Why do politicians think that the way to improve education is to have a dig at parents? Who are they trying to impress when they say things like ‘parents have responsibilities too?’, as if parents did not know this? You won’t improve education or school attendance by shaming and blaming parents. It’s likely to have the opposite effect. Are they really so out of touch that they can’t see this? 

It’s Friday. The day where the most ‘persistent absentees’ miss school, according to media reports. This is often said to be because Friday is a day when many parents work from home, so they just ‘don’t bother’ getting the children to school that day. That’s not what I hear. I hear about Friday being the hardest day, because children are exhausted after a full week of school. I hear that when children can’t sleep each night because they are worrying about school, by Friday they are in a state of complete exhaustion. I hear that the weekend provides some time to rest and reset, but that by Friday, that’s gone. I hear that for young children, each school day requires a lot. They are with other people all day, they are expected to follow adult instruction and do what they are told. They’re told to sit on their bottoms, listen to the teacher, and control their emotions. There is no adult who has time to pay them much attention. There are too many other children for that. They erupt after school, but they hold it in during the day. Their parents see the distress, but the school thinks they're fine. They beg to stay at home in the mornings, but once they're dropped off, they give up. Schools tell parents it's manipulation. Only if what you mean by manipulation is 'they would like you to listen to how they feel'. I hear about it getting harder each day of the week to persuade a reluctant child into school, and by Friday it comes to a head. And I hear about attendance policies which means that there is no flexibility. No space to say that maybe they just need a bit more time to mature before they can manage five days a week. No space to acknowledge that young children learn at home too, and that life being sustainable is more important than 100% attendance. It's Friday. Lots of children won’t be at school. Before we leap to blame them and their parents, maybe we should take a hard look at what we are expecting of our small children. Maybe we would then ask ourselves whether they are simply telling us they’ve had enough, in the only way that they can. The real question is, are we listening?