English schoolchildren are still missing months of classes
The pandemic is over. Persistent absence is the new epidemic
Before the covid-19 pandemic, Liz Marsh’s daughter seemed to be coping better with debilitating anxieties. Diagnosed as autistic when she was six, she appeared to have found a school that worked reasonably well for her. Over the past two years, however, her problems have resurged. These days the ten-year-old rarely travels to her school in Leeds willingly; some days she simply lies down in their driveway. The problem is not that she doesn’t want to go to school, says her worried mother: “She just can’t.”
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Empty chairs, quieter playgrounds”
Britain April 22nd 2023
- English schoolchildren are still missing months of classes
- A deepening crisis in Scotland’s ruling party
- The first big test of Britain’s voter-ID requirements is imminent
- Britain’s emergency text alert is a signal of something bigger
- Britain’s inflation rate is not falling fast enough
- Britain needs to embrace road pricing
- If English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English
From the April 22nd 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Britain
Has the Royal Navy become too timid?
A new paper examines how its culture has changed
A plan to reorganise local government in England runs into opposition
Turkeys vote against Christmas
David Lammy’s plan to shake up Britain’s Foreign Office
Diplomats will be tasked with growing the economy and cutting migration
Britain’s government has spooked markets and riled businesses
Tax rises were inevitable. Such a shaky start was not
Labour’s credibility trap
Who can believe Rachel Reeves?