Anxiety, emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA) and wider mental health issues are accepted by teachers as a genuine challenge to regular school attendance, according to a report.
The study found that teachers were not dismissive of these issues, and described witnessing increases in anxiety, self-harm and wider emotional distress.
They said it was one of the most significant changes affecting attendance since the pandemic.
The study, from Impetus and Public First, A crisis of disengagement: listening to, and learning from, teachers on school attendance, found that teachers did not believe attendance to be one of the top priorities, despite the narrative from the government.
Complex issues
One teacher told researchers: “I’ve deal with more self-harming and mental health anxiety in the last few years than I have in my whole career.”
They were also concerned that they were expected to deal with complex issues at schools without specialist support. This includes pastoral care, attendance enforcement, family support and mental health triage.
One said: “We’ll do a referral, but the likelihood is you’re looking at months, and it all falls back on us.
“It’s such a lot of strain, and you are dealing with children and their mental health.”
Others said conversations about mental health were becoming increasingly hard to navigate in school.
However, while accepting that many children and young people stay away from school because of mental health problems and overwhelm, they were also concerned about a broader decline in resilience among parents and young people.
One attendance lead told the study: “There’s a significant lack of resilience from a lot of parents that then trickles down to the student.”
Another said: “Parents are seeing absence as part of their diagnosis, part of their entitlement as young person with a SEND.”
Any credible attempt to address the attendance crisis must go towards tackling the systemic root causes
In some cases, teachers believed parents were handing over their children’s mental health problems to the school, with an expectation that teachers would “take on everything”.
The study recommended that the government make better use of attendance data to identify deterioration earlier, and advocated promoting belonging and engagement at the heart of attendance strategies.
The government, employers and the education system generally should also support pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to see attendance as an investment in their future, the report said.
It concluded: “Attendance is no longer experienced as a straightforward issue of compliance.
“Parents, pupils and school staff all described it as being shaped by wider issues of trust, belonging, wellbeing, family circumstances and confidence in the value of education.
“Any credible attempt to address the attendance crisis must go beyond addressing symptoms, and towards tackling the systemic root causes.”
