to what they are saying, if we just think that they are ‘being obstructive’ or ‘being a typical teenager’ or worry about what will happen to them if they don’t attend.
Refusing to go to school may be the only tool your young person has to communicate how they are feeling, and how to try and go into a busy, social and demanding environment is too much for them to cope with. For some it takes immense amount of emotional strength and courage to manage this, especially those who are neurodivergent and have additional needs which means that even being in the school environment can be highly stressful.
In most cases, schools are absolutely doing their best, with little or no resources directed for them to cope with the immense mental health challenges they are facing. More and more young people are spending huge amounts of time out of the classroom because they cannot cope with lessons and are therefore struggling to learn, leading to more academic pressure being placed on them. For some this is leading to burnout, self-harm and even suicidal ideation.
I know this is a serious topic for a Monday morning, but it is written in a heartfelt and intentional way. Our children are not broken, the system is. It is not set up to deal with the diversity of issues we are now facing, we cannot just press the reset button post pandemic and expect our brains and our capacity to cope to go back to pre-pandemic operations. All of our teens have lost huge chunks of their young lives to this pandemic, time when they should be out, living their lives and experiencing new things, developing skills and building confidence. To not have had that is going to have a knock-on effect in so many ways, building up strength and reliance being one of them, and is it any wonder that school is often the first thing that falls?
‘A stressed mind cannot learn’, and forcing our children into school, either through punitive or other means is not going to resolve the issue, in a lot of cases it can make it worse, and lead to permanent school refusal. We can’t just pick them up anymore and carry them into school (nor should we), we need to spend time understanding what the issues are and why and looking for to develop the tools to help them cope.
Equally this should not be all on us parents, or even the schools themselves. We need support and guidance with this, and very often there are no easy answers. Our education system is not able to deal with the complexity of challenges which they now face on a daily basis, despite what the Children’s commissioner thinks. Churning out academically accomplished students and thinking that upping attendance will ‘fix’ things hides the hidden problem behind closed doors, and those that need the help the most are not receiving the understanding and compassion they need.
A tough one to write, and likely, a tough read. As a parent, just creating space for your young person to share, and advocating for them will make a massive difference, they need to know that someone is in their corner, now more than ever.
If this resonates with you in any way, you are not alone, and neither is your teen.