‘It broke the link’: how the pandemic disrupted children’s relationship with school

One in five pupils in England were reported as persistently absent during the last school year Anne’s daughter is just nine, but feels constantly overwhelmed by school. Like many children, she found the pandemic very difficult, her mother explains. “She would stop talking for periods of time – we’d find her curled up and feeling low. I don’t think she’s ever really recovered from that.”The nine-year-old struggled with returning to her primary school, and