“I think developing good social habits of getting up in the morning, putting your shoes on instead of your slippers, going out to work, going to school, expecting to complete a full day’s school, a full day’s work, clearly that’s habit-forming,” added Oliver.
While a small number of schools allow children to be “flexi-schooled”, where parents can teach their children from home for part of the week, Oliver said Fridays had always been the worst attendance day.
The chief inspector of the schools watchdog in England, Martyn Oliver, told the Sunday Times that the widespread change in working habits after the pandemic had led to a shift in attitudes among pupils.
“[After the pandemic] suddenly people were used to working from home and, in many cases, I don’t think there was that same desire to have their child in school while they were at home,” he said.
Other factors such as poor mental health, anxiety and depression were also contributing to poorer pupil attendance rates, he said, in addition to a lack of funding for school services including nurses and child psychologists and limiting screen time.
