School Attendance - The Parent Version

This topic is frequently in the news. As a parent of children who have been, and one still is, in the state education system, I can see why the focus on attendance is convenient for those in charge and working in it currently:

• It focuses attention and lays blame firmly in the court of the child and parent.

• It attempts to hide the huge gaping holes in the sinking state education ship.

It fails to acknowledge that the vast majority of non-attendance will be due to:

1. Families taking children on holiday in term time.

2. Long-term persistent absence by a small percentage of children - this may be no attendance at all for a substantial period, or irregular attendance. Many of these children can't attend school - not won't.

What's the answer then? I'll make sure to take each issue in turn.

Term-time holidays 

Until a solution is found to the huge cost increases of holidays during term time, this will continue to be an issue regardless of the penalties threatened.

Families need to be able to go on holiday, it's a huge benefit:

- educationally in terms of seeing different places and getting different experiences of people, activities and environments.

- in terms of individual and collective mental health of families - families need to spend time together, sometimes, especially if parents work long hours, this may only be possible during family holidays.

Options for families, especially those who may have significant and complex additional needs, low incomes, or often both, can be significantly restricted. 

Non or low attendance due to unmet needs and barriers in education for children

A shift in attitude is required to understand the vast majority of cases of persistent absence, will be children who can't, not won't, go to school.

Those in charge need to seek to understand and address the issues which are meaning this small, yet significant, group of children cannot access state education:

- are there physical barriers to attendance e.g. not accessible to those with physical disabilities or sensory needs which means the physical school environment is harmful to them or restricts their learning when there.

- are there other, hidden/unseen, barriers to attendance - again there can be sensory reasons, unaddressed bullying, overly restrictive school rules, overly demanding testing regime which cause huge barriers to pressure sensitive and demand avoidant children.

- are there common mental and physical illnesses present amongst this group and how can those illnesses be better supported - I do not mean neurodivergent conditions such as autism, ADHD, or dyslexia here.

All of these three broad categories can be categorised as unmet needs. Some children may face barriers across all three. 

My children, both bright and capable of learning to age-related standards, should feel happy and safe in the state school environment. However, in recent years, that has not been the case, and their attendance has suffered.

For the eldest, the decline was there for a couple of years before a rapid crisis towards the end of primary, and complete collapse on starting high school. Now home-educated and doing well in an online school paid for privately.

For the youngest, the decline has been rapid - previously excellent attendance has dropped towards zero over the last term and the first three weeks of the new academic year.

As parents, John Feaster and I have done everything we can to encourage, persuade and sometimes force them into school. Note - once children get to a certain size, it is not possible to 'force them in'. In any case, it is not something I would advise and is something that I regret doing, especially with my eldest before I knew any better.

Forcing children into an environment in which they don't feel safe, without considering the validity of their feelings, teaches children that their instincts, feelings and experiences are 'wrong' or 'over-reactions'. Those children will eventually start to ignore the signals from their bodies alerting them to danger and discomfort - this makes many neurodivergent children, and adults, vulnerable to abuse later in life. In many cases, it will leave a traumatic imprint that may stay with them for a long time, but not be visible to the naked eye.

Their school(s) have failings, have failed them, but certainly for their mainstream primary school, it wasn't intentional, it wasn't due to staff negligence - it has been due to system failure.

What are the current system-level failures that are impacting attendance?

1. Lack of appropriate training for teachers, in neurodivergent conditions and traits, including how to support children and young people with strategies.

2. Lack of neuro-difference affirming training for all non-teaching staff working in schools. Lunch staff in particular need training, seeing as these are frequently the problem times for neurodivergent children who can otherwise cope in a formal structured classroom environment.

3. Points 1 and 2 mean that children are both not identified as potentially neurodivergent, and even if they are, the support provided is inadequate.

4. Long delays in neurodevelopmental assessments mean that children are not being added to the waiting lists in good time and not being seen in good time. A waiting list of over a year for a child of any age is a significant proportion of their life. For some children, current waiting lists are beyond the time they will be children.

5. Long delays in EHC need assessment processes. Although this process is supposed to be dependent on and assessed based on need not diagnosis - that's not how in works in practice, at least not anymore and not for decades possibly. This means that point 4 has a doubly negative impact as it both delays the identification of different conditions impacting children and access to support is delayed.

6. Once the big hurdles of points 4 and 5 have been cleared, limited support is available anyway. For autism there is generally none, bar a depressing report to read and a list of websites or leaflets. For ADHD there is medication - feel free to join another long waiting list, and for medication to not be reliably available.

7. Specialist schools had been phased out and the school buildings and land were often sold to keep struggling local authorities afloat financially. This means there isn't the space to build or renovate to create new specialist provision, not to mention no funds. But there aren't the staff trained yet to staff them either.

Supporting neurodivergent children in mainstream schools can be as simple as:

1. Changing where they are seated in the classroom - near a window or door may be preferable, or near the front or back of the room.

2. Providing fidgets or other tools such as wobble cushions and chair bands to both aid their concentration and ensure they are not unintentionally disrupting others learning.

3. Providing sensory rooms, or breakout areas, for children for whom the classroom or hall environment is too overwhelming.

4. Ear defenders or noise reduction earbuds to improve concentration and reduce noise distress in the classroom and lunch hall.

5. Encouraging and facilitating connections with safe people in the playground, so children know who to go to if they're overwhelmed or need a sensory break.

6. Making sure all staff who encounter the child are aware of their basic needs.

7. Removing arbitrary rules and unnecessary restrictions - this would benefit all children and may mean a return to school being a place to enjoy going to learn, rather than a place to be endured as it seems to be at present for many children who do attend regularly.

How does my being autistic and bipolar present challenges in dealing with schools?

The above issues, and the lack of support for my children in the state education system, has impacted my mental health severely and will continue to do so.

It's negative impact on my mental health has been immense. I'm going into my 10th year of having school going children now. My bipolar symptoms emerged around the time my youngest started school nursery, two school years behind my eldest.

Since 2018 time I have swung between depression and hypomania on an all too frequent basis. Partly, this has undoubtedly been due to being unidentified as autistic and bipolar until 2023, when I was 43 years of age, and parent to an 11 and 9 year old. However, for the last 12 months I have been both aware of these factors, and actively trying to manage the bipolar better to achieve a longer period of balance which has generally been a matter of weeks in recent years.

My theory is that I hit autistic burnout, and I keep trying to push through. In previous years, this was because I thought it was just the early onset of depression and that activation activities and keeping going were the best remedy. Now, in autumn 2024, it is because there is no option to rest, such are the demands placed on me by the failing yet demanding state school system.

My bipolar pattern seems to follow the seasons and the school academic year. The autumn term is always the worst. That's certainly proving to be the case this year. I am beyond exhausted, just three weeks into the new academic year. It's not just one issue either. There is usually a complex combination of factors that will intertwine - each child will have different needs and struggles, my husband and I will be juggling work, physical health issues are present and have to be addressed as well as mental health issues.

The worst thing is that despite telling those liaising with us in education of these issues, and my mental health difficulties, there is little accommodation or sympathy. There is certainly no timely action to pre-empt problems or proactively arrange appropriate support for my children. My autistic brain finds this particularly hard to fathom - such is the strength of my social justice streak and demand for fairness.

It feels like we are alone; with little understanding or compassion demonstrated by those meant to be supporting us and providing my children with an education.

We aren't of course, I know because I am connected in various ways and through different means with many other parent carers in the same boat. That's both comforting and incredibly sad. Things need to change urgently because the system has gone beyond breaking point. We can only push children, young people, and their parents so far before this becomes unsustainable.

What do you think? Do you know children who struggle with school attendance?

Do the above factors apply to them?

What do you see as the likely solution?