Factors that support good school attendance

Children should feel they can influence their education and school life

It’s important that children feel listened to and have control over their lives. If they feel that they have no influence over decisions and actions, this can impact on attendance.

Children and young people can feel worried or nervous about school for lots of different reasons, ranging from making friends to worries about exams.

Although some worries may seem small to parents they can feel huge to your child. If you can help to identify what’s concerning them, you can then start to work together to try to reduce or resolve the worry.  

Encouraging your child to talk

Some children and young people are happy to talk about the things they find hard, but others can find this difficult. If your child finds it hard to talk to you directly at home, you could try:

• going for a walk and talking while you are moving, sometimes it is easier to talk to others when not directly looking at them
• sharing with your child any worries you might have had about going to school and inviting them to talk about anything that is concerning them
• playing a guessing game, asking them to indicate ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘a bit’ when you say something that you think might be a cause of their worry
• getting them to speak to another trusted adult who they may feel more able to discuss their concerns with
• asking them to write it down, email or text you
• drawing how they are feeling

Talking to your child’s school

• Speak with your child’s school to see if they have any concerns or might know what is worrying your child.
• Ask school staff to speak with your child. There may be an adult at school who your child has a good relationship with and would be happy to speak to. Schools have different resources and materials which they can use to help your child share their views.
• Consider with your child’s school if an external professional is needed to help identify your child’s worries.

Helping your child have their voice heard

It is very important that your child feels that they can have their voice heard and they can have an impact on their education and school life. If your child has stopped going to school, but continues to show an active interest in attending, it is important to continue to:

• speak with them about their thoughts and feelings about their future education goals. Children’s views can change over time, so it is important to continue to revisit these conversations (if your child is comfortable with this).
• get your child’s view about any plans that are being developed around their school attendance. They will be able to tell you what they feel able and unable to do and what help they might need.

Feeling accepted, respected, included, and supported at school is important for children’s wellbeing and academic success

We all like to feel like we belong. A sense of belonging supports our physical and emotional wellbeing, helps us to manage stress and feel more resilient. When a child feels like they belong to the school they attend, they will feel accepted, respected, included and supported by others in the school environment. When children feel that they belong they are more likely to make progress in school and have good emotional wellbeing.

Ways to help your child feel they belong

There are a few ways in which your child’s sense of belonging within their school can be developed. You can support this by:

• helping them build a positive relationship with school staff such as speaking positively about staff members with your child, and finding common interests between them, for example, pointing out that you both enjoy a certain sport
• supporting your child to find a way to resolve friendship difficulties if they do arise
• supporting your child to develop positive friendships by showing an interest in their friendships, and asking how their friends are
• exploring clubs or extra-curricular activities that your child could take part in. If there are no clubs that interest your child, can you help them start a new one at the school that could also promote the sense of belonging of other children with similar interests?
• encourage your child to take on a role of responsibility within the school.

It will be particularly important to develop this sense of belonging if your child has been off school and their attendance difficulties are beginning to make them feel isolated. This is essential if your child has not been in school for a long time.

Working with school to help promote a sense of belonging

There are other ways that parent carers and schools can work together to support your child’s sense of belonging if they have been away from school including:

• good home and school links such as having regular email, video calls or telephone contact with a key member of staff.
• receiving updates about school events, such as assemblies, trips, performances or sports events can help your child feel connected to the school community.
• supporting your child to maintain friendships from school by encouraging them to meet friends after school or at weekends, as well as attending after school clubs or extra-curricular activities. Whilst children may find this difficult, this can prevent them from feeling isolated. You can speak to your school about how your child might be supported to attend these activities.

Learning can be difficult for some children and may cause them to avoid school. Identifying and removing barriers to learning is key to help children thrive at school

When we think of school, we often think about learning. This is the main reason children go to school. However, learning isn’t easy for everyone and can be a barrier to attendance for many children, especially if they find a particular lesson hard or they have a test they feel they’ll do badly at.

Feelings of school failure, embarrassment of getting things wrong and struggling to understand what is being taught in lessons are all uncomfortable feelings. When experiencing uncomfortable feelings, some children will try to avoid them. This can mean children might try to avoid certain lessons, feel unwell and ask to leave the class, or not want to go to school at all.

How to support your child’s learning

Feeling ok about making mistakes, learning from them and asking for help, are essential skills for lifelong learning. Parent carers can support children to feel more confident with their learning by trying things at home such as:

• make learning as enjoyable as possible at home, showing creative ways that activities can be done, such as learning times tables using pictures or drawings, acting out history events to remember them, or use Lego to support maths development.
• help your child to learn and develop things they’re interested in
• share in their learning by learning a new skill or hobby together. You can show them that learning is a lifelong skill, as well as showing them any struggles you might have in learning the new skill and how you overcome these
• make subjects taught at school feel relevant to your child such as cooking tasty food to help with weighing and measuring skills.
• use daily affirmations to boost your child’s positive feelings about learning. A daily affirmation is a short statement that you say to yourself or with others each day. For example, your child may choose ‘I’m going to try my hardest today, even when things get difficult’ or ‘I am capable of doing well in Science’
• provide support around homework, making this a regular part of their week.

If your child is not attending school, it will be important to consider how they keep up with their learning. Falling behind with learning can be a source of additional worry to children making it harder to go back to school.

You can ask your child’s school to send work home that is at their level, giving them an opportunity to stay up to date with what their peers are learning in school and get feedback on the work they’ve completed.

Asking your school’s SENCO for help

If you think your child might have difficulty with learning, or special educational needs that are impacting on their learning, you can speak to the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at your child’s school.

Together, you’ll be able to consider if your child needs:

• a different approach to learning or adjustments made for them within lessons
• a school support plan that outlines the specific support that your child needs in school
• further assessment of their needs in school or from a professional such as an advisory teacher, Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist to better understand your child’s needs and the support which they require.

Schools and families working together

If you think that your child may be experiencing worry around school and may be at risk of school non-attendance, it is important to speak with your child’s school. You can speak with your child’s class teacher, form tutor, SENCO or other key member of staff. We know that when parent carers, children and schools work together, there are likely to be better outcomes for the child. 

Working in partnership with your child’s school

Working in partnership with your child and your child’s school, helps to:

• have a shared understanding of your child’s strengths and needs, for example, what they are good at and what they might find difficult
• identify what the barriers are to your child going to school
• generate creative ideas and suggestions for what might support your child
• support one another if things become difficult
• use the same approach
• feel valued and respected, and have your views listened to.

Stepped support plans

You can develop a stepped support plan to support your child’s attendance which:

• focuses on your child’s views and voice
• considers ways to support them to feel accepted, respected and included
• provides specific, measurable targets for your child to allow for small steps of progress to be celebrated
• has clear actions for the school, you and your child (depending on their age) to ensure these targets are met
• is reviewed regularly to see how things are going, what is working and any changes that need to be made.

Some useful resources

Young Minds have created a useful guide for parents: school anxiety and refusal, with helpful suggestions about talking to you child’s school if you have concerns about their attendance.

When working together your child’s school, it will be helpful to keep a record of your child’s worries about school and any days they have been unable to attend. This will help to develop a shared understanding of the reasons for your child’s attendance difficulties and lead to better support. You may find this checklist for Attendance Tracking and Support (CATS) helpful for this.