Secondary school students in England, particularly girls, report some of the lowest levels of enjoyment of school and satisfaction in their relationships with peers and teachers, research shows.
Students’ emotional engagement rates - their enjoyment of school, their relationships with their peers and teachers, and the extent to which they feel safe and that they belong in school - have suffered a marked decline since the Covid pandemic. The rates for students in England are now among the lowest in the world, warns the from UCL Institute of Education.
The researchers highlight a need for interventions to improve secondary students’ emotional engagement with school, focusing on girls and issues around safety and the strength of relationships.
They say there is likely to be a “strong connection between declining emotional engagement and pupil absences, with those who feel less engaged being more likely to skip school”.
Yesterday Tes reported on a National Foundation for Educational Research report showing that the “socioemotional skills” of 15- and 16-year-olds in England were significantly weaker than in many comparator countries.
Girls feel less safe in school
In the latest research, UCL Institute of Education examined data from the recent , finding that while primary pupils in Year 5 demonstrated a small fall in emotional engagement with school between 2019 and 2023, there was a steep drop among students in Year 9.
Researchers also found that girls in Year 9, or the equivalent year group around the world, felt significantly less safe in school in 2023 than in 2019, with England seeing one of the biggest drop-offs.
In 2023 the proportion of Year 9 girls in England saying they strongly agreed that they felt safe at school was down 22 percentage points on the figure in 2019. This was a significantly larger drop than for boys in England (down 10 percentage points) and for the international average (down 13 percentage points).
In 2019 around 47 per cent of girls across all countries in Timss strongly agreed that they felt safe at school, falling to around 34 per cent in 2023. In England these figures were 43 per cent in 2019 and 21 per cent in 2023.
For boys across Timss countries, the proportion strongly agreeing that they felt safe in school fell from 44 per cent in 2019 to 38 per cent in 2023. In England these figures were 41 per cent in 2019 and 31 per cent in 2023.
While all 32 countries in Timss reported a drop in engagement since the pandemic, England’s drop was among the steepest, along with Australia and New Zealand.
In 2019 around 36 per cent of girls across all participating countries had a high level of emotional engagement with school, but this fell to around 25 per cent in 2023. For boys, the percentage fell from 32 per cent in 2019 to 28 per cent in 2023.
Levels of emotional engagement in Year 5 in England have remained relatively stable over the past 20 years, with around 31 per cent of pupils agreeing that they liked school in 2023, down from 37 per cent in 2011. The results follow a similar pattern across countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
However, in Year 9 in England, the proportion of students strongly agreeing that they liked being in school fell from 19 per cent in 2019 to 11 per cent in 2023.
The UCL report’s lead author, John Jerrim, identified several potential factors behind the decline in engagement, including the pandemic and subsequent school closures.
“The results we are seeing for girls are particularly concerning, with around a third of teenage girls in this country indicating they no longer feel safe at school,” said Professor Jerrim.
Covid school closures “particularly impacted girls’ enjoyment and confidence at school and their peer relationships”, he added.
“What is really worrying is that there are signs from other evidence that this may well be feeding into greater school absence rates amongst girls and on to their educational achievement.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he would like to see more research to help work out how to respond to the trends.
“The growing trend of worsening mental health and happiness among children is of real concern, and it’s vital that the education system helps to develop well-rounded young people who feel able to positively engage in society,” he said.
“We agree that things have changed since the pandemic, which disrupted not just learning but also elements such as school connectedness and social and emotional development, and there has not been sufficient government investment to help schools respond to these new challenges.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “High and rising standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, ensuring all children and young people can achieve and thrive.
“This means ensuring every school provides a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment.
“Oܰ sets out our relentless focus on making sure every child gets the best life chances, no matter their background, including establishing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, providing access to mental health support and making attendance one of the four core priorities of our school improvement teams.”
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