{"id":155774,"date":"2024-10-17T14:18:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T14:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/17\/number-of-severely-absent-school-children-160-higher-than-pre-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T14:18:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T14:18:48","slug":"number-of-severely-absent-school-children-160-higher-than-pre-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/17\/number-of-severely-absent-school-children-160-higher-than-pre-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of ‘severely absent’ school children 160% higher than pre-pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The number of children missing at least half their time at school is 160% higher than before the COVID pandemic, new data shows.<\/p>\n

A total of 157,038 children were severely absent from schools in England in the spring term (January to March) this year – an increase of 12.4% compared with the same term in 2023, the latest government has revealed.<\/p>\n

“Severely absent” is defined as a child missing 50% or more sessions at primary, secondary and special state schools in England.<\/p>\n

Politics latest: No 10 issues warning amid reports of cabinet splits over spending cuts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest number is 160% higher than before the COVID pandemic, when the government closed all schools in March 2020. A total of 60,244 children were severely absent in autumn 2019, the last full term before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

One in five children was “persistently absent” this spring term, when they missed 10% or more school sessions.<\/p>\n

That is a 5.7% increase compared with last year’s spring term and 67.8% higher than before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

When compared with last year, statistics for the latest autumn and spring terms show absence is down from 7.3% in 2022\/23 to 6.9% in 2023\/24.<\/p>\n

But they remain above pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

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\n Beth Prescott said parents often think their children do not have to attend school. Pic: iStock
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Beth Prescott, programme lead at the Centre for Social Justice, said: “School absence has now become endemic, with parents often thinking it is not essential for children to attend school every day.<\/p>\n

“Without faster and further action, like the national rollout of attendance mentors and a parental participation strategy, we will be picking up the pieces from this unfolding social disaster for years to come.”<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Will there be a revolt over the budget?<\/strong><\/a>
Cabinet ministers must ‘accept’ budget cuts, says Harman<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at the school leaders’ union NAHT, said schools are working “incredibly hard to boost attendance”.<\/p>\n

“However, the reasons for absence often lie beyond the school gates, and it is clear schools need more support to tackle unauthorised absence and the often deep-rooted issues facing children and families,” he said.<\/p>\n

“These include everything from sickness and mental health problems to poverty and other social challenges.”<\/p>\n

He accused “previous governments” of failing to properly fund services like social care and child and adolescent mental health services (CAHMS), and cutting education welfare officer roles.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of children missing at least half their time at school is 160% higher than before the COVID pandemic, new data shows. A total of 157,038 children were severely absent from schools in England in the spring term (January to March) this year – an increase of 12.4% compared with the same term in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/07\/768x432\/skynews-children-parent-school_6635449.jpg?20240721154228","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[4498,1388,6572,2644,122164,192,45381],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155776,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155774\/revisions\/155776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}