The impact anxiety is having on school attendances
A new survey has revealed that half of secondary school students in England missed school due to anxiety in the past year.
A survey of 2,000 students found that 49.5 percent of students missed or ran away from school at some point during the last academic year due to anxious feelings.
Most (22 percent) reported that this occurred less than monthly.
However, 5.5 percent could not go to school once a week, 6.7 percent could not go to school every two to three weeks, and 8.3 percent could not go to school once a month.
Less than half (47.4 percent) have never missed or been truant from school due to anxiety; others were unsure or chose not to say.
The survey, commissioned by online school Minerva Virtual Academy, found that 13th grade students were six times more likely to miss school due to stress than 7th grade students.
While female students reported truancy from school an average of 26.4 times a year, male students reported that this figure was 16.7.
The most common cause of school anxiety is exam and grade pressure (27.6 percent), followed by being asked to speak in front of the class (21.4 percent), fear of falling behind (18.2 percent), worrying about appearance (18.1 percent) and not being able to fit in or have friends (17.6 percent).
More than a third (35 percent) of students surveyed by Censuswide said they felt teachers rarely or never understood their concerns.
Hugh Viney, founder of Minerva Virtual Academy, said teachers can’t be blamed.
“They want to be there to raise every child, but the system is so overloaded, and that’s where the blind spots come in,” he said.
Schools have been facing an absenteeism crisis since the pandemic; Persistent absence (this means missing 10 per cent or more of lessons) rose to 22.3 per cent in 2021/22. It has since fallen to 17.6 percent in the latest data but still remains significantly above pre-pandemic rates.
Students classed as severely absent (missing half or more of their classes) are still on the rise, reaching 2.3 per cent in 2024/25, according to figures from the Department for Education.
Teachers’ unions are calling for greater investment in mental health services to help tackle the absenteeism crisis.
The government said all schools will be covered by mental health support teams by 2029/30, with six in 10 pupils aiming to have access to mental health teams by March 2026.
