27/03/2026
Today I have been watching as social media floods with the usual end of term attendance awards in mainstream schools. In many schools, certificates have been handed out alongside Easter eggs for all those children who “achieved” 100% attendance, whilst everyone else was made to feel they were being punished and had somehow fallen short of what was expected.
Here’s the problem with this approach:-
1. The behaviourist approach to education in this country is not working. It does not take account of the multitude of reasons why children may not be at school. Bums on seats at all costs is literally costing some children their lives.
2. The rules are conflicting. On the one hand, you must stay away from school if you have sickness or diarrohea. Why then should you be punished for following that rule, by being vilified for not reaching the attendance goal? Make it make sense, please!
3. If a child is being bullied, they won’t want to go to school. In too many of our schools, bullying is either denied completely or the effects on the child are played down and misunderstood.
4. Exam pressure, including exams for young primary school children, is causing anxiety which in turn leads to a feeling of “might as well just give up” as the child feels they cannot cope with the demands placed upon them.
5. School is no longer a place to learn about the world but rather an institutionalised system where rules must be adhered to or you will be shamed in front of your peers.
6. Stabbings in schools are on the rise - including one in a Norfolk school just the other week. Many children were scared to return to classes.
7. Children are told they cannot go to the toilet in class time, I have heard tales of children having their skirts measured by a teacher with a ruler (which in itself is an assault if the teacher is touching them), being placed in isolation rather than being allowed to go home if they felt unsafe, and countless other horror stories from the children who come to my therapy room.
8. Children might well be there 100% of the time but not actually learning or applying themselves. Therefore an attendance of 100% doesn’t actually mean anything in practice.
9. I watched a SEN child being physically dragged kicking and screaming into a school one morning by a staff member. I shall not name the school. All I would say is that the memory of what happened that day will traumatise the child, and there is no Easter egg worth that.
I would rather buy my child 100 Easter eggs and make her a certificate to celebrate her achievements in the areas that matter - being kind, committing to her acting and dancing, and refusing to follow a system that breaks more children than it makes.
For every child left out today, remember You Are Enough. Always.
