Too many Year 9 students are missing school. What can parents and teachers do to keep them engaged?

This week, we learned public high school students in Victoria are missing school at record levels.

Students enrolled in state secondary schools missed an average of 5.6 weeks in Victoria last year, up from just 3.5 weeks in 2018. Absences were particularly high for Year 9 students, who missed an average of 6.5 weeks in 2023, up from 4.6 weeks in 2018.

This is part of a broader trend of Australian students missing more school. While national school attendance rates for years 1 to 10 improved slightly between 2022 and 2023, overall they have dropped from 92.7% in 2014 to 88.6% in 2023. Year 9 is also traditionally seen as a particularly difficult year.

Why is this so and what can parents and teachers do to help keep students engaged?

What is different about Year 9?

Year 9 often represents a difficult time for teachers and students. It has been described as a “lost year” where a student leaves junior school and moves toward senior school.

So Year 9 students are often confusingly thought of as what they are not – not a child, not an adult. But there is a lot going on for young people at this stage. Their bodies and brains are going through rapid changes.

As they start to form adult identities, they can test boundaries and challenge authority. There is also a propensity to engage in more risk taking behaviour. This can be both negative (where they threaten their safety and the safety of those around them) or adaptive (where they try new things and master challenges).

Adaptive risk taking allows young people to develop their sense of self.

What’s happening with school?

Many schools in Australia do not offer opportunities for Year 9 students to engage in adaptive risk taking.

The school day is typically organised into arbitrary blocks of time spent on different, isolated subjects.

So it can be hard for some young people to see this as relevant to their current or future lives.

What can parents do?

If you notice your child losing interest in school, here are some things that may help:

1. Start with the basics

Teenagers aged 14–17 need between eight and ten hours of sleep each night for healthy growth, mental health and their capacity to learn. Research suggests around one-quarter of Australian 12–15-year-olds do not get enough sleep on school nights.

Check if your child is getting the recommended amounts and try and help them set up a better sleep routine if not. This may require limiting technology use before bed.

2. Take an active interest in what’s happening at school

Decades of research has shown parental engagement with a child’s learning can increase their engagement and achievement at school. This can be as simple as regular family discussions about the experience of Year 9, as well as your child’s expectations, goals and future aspirations.

3. Focus on their passions

Try and take a strengths-based approach, where you support existing strengths, rather than focus on problems. This means concentrating on what your child is passionate about.

This may be sport or technology, or perhaps they really love reading. Use what you know about your child to find connections between their passions and their relationship with school and those within it. This can help motivate them. For example, “If you keep building your skills in maths, you might go on to study engineering at university”.

Try and develop a strategy with your child’s teacher/s, so it can be supported both at home and at school.

What can schools do?

A growing number of schools are taking different approaches to Year 9 that focus on opportunities outside the standard curriculum.

This includes learning through experiences, as well as developing skills to prepare students for the workplace. It also has a focus on building strong relationships between teachers and Year 9 students, so teachers can proactively address academic and wellbeing issues.

Some schools have the advantage of generous budgets supported by student fees, which can fund special camps, excursions and activities beyond the classroom. But many schools are not as fortunate.

Regardless of budgets, here are some proven strategies schools could consider:

1. Restructure timetables

Schools can allow teachers who specialise in Year 9 to blend subjects. For example, one teacher might have the same students for science, and health and physical education. Students could use movement skills to journey to a nearby creek and then examine the ecological health of the area.

2. Make learning more meaningful

Schools should also try to connect Year 9 students with their local community. This might involve volunteers coming into the school or students going out into the community to learn. For example, students might spend time in their local aged care facility, helping to run activities for residents and interviewing them to then write life stories for English.

3. Give students more choice

This could be related to projects, offering more and different electives, or even how Year 9 students might structure their day. More choice will give students more autonomy as they are growing up and help them feel like school is more meaningful to them.