Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of pupils who are unable to go to school because of anxiety caused by the school culture.

All schools should be calm, safe, and supportive environments where pupils and staff can thrive in safety and respect. No pupil should miss out on education because they feel unsafe, miss out on learning because their lesson is disrupted, or fall behind because their needs are not identified and supported.

The department has asked pupils about reasons for school absence in the department’s ‘Parent, Pupil and Learner panel’ surveys. Across the last two waves in which the questions were asked (the June wave from the 2021/22 academic year and the November wave from the 2022/23 academic year), 12% and 27% of those pupils and learners surveyed who said they did not attend school every day in the two weeks prior to the survey said this was due to anxiety or mental health problems, respectively.

Although the percentage in wave two appears much higher than the June wave, it is important to note that, in June, 36% of pupils surveyed reported that they missed one or more days of school for any reason in the preceding two weeks, whereas only 13% missed one or more days for any reason in wave two. This means that, as a proportion of absence, the overall number of pupils reporting having missed a day or more due to anxiety or mental health is similar across waves.