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Lockdowns Have Left Parents Thinking School is Optional as They Keep Children Off Because They Are “Too Anxious”, Report Finds

by Will Jones
21 September 2023 7:00 PM

Parents no longer believe their children need to be in school full-time if they are anxious, increasingly think “life’s too short” not to have a term-time holiday and “are not bothered” about fines for absence, a report has found. The Mail has the story.

Lockdowns have caused a “seismic shift” in parents’ attitudes to school attendance, according to the consultancy Public First, with it now “socially acceptable” to keep pupils at home and go on holiday in term-time.

The research suggests that pandemic closures and teacher strikes have damaged the social contract between schools and families, with 24,700 children missing education on one sample day in spring this year.

It comes after Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, suggested pupils have been missing school on Fridays since the pandemic because their parents are working from home. But Public First said did not find any evidence to suggest that the rise in parents working from home since Covid has encouraged more children to stay off school.

More children are also being home schooled than ever. Official figures show that 86,000 children in England were home schooled on one day this year – and 116,300 are home schooled full time. Both are steep increases of up to 50% on pre-pandemic levels.

One parent, called Dominique, says her son Elijah has been too “anxious” to attend school since “lockdown finished” – so he no longer goes.

She said: “Children were off for so long they were really nervous for starting school… especially my oldest son. He suffers a lot from anxiety and he’s got attachment issues so I felt as though it was more difficult for me to get my son to school.

“The first day I had to take him to school I sat outside until 3 o’clock because I felt that something was not right and something was going to happen.” …

The study – which highlights findings from focus groups with parents – comes amid mounting concerns about the rise in children missing school in England.

It will take a “monumental” effort to change parental attitudes towards full-time attendance, the report concluded.

It reads: “Pre-Covid, ensuring your child’s daily attendance at school was seen as a fundamental element of good parenting.

“Post-Covid, parents no longer felt that to be the case, and instead view attending school as one of several – often competing – options or demands on their child on a daily basis, against a backdrop of a more holistic approach to daily life.”

It continued: “Parents agreed that every school day could not possibly be that important, given that so much time had been lost to lockdowns and strikes.

“Moreover, there was a sense from parents that other elements of their lives were just as important as attending school, if not more so.”

More than a fifth (22.3%) of pupils in England were “persistently absent” – meaning they missed at least 10% of their school sessions – in the 2022/23 academic year, Government figures show.

This is significantly higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 10.9% in 2018/19.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: COVID-19LockdownLockdown harmsSchool ClosuresSchoolchildren

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16 Comments
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Lurker
Lurker
1 year ago

It’s probably a combination of parents realising the rubbish children are being taught and what little prospects their children will have even if they finish school that mean many are giving up on school

64
-2
LaptopMaestro
LaptopMaestro
1 year ago

Net Zero means that learning to manage a smallholding will be more useful.

54
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/after-jabber-jacinda-things-will-only-get-worse/

New Zealand update from Guy Hatchard. Post election the target is 95% of the population vaccinated with Brucie Bonuses for GP’s worth up to $10,000. Nice.

It is beginning to look like New Zealand has been named as the Davos Deviants number one holiday resort and they intend to have it emptied by 2030 at the latest.

36
0
DickieA
DickieA
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Spot on.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018695996/new-zealand-s-billionaire-doomsday-preppers

https://survivedoomsday.com/rich-preppers-new-zealand/

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/nhs-diversity-chiefs-required-no-waiting-lists-here/

NHS recruiting. Oh, this is wonderful stuff, or as John Ellwood correctly ascerts, beyond parody.

Are you good enough?

“This post will become Trust Recovery Lead, building on nearly a decade of co-produced led development of recovery focused work across our local healthcare system, which has involved the recruitment and development of explicit lived experience roles within the workforce (including leadership positions); co-production developments/consultation, and our well established, peer-led Wellbeing and Recovery College.”

Firkin hell they’ve even got a “college” out of this shyte.

Last edited 1 year ago by huxleypiggles
24
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

What does that word salad even mean?

26
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

How about: ‘We’ve spent 10 years of tax payer’s money sitting around talking about how we can sit around a bit more talking about these nebulous but lucrative things called wellbeing and recovery – you up for that?”

31
0
Matt Dalby
Matt Dalby
1 year ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

It appears to mean that they think a coloured/transgender/disabled person is better off being treated by someone else with the same protected characteristics rather than the most qualified/experienced person.

18
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
1 year ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

You took the words out of my mouth.

5
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

NEWSFLASH: SCHOOL IS OPTIONAL

Attendance at state school in Germany IS NOT optional. A law brought in during Nazi Germany which remains to this day. Says it all, I think.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
17
0
Jon Smith
Jon Smith
1 year ago

Keep their children off school because it full of extreme left wing idiocy that ram the trans gender BS down your poor children’s throat more like…
Any sensible parent would keep their children well away from these woke indoctrination factories…. Regardless of court action and fines….

43
-2
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
1 year ago

I’m really fed up with the phrase “we found no evidence of…”

I now interpret this as “we didn’t look properly” or “we need to claim they’re lying”

31
0
Roy Everett
Roy Everett
1 year ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

“We” found no evidence of de-banking nor excess deaths either.

23
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
1 year ago

“pandemic closures and teacher strikes have damaged the social contract between schools and families”

Multiple non manifesto policy shifts have broken the social contract between Westminster and the nation. Net zero, lockdowns, ‘vaccine’ mandates coercion and lies, uncontrolled illegal immigration, the NHS, policing, woke LGBTQALPHABETSOUP pandering, Ukraine, fudging Brexit, to name a few. Education is just another dimension of multiple failures.

42
0
The old bat
The old bat
1 year ago

No wonder we are raising generations of entitled wimpy brats, when a parent sits outside the school all day because she is worried about her kid. For pity’s sake, the coddling that goes on these days is unbelievable. I really think everyone needs to toughen up a bit.

43
-4
Ian Logan
Ian Logan
1 year ago

‘He suffers a lot from anxiety and he’s got attachment issues’.

Shouldn’t that read ‘She suffers … and she’s got …’?

5
-1

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