Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, comments on the report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on the link between deteriorating pupil wellbeing and persistent school absence.
“It is horrifying that poor wellbeing is causing so many young people to miss school, and the fact that this is often linked to social media use and online bullying is a sad sign of the times. We hope the social media ban for under-16s will help to ease the pressures these platforms exert on young people in the absence of meaningful action by the platforms themselves. It will obviously help schools greatly if this leads to an improvement in wellbeing and a reduction in absence. However, we would caution that young people and families will need support with moving away from platforms that are highly addictive by design and we would encourage the government to launch a public information campaign.
“We welcome the NFER’s recognition of the significant time and resources which schools devote to improving attendance and that many of the factors driving absence extend beyond the school’s influence. The government has put all the onus on schools in tackling this issue, and holds them to account through Ofsted inspections, when reducing persistent absence clearly requires wider support for families and children who are struggling. We would like to see all schools being able to access attendance officers skilled in working with families to remove barriers and get children back to school.”