During the last academic year, more than 28% of secondary school pupils were persistently absent (DfE, 2023). Huge numbers of children are unable to access full time mainstream school for a multitude of complex reasons.
There is growing consensus that this is an issue that is not going away and affected schools, parents and children are under intense pressure as a result. Much has been written about this crisis and the need for action and major recovery and catch-up plans and how vital it is that we get back to how things were pre-pandemic. The media has fuelled unhelpful polarisations that keep everybody stuck – it is the fault of feckless parents or snowflake children or soft teachers…
When children don’t want to go to school most of us buy into the widespread assumption that improving their attendance is the answer, a notion that has been heavily promoted by the current children’s commissioner (2023). It offers a neat solution for everyone invested in solving this problem. But sometimes it is the answer and sometimes it is not.
This is because school as we know it makes no sense in the minds of more and more of our young people. Or, for that matter, in the minds of the teachers leaving the profession in their droves. For many, school is the problem.
