This week is important to many children around the country, with the start of the new academic year. Whether a child is going to school for the first time, starting a new school, making the transition to secondary school from primary, or returning after the summer for another year, the first week back is an exciting time for children, parents and teachers alike.
As a former teacher and headteacher, I know teachers across the country are looking forward to welcoming new and familiar faces into their classrooms. There is much to look forward to in the weeks ahead, from catching up with friends – or making new ones – to meeting new teachers and getting stuck into learning. Children will have opportunities to try new activities, start new lessons, join new clubs.
However, I know there will be young people who, instead of feeling excitement, will feel only anxiety or nervousness about the return to school. There will be many parents who share some of these feelings too, especially parents of children starting Reception for the first time aged 4, whose early lives were shaped dramatically by the disruption and isolation of the Covid pandemic.
For these parents and children alike, starting school might feel extra daunting. Responses to The Big Ambition survey show how important school is to children and young people. ‘School’ was the most common word mentioned in responses and 60% of respondents said they enjoy school – but this figure is down from The Big Ask survey in 2021, when 84% said they were happy or OK with life at school or college.
Sadly, there are still too many barriers preventing some children from being able to engage in education. My Attendance Audit found the reasons are often complex and varied. For some children it can be unmet mental health or SEND needs, some are young carers, and for others the pandemic created a culture of disengagement from school that needs extra support to overcome.
The latest figures from the Spring term 2024 revealed the overall absence rate was 7.3%, compared to 4.9% in Autumn 2019, and while the overall absence rate has been gradually improving, it has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. This is the case for persistent absences too, with the rate being 21.9% in Spring 2024, compared to 13.1% in Autumn 2019.
This isn’t just a case of children missing a couple of days of school. There’s a longer-lasting impact on children. There are benefits to being in school beyond academic results: children learn social skills, get used to a routine and can make lasting friendships. But when it comes to academic success, my research on Missing Children, Missing Grades found that 78% of children who were rarely absent in Year 10 and 11 achieved at least five GCSEs, including English and maths, in summer 2022.
School attendance is everyone’s business and that means we all have a role to play in getting children the help and support they need to be in class: parents, teachers, health professionals, social workers and any other professional involved in a child’s life need to work together.
Many schools will have been working hard over the summer to identify their pupils most likely to struggle with the September return – they will have Attendance Champions in place to help provide targeted support that gets these children back into the classroom this week. If you know a child who is worried about returning to school it’s important to have open and honest conversations and remind them that they can tell a parent, teacher, teaching assistant or another trusted adult.
The evidence on how important this first week back is clear: children who miss the first few days of term are predicted to have a much higher overall absence rate across the term. In my 2022 analysis of attendance patterns, I found that a child who misses the second, third and fourth day of a new term was predicted to have an overall absence rate of 43%, of 30 days across that term.
And in my report Lost in Transition, I I found that children who become a child missing from education have higher levels of absenteeism, compared to all pupils in state-funded schools. In the coming weeks, I will be publishing my latest report on children who go missing from education, with information about what local authorities are doing to identify these children and support them back into school.
I will also shortly be launching a survey for every school in the country to tell me about the support services they offer pupils, so we can better understand what is in place to help children who find it hard to attend and help schools to intervene early.
No matter what the issue around attendance, it’s important to remember not to struggle in silence and that help is out there. For young people in care, or those with a social worker, my Help at Hand team can provide advice and advocacy.
As Children’s Commissioner, it’s my mission to ensure that every child has access to a brilliant education – but we also need an education system that is as ambitious for children and young people as they are for themselves.
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