'I tried everything to get my daughter to go to school'

Hannah is 1 of thousands of children crossed Scotland who person been regularly missing school. Some are absent for days, others for years.

Twelve-year-old Hannah missed astir of her superior schoolhouse education.

Right from her archetypal time she hardly spoke and would get precise upset, truthful the schoolhouse would telephone her mum regular to inquire her to prime her up.

By the clip she got to superior 4 she refused to spell altogether.

She would instrumentality disconnected her uniform, outcry and scream.

Psychologists accidental the emergence successful the fig of children absent from schoolhouse is not astir bunking disconnected but due to the fact that galore are excessively anxious to measurement done the schoolhouse gates.

And since Covid the numbers conscionable support rising.

The latest figures from the Scottish government, to beryllium published connected Tuesday, are expected to proceed that trend.

Hannah's mum Ashly says her daughter, who is autistic, struggled with the sound and busyness of the schoolhouse environment.

"Obviously she didn't consciousness harmless successful school," Hannah says.

"She didn't consciousness comfortable. I tried everything to get her to school."

Then astir 2 years agone they started moving with a task from the foundation Quarriers called Reach, which involves a trained subordinate of unit going to their location successful Glasgow to assistance summation their confidence.

"For the archetypal six weeks she wouldn't adjacent talk to her," Ashly says.

The enactment idiosyncratic began by going to the superior schoolhouse with Hannah for an hr a time and sitting with her successful a quiescent country doing crafts and games.

Over past summer, earlier Hannah started astatine secondary, she and her idiosyncratic spent days successful the schoolhouse baking cakes and having fun.

After astir 2 years, Hannah's idiosyncratic has gradually got her to a constituent wherever she is attending her S1 secondary schoolhouse people astir days.

Ashly told the BBC: "Even getting Hannah to schoolhouse without crying and being upset was a large happening and present she gets herself acceptable and gets herself organised for schoolhouse truthful that is simply a large difference."

The latest statistic from Glasgow City Council amusement that each twelvemonth for the past 5 years, schoolhouse lack has increased.

The assembly is present moving connected a run to promote parents successful peculiar to retrieve the value of attending.

A study by Reform Scotland past year recovered that 200,000 children successful Scotland are missing much than 1 time a fortnight.

And astir 80,000 pupils miss astatine slightest 1 time a week - with attendance of little than 80%.

Official figures released earlier this twelvemonth suggested that 22.3% of pupils successful England were persistently absent successful the 2022-23 world year - astir treble pre-pandemic levels.

The pb acquisition scientist for Glasgow, Barry Syme, told the BBC that lack is not mostly astir kids skipping school.

"I deliberation the days of children conscionable bunking disconnected is simply a precise elemental mode of looking astatine it," helium said.

"We've seen a important summation successful the fig of young radical with intelligence wellness concerns, peculiarly anxiousness and stress.

"That was inactive an contented pre-pandemic but surely the pandemic has not helped successful immoderate mode with that."

Mr Syme said determination had been an summation successful the fig of young radical identified with neurodiversity and the associated challenges of the schoolhouse situation specified arsenic sound and ample numbers of people.

He besides said that children were picking up connected the pressures felt by their parents, specified arsenic outgo of surviving issues.

Colin Simpson, who runs the Quarriers service, said they had seen immense benefits from offering one-to-one enactment to families.

In the archetypal 2 years, the task worked with astir 200 children but determination are different 400 inactive waiting.

"There's a immense waiting database for this work due to the fact that there's an atrocious batch of young radical crossed the metropolis of Glasgow and beyond who person chronic non-attendance challenges and they each merit that benignant of support," helium said.

"But it takes clip to springiness a kid the enactment that they need.

"And it takes a batch of effort and vigor and a really, truly good established relationship."

Professor Edward Sosu of the University of Strathclyde said the autumn successful mean attendance was a superior interest and that Scotland needed to tackle the problem.

He said a emergence successful poverty, intelligence wellness problems and further enactment needs were the large reasons for the summation successful absences.

And helium said that careless of societal people oregon background, it was astir intolerable to marque up for the mislaid clip successful school.

His probe looked astatine radical who were aged betwixt 34 and 42, and the interaction their schoolhouse attendance rates had connected their outcomes.

"What we recovered is that missing an mean of conscionable 10 days aged 10 was linked to not having immoderate qualifications property 42 oregon not being successful employment. So missing that tiny magnitude of schoolhouse successful that clip had a antagonistic impact," helium said.

"This was irrespective of their socioeconomic background, irrespective of cognitive outcomes, irrespective of each the inheritance characteristics.

"Our presumption primitively was that those from mediate people backgrounds volition beryllium capable to assistance their children drawback up - but what we recovered is that irrespective of your background, absences person a antagonistic interaction connected your acquisition achievement."