Heads say rising pupil absence is ‘extremely concerning’

Headteachers have said rising pupil absence rates in July are “extremely concerning”, and that the trend could mean further Covid-19 disruption to education in winter.

The latest Government data, released on Tuesday, showed that overall attendance in state schools, adjusted to exclude Year 11 and 13 students sitting exams, fell to 86.9% on 7 July, down from 89.4% on 23 June.

The attendance in secondary schools was just 81.2%, down from 86.9% on 23 June, equating to nearly one in five pupils being off school.

The data represents the lowest level of attendance since January 28, when 85.3% of pupils were in school during the Omicron wave of infections.

We simply cannot have this pattern continue to repeat, particularly as we head into the colder months again in the autumn term

The Government estimated that 42,000 teachers and school leaders (roughly 8% of the workforce) up from 33,000 on 23 June and 49,000 support staff (6.8% of all support staff nationally) up from 5.5% (39,000) on 23 June, were absent last Thursday.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described the data as “extremely concerning”.

“It is impossible to know how many of these absences are directly due to Covid, as the government has made the decision to no longer collect this information,” he said.

“However, given the rising rates of infection across society, it is highly likely that Covid is playing a significant role in these worrying figures.”

He said the Government, which had “already appeared to have washed its hands of responsibility” for rising Covid rates, was now “even more distracted by its own internal politics”.

“In the meantime, education continues to be disrupted, and children and staff continue to fall ill, often multiple times.”

“We simply cannot have this pattern continue to repeat, particularly as we head into the colder months again in the autumn term. The government must re-focus on the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and come up with a strategy to minimise this ongoing disruption.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “This matches what we have been hearing from our members. Covid has absolutely not gone away, and in fact we are hearing that cases have been on the rise again recently, in line with numbers nationally.

“While the summer holidays are coming up soon, there is already worry about the autumn and winter. The government can’t just leave schools to it in dealing with Covid.

“Learners need and deserve better than that. We need a proper plan for how to live with it long term that is focused on keeping levels low and reducing disruption.”

This is a wake-up call: if the next Covid wave arrives in winter, transmission and sickness levels are likely to be much worse unless the DfE gets its act together

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said the high rates were “causing further disruption to pupils’ education as they try to catch up on missed learning before the end of the academic year”.

He added that Covid recovery funding had never “come close” to the levels proposed by the recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins, and that current infection rates meant pupils risked being left further behind before the summer holidays.

“Government efforts to improve ventilation in classrooms remain woefully inadequate,” he said.

“The current Covid wave is occurring during mid-summer, when classroom windows are open and still the absence rate is high.

“This is a wake-up call: if the next Covid wave arrives in winter, transmission and sickness levels are likely to be much worse unless the DfE gets its act together and properly funds adequate ventilation in all classrooms.”