Join us as we think about the drop in school attendance, where young people are finding their news, a genre shift by a musical icon that’s made waves and why our podcast isn’t spenny.
ISSUES: We Don’t Need No Education?
Recent stats from the DfE have shown that a whopping 24% of secondary school students are missing at least 10% of school (having risen from 15% of students in 2019). That roughly equates to a quarter of students missing at least a day a fortnight.
Whilst the government is trying to tackle this issue by raising fines from £60-80, the greater concern is around why young people aren’t attending school. The stats become starker again when considering that an estimated 122,000 children are missing at least half of school.
A chunk of these numbers are young people going on term-time family holidays and sure, there’ll be those young people who bunk off school for fun. However, there are many young people who aren’t going to school for more concerning reasons. For example, due to illness, additional needs, caring for a family member or mental health issues such as school-related anxiety. For some young people, school feels insurmountable and they often get termed as ‘school refusers’ which may not accurately depict what’s going on with accuracy.
It also hits home when realising that in Autumn 2023, 33% of children eligible for free school meals were persistently absent compared to 15.7% of those who weren’t eligible; and alongside this that those in receipt of SEN support were persistently absent at 29.9% showing a huge swing towards young people with additional needs or those from deprived backgrounds.
ISSUES: Where D’ya Get Your News From?
It may come as no surprise to many that young people officially get more of their news from social media than traditional news outlets such as newspapers and the news on TV. However, there is now research backing this up showing that more than 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds receive news from TikTok once a day and that also Instagram, Facebook and X (formally Twitter) were all used more than the BBC.
All of this is despite respondents saying they trusted social media content less than the more traditional counterpoints. However, on these platforms news often comes to the user through the algorithms rather than having to be hunted out.
POP CULTURE: Bey-hold The Country Queen
In a surprise musical shift, Beyoncé has stepped into the genre of country music with her song ‘Texas Hold Em’. This single has launched her to the top of the UK singles chart for the first time in a number of years and has seen her become the first black woman to hit the top spot with a country song in the USA.
‘Texas Hold Em’ has already amassed thousands of videos on Reels and TikTok with people busting out dance moves whilst decked out in cowboy hats and cowboy boots and it looks like Beyoncé’s next album Rennaissance Act II will be a pretty big deal when it launches on March 29th.
Word Of The Month: Spenny
Spenny = expensive
“Those shoes are spenny.”