Anxiety Has Kept 28% of UK Children Away from School

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Materials

Read Engoo Daily News articles with Engoo tutors

February 10, 2024

Intermediate

Exercise 1

Vocabulary

Repeat each word, definition, and example sentence after your tutor.

anxious

Adjective

ˈæŋkʃəs

feeling worried or nervous

Research has found that spending too much time on social media can make people feel lonely and anxious.

mental

Adjective

ˈmɛntl

relating to the brain or thinking

Stress can cause mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

epidemic

Noun

ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk

a situation in which a disease or something undesirable occurs in large numbers in a particular time and place

Obesity rates have increased so rapidly in recent years that it has been described as an epidemic.

suffer

Verb

ˈsʌfər

to experience or be affected by an illness or something unpleasant

My partner has suffered from anxiety for years.

difficulty

Noun

ˈdɪfəˌkəltiː

the state of being hard; something that is hard to deal with, understand, etc.

She underestimated the difficulty of the research project and was unable to finish it on time.

The plane was delayed two hours because of technical difficulties, and we missed our connecting flight.

support

Noun

səˈpoʊrt

approval or encouragement; a person or thing that provides approval or encouragement

I couldn't have done it without the support of my family and friends.

Throughout this difficult time, you have been such an incredible support.

Exercise 2

Article

Read the article aloud on your own or repeat each paragraph after your tutor.

AI Generated Audio––:–– / ––:––

Anxiety Has Kept 28% of UK Children Away from School

Many children in the UK are missing school because they feel too anxious, according to a new survey.

Research by stem4, a mental health charity for young people, found that 28% of children aged between 12 and 18 had missed school in the last year because of anxiety.

There is "an epidemic of unhappiness that is keeping children away from the classroom," said one politician.

The charity is asking the government, the health service and schools to do more to help pupils with their mental health.

More than 1,000 young people were surveyed, and almost half said that they were suffering from a mental health difficulty.

Experts say that the problems have gotten worse since the coronavirus pandemic.

At the moment, 38% of schools in England have a mental health support team.

But the government has said that it wants to increase that to at least 50% by the end of March 2025, as well as training teachers and giving more money to the health service.

However, the survey also found that it is not only mental health that is keeping children away from school.

Almost a quarter of children aged between 12 and 18 have missed school because of family problems, while 18% have stayed away because of problems with friends or other pupils.