Nearly a third of parents say their child has refused more than once in the past year to go to school, a poll has found.
Charity Parentkind found 31 per cent of parents said their child had refused to go to school more than once in the last year, with the top reasons cited as their child not enjoying school, their child having a special educational need or disability (SEND) or a mental health problem, and bullying.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Schools are continuing to work incredibly hard to increase attendance, but these figures show that many of the causes of absence are complex, including school refusal for mental health reasons.”
Of the parents who said their children refused more than once in the last year to go to school, 1 in 10 missed two or more weeks of school, the poll found.
Top absence reason is ‘not enjoying school’
The most common reason parents cited (15 per cent) for their children missing school was because they do not enjoy school.
Parentkind has called for the curriculum and assessment review to prioritise school enjoyment after a previous survey found that half of children reported feeling boredom at school.
Parentkind CEO Jason Elsom said: “What really comes out of our survey is that children are switching off school and this is leading to them staying at home. Alongside unmet special needs help, not enjoying school comes out as the biggest reason parents gave for children refusing to go to school.”
After that, 9 per cent of parents said a lack of SEND provision for their child had led to them missing school, and 7 per cent said their child being bullied or struggling with a mental health problem had led to them missing school.
‘Fines are controversial’
Julie McCulloch, director of strategy and policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the barriers to children attending every day must be removed.
This includes making sure the curriculum is “more engaging for all children”, she said, adding that there was also a need to address the SEND crisis, and invest in mental health services.
The poll for Parentkind further found that, while nearly half of parents polled (48 per cent) agreed fines could be part of an effective approach to improving school attendance, 38 per cent of parents disagreed with this.
“NAHT has long argued that fining parents is a blunt tool which does not get to the root causes of non-attendance,” Mr Whiteman said. “As this poll shows, fines are controversial - and increasing absence figures over the last decade seem to indicate that fines are failing to shift the dial in any meaningful way.”
Government ‘making attendance a key focus’
He also called for investment in services like social care, mental health, SEND and education welfare officers.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said we need a “national effort to tackle the epidemic of school absence”.
She added: “We are doing the urgent work to support them as we turn the tide on children missing school.
“This includes making attendance a key focus of school inspections, providing access to mental health professionals for all schools, and reforming the SEND system, so we deliver on our Plan for Change and make sure every child can achieve and thrive.”
Censuswide polled 1,000 parents of children aged 4 to 16 on behalf of Parentkind. Results were weighted to be nationally representative, which took place in February.
For the latest education news and analysis delivered every weekday morning, sign up for the Tes Daily newsletter
