Why are children not attending school?
The reasons for absence can be wide and varied however; there are some recognised common factors which include:
- Illness: it’s usually safe to send children to school with mild illnesses, like a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat; children should stay at home if they have a high temperature of 38°C or above. Read the NHS guidance to help decide if your child is well enough to attend school. It gives information about common childhood illnesses and conditions. For example, coughs, colds, chickenpox, measles and headlice.
- Long term illness: pupils with long-term or complex medical needs may require a different approach, with schools working in partnership with health services, including The Children and Young People’s Nursing Service (CYPN), to provide appropriate support, reduce barriers, and enable sustained engagement with education.
- medical appointments: medical appointments do not have to be in school time but they generally are, often due to limited availability.
- unmet special educational or medical need: whilst schools must continue to meet needs through reasonable adjustments whilst they assess, the delay in identification has resulted in children being absent.
- anxiety (parent/child): children sometimes feel a bit worried about going to school. This is a normal emotion and it is important to recognise that going into school can help them worry less, than if you let them stay at home. Any long-term absence is likely to trigger a level of anxiety as well as the common reasons such as bullying, friendship groups and unmet special educational and medical need. Many parents developed anxiety themselves resulting in a reluctancy to send their children to school in situations where previously they would have.
- holidays: absence during term time due to holidays is on the increase and it is important that all schools robustly follow the DfE guidance and discourage holidays in termtime. (LCC, Code of Conduct)
- parent dissatisfaction with school: this can result in parents removing the child from school until they feel that any issues have been resolved.
- truancy: particularly older children can make their own decisions on whether they attend school. Some parents are unaware of these absences until the school inform them. These children may be at risk of harm by engaging in criminal activity or being a victim of exploitation.
- bereavement: children can take a significant period of time to overcome the sadness of a bereavement and without support the impact of the loss can escalate resulting in further barriers and increased absences.
- parenting: this ranges from parents’ inability to provide the daily structure that is needed for a child to attend regularly to parent’s disinterest in sending their child to school due to their own educational experience or life events.
- young carers: may be at increased risk of attendance difficulties, as the demands o their caring role can impact their ability to engage consistently with education.
Many children experiencing these challenges are at risk of falling into the category of persistent absence. Children with attendance at 90% have already missed 4 weeks, almost half a term of their education.