Thousands still missing school

MORE than 700 new Covid cases have been reported in schools across Wales as restrictions in the community are eased. An average of 15,515 children missed school for a known Covid-related reason in the week of March 21-25, official Welsh Government figures show.

A total of 768 new Covid cases were reported by schools in the week to March 23 which is down nearly 300 on the previous week, separate data from Public Health Wales reveals. With only one more week until term ends thousands of children are still missing school every day in Wales.

More than one in 10 are off with just 86.6% of all pupils going to school in the week to March 25 – that was down 1% on the previous week and part of a continuing pattern of falling attendance.

More than 90,000 children have missed two to three weeks of faceto-face school since September and 362,122 pupils have missed more than a week for any reason in that time. Among statutory-age pupils attendance is worst among key GCSE Year 11s with 15% of those now absent, Welsh Government data published on March 30 shows.

Separate data from Public Health Wales shows that schools Covid cases fell in every local authority area except two in the week to March 23. Most cases continue to be in primary schools.

In terms of local authority areas, Neath Port Talbot Council reported 36 schools Covid cases in the week to March 23, a rise of six on the previous week, while Merthyr Tydfil logged 14 cases in the same period, a rise of just one. Swansea recorded 38 cases, a drop of 22. In Carmarthenshire there were 24 cases, a drop of 29.

Of the 768 cases among staff and pupils in the week to March 23 a total of 447 were in primaries, 218 in secondaries, and 103 in “other” which includes independent schools, special schools, and pupil referral units. In the previous week there were 670 cases in primaries, 277 in high schools, and 114 in “other”.

Welsh Government figures show that school absence continues to be a stubborn problem. In the week to March 25 some 29,705 school sessions were missed for Covidrelated reasons.

The average number of children off school for a Covid-related reason between March 21-25 was 15,515 (4%). That was up from 15,399 (3.5% the week before) and 7,879 (1.7%) the week before that.