One in five children don't attend enough school
Low attendance records across the East of England remain at a high
Last updated 29th Jun 2023
22% of children from the East of England are 'persistently absent' from school, which means they miss out on 10% of their in-school learning, or more.
Figures published by the Department of Education on Thursday (29th June) also found the overall absence remains at 7.5% on average.
The numbers mark a significant jump since pre-pandemic levels, which averaged just 4.9% for overall absence and 13.1% persistently absent.
Schools are having to get external support to help students back into in-person learning.
Susan Tooze manages Academy21 in the East of England, a company which helps pupils transition back to in-person learning.
"The data sadly doesn't surprise me," she said "what it does do, is confirm the sad news that I'm getting from schools across the region - the data tells us exactly what they're telling me, that absenteeism is on the rise."
An inquiry was launched in January 2023 by the Education Committee to examine links between absence and factors such as economic disadvantage, special educational needs and disabilities, ethnic background, and whether a child or family member is clinically vulnerable to Covid-19.
The numbers suggest that lockdowns have had a huge impact on attendance.
"What they weren't getting for two years is that social side; that interaction, that being with other people of the same age, that structure of their day.
"I think suddenly putting them back into a situation where they have to be up and in uniform and in school at a certain time of day just seemed to be too much for them."
As part of the government enquiry, Schools Minister Nick Gibb cited mental health and illness are key reasons children are absent from school, saying it was “easier” for parents to allow their children to remain at home if they have a remote working job.
"There's a multitude of reasons why students aren't coming to school at the moment and it's very complex," Susan Tooze said.
"If I look back at historically, about 60% of our students were referred to us because of behavioural-based reasons. We're now at a point where around 70-75% state some kind of anxiety as being the primary reason."
Susan Tooze believes this transition back into school is of vital importance to their development: "it impacts their ability to achieve good GCSE outcomes and therefore progress to an A Level course or a University course or whatever their chosen path is.
"But it isn't just the education side of it. It is the social side of it that helps shape them into well-rounded young people who can go out and seize the world and have all the opportunities that they should have."