Not Fine in School was created as a resource for the growing numbers of families with children experiencing school attendance barriers.
These barriers often relate to unmet Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (diagnosed or suspected), physical or mental illness, bullying & assault, trauma, excessive academic pressure, overly strict behaviour policies, a missing sense of belonging, and an irrelevant curriculum.
School attendance barriers are poorly understood, incorrectly managed, & are compounded by current challenges within education, health & local government systems. This problematic response often has severe consequences for both child and family.
At the heart of Not Fine in School there is a Facebook support group with a membership of 61,000+ parents, carers & other family members. This offers a space for shared lived experience and peer empowerment.
What we do
Support
Empowerment
Empowerment
We facilitate peer-support for family members, and we share advice for young people, and professionals.
Empowerment
Empowerment
Empowerment
We share resources to help you make decisions, find solutions, & take positive steps for your family.
Awareness
Empowerment
Awareness
We take part in academic studies and conduct research to help raise awareness of related issues.
SURVEY: Parents/Carers of children & young people in ENGLAND
We are a research team who want to learn more about the barriers & enablers to education for children & young people.
We have worked with parents from the Not Fine in School Facebook community to design a survey to capture parent/ carer views and experiences within the education system.
Please complete our survey
SURVEY: OUTCOMES IN ADULT LIFE
We hope to find out how adults retrospectively view their experiences in relation to school attendance difficulties.
We also hope to learn more about the longer-term outcomes experienced in adult life, following school attendance difficulties.
SQUARE PEG'S CALLS TO ACTION
DfE Campaign: Moments Matter Attendance Counts
Not Fine in School - Our Response
Every Moment Matters. That’s the title of the Department for Education’s new campaign which is aimed at boosting attendance in England’s schools. With attendance rates still well below pre-pandemic records, and the findings published from a recent survey via Centre for Social Justice, it seems that a campaign full of smiley children and young people skipping along is exactly what parents need to remind them to send their children to school when they have a sniffle, ‘mild anxiety’ (whatever that is), a stomach ache and more.
However, it seems that every moment doesn’t matter when it comes to long referral times for support. That’s if you can even get a referral to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), or for an autism or ADHD assessment. Then there are the many local authorities unable to adhere to their statutory 20-week deadline for issuing Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). With requests to both these services alone exponentially growing, an educationally-minded public health campaign has certainly jarred with the 52,000 members of our parent peer support group.
Not Fine in School and Square Peg agree that moments matter. So too does Wellbeing, Support and Understanding. When you have a child with barriers to school attendance, they certainly don’t go skipping into school. They certainly don’t miraculously feel better when they’re there. And to all of the professionals who say ‘They’re fine when they’re here”, let us remind you that those same children probably won’t be ‘fine’ when they get home, they may not sleep that night, and they certainly won’t be ‘fine’ the next morning before school.
Because, unless something changes, children and young people with barriers to school attendance –whether that’s unmet special educational needs, bullying, poor mental health, physical health conditions, disabilities, poverty, bereavement, duties as a young carer, looked-after status, ethnicity, to name just a few – need support.
So, our message if you’re a parent or carer struggling to navigate your child’s barriers to school attendance is that we see you. We hear you. We’ve got you. Don’t listen to the parent blame, don’t give into the parent guilt. You know your child best – continue to listen to them and put them first, always.
Wellbeing Matters, Support Counts.
NEW DFE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE GUIDANCE
The Department for Education published new School Attendance Guidance, 'Working together to improve attendance' to be applied from 1st September 2022, with further guidance published in February 2023. This guidance was updated and applied on a statutory basis from August 19th 2024.
DfE ATTENDANCE Guidance
SQUARE PEGS
Additional Information
Written by Fran Morgan with Ellie Costello and edited by Ian Gilbert, Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in – a guide for schools is a book for educators who find themselves torn between a government/Ofsted narrative around behaviour, attendance and attainment, and their own passion for supporting square pegs and their families.
Over the last few years, changes in education have made it increasingly hard for those children who don’t ‘fit’ the system – the square pegs in a rigid system of round holes.
Budget cuts, the loss of support staff, an overly academic curriculum, problems in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and difficulties accessing mental health support have all compounded pre-existing problems with behaviour and attendance. The ‘attendance = attainment’ and zero-tolerance narrative is often at odds with the way schools want to work with their communities, and many school leaders don’t know which approach to take.
This book will be invaluable in guiding leaders and teaching staff through the most effective ways to address this challenge. It covers a broad spectrum of opportunity, from proven psychological approaches to technological innovations. It tests the boundaries of the current system in terms of curriculum, pedagogy and statutory Department for Education guidance. And it also presents a clear, legalese-free view of education, SEND and human rights law, where leaders have been given responsibility for its implementation but may not always fully understand the legal ramifications of their decisions or may be pressured into unlawful behaviour.
Bringing different perspectives and expertise together in one place, Square Pegs aims to help school leaders and staff support children (and their families) more effectively. The authors cover a wide variety of topics – including school attendance, building relationships, trauma-informed practice, and behaviour management. Featuring contributions from more than 50 individual authors, this is an accessible, dip-in, dip-out book – perfect for busy school leaders.
Suitable for all professionals working in education and the related issues surrounding children and young people’s mental health, as well as policymakers, academics and government ministers.