Doubling in children missing half or more of school

THE number of pupils missing the majority of school in England has doubled since the start of the pandemic, figures have shown.

More than 120,000 pupils were absent for half or more school sessions in 2021-22, according to data published by the Department for Education.

The number has doubled since 201819, when just over 60,000 pupils missed half or more of school.

The research, which only covers state schools, suggests that around one in 60 children were absent for more than half the school week in the past academic year.

It follows warnings from education leaders that prolonged school closures during the pandemic have led to disengagement with education and a change in attitudes around school attendance.

Pupils are increasingly playing truant on Fridays because their parents are working from home, research by Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner has found.

Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, said in December that lockdowns had broken the “clear social contract” around parents sending their children to school and the routine of attending lessons every day.

Newcastle had the highest rate of severe absence of any local authority in 2021-22, with 2.8 per cent of pupils missing half or more of school sessions. It was followed by Bradford, West Yorks, where 2.7 per cent of pupils were severely absent, and St Helens, Merseyside and Middlesborough, North Yorks, where the figure was 2.6 per cent.

Nine of the 10 local authorities with the lowest rates of severe absence were in London, suggesting that there is a North-south divide in how school lockdowns have affected pupils.

The rate of severe absence in England is the highest since at least 2006.

The Department for Education figures also showed that almost a quarter of pupils in England, or 1.6 million children, were “persistently absent”, missing 10 per cent or more of possible school sessions in 2021-22.

In that year, 22.5 per cent of pupils were absent for more than one in 10 school sessions, up from between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in the previous four years.

Frank Young, from the Civitas think tank, said: “These are parents simply letting their children bunk off school more than they turn up. We need to crack down on this. Just spending more money on state workers to chivvy parents along won’t do.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said it was working to identify pupils at risk of becoming persistently absent and to support those children to return to regular and consistent education.