Parents who routinely work from home are driving persistent absence in schools, according to the head of Ofsted.
Martyn Oliver said children are getting the impression that leaving the house is ‘optional’ after habits changed in the wake of the pandemic.
He told the Sunday Times that there used to be a daily habit of ‘putting your shoes on instead of your slippers’ and going out to work.
Around a seventh of primary school children and a quarter of state secondary school pupils are persistently absent – missing at least one day a fortnight.
Persistent absence at state secondaries in England rose from 13 per cent in 2018-19 to 24 per cent in 2022-23.
Sir Martyn said: ‘(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.
‘They had been used to it for the best part of a year-and-a-half, on and off, during lockdown. That changed something.
‘If my mum and dad were at home all day, would I want to get up and leave the house, knowing they were both there?
‘I would be tempted to perhaps say, ‘can I not stay with you?’.
‘Seeing my dad go out early to work, often hours before I had even got up, well, there’s an expectation: put your shoes on, put your school uniform on and go out the door and go to school; go to work.’
He added: ‘I think developing good social habits of getting up in the morning, putting your shoes on instead of your slippers, going to school, expecting to complete a full day’s school, a full day’s work – clearly that’s habit forming.
‘Nationally, Fridays have always been the worst attendance day (for schools), but then I look at Westminster (where Ofsted is based) and I see the place clearing out on a Thursday night very often. Again, is there something in that?’
Asked if children were copying adult working patterns, Sir Martyn responded: ‘Yes.’