UK- CU – School attendance figures in the final full week before Christmas have been at the lowest level since the start of term in September. That’s despite the Department of Education recording a slight fall in the number of pupils absent from school for Covid-related reasons.
But while that figure has fallen, there has been a significant rise in the number of pupils absent for ‘other’ reasons, with many parents electing to keep their children off school during the last full week before Christmas.
Overall, the number of children attending school during the past week was at the lowest level since the start of the school year in September at 82.8%. The department’s overall attendance figures provided by schools for the weeks beginning Monday December 6 and Monday December 13 show that 1.9% of pupils were off with either a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 in the week beginning December 6.
That fell to 1.8% of pupils in the week beginning December 13 – the final full week before schools break-up for the Christmas holidays. What the figures also showed was a significant rise in the number of pupils who have been self-isolating.
As they have been removed to remote learning they are still marked present in school in the official statistics. Many schools have had to send whole classes and even year groups home in the past few weeks due to large numbers of staff being off and the unavailability of substitute teachers to plug the gaps.
Around 2.6% of pupils were marked as self-isolating in the week beginning December 13. Almost 13% of pupils were absent from school for reasons “other” than Covid in the last week. Special schools and non-grammar post-primary schools had the lowest proportion of pupils in school. The data does not specify the numbers of staff currently not in school, but some special schools and non-grammars have been hit hard by staff absences in recent weeks.
The attendance rates will place more pressure on the Department to take action to reduce the spread of Covid in schools.
Teaching unions have urged the Minister to put emergency plans in place for the new year, with one union, the NASUWT, advocating for a phased return after Christmas.
The Department remains committed to keeping schools open, saying the belief remains that schools are still the best place for children, despite the rising level of Omicron variant in the community, though there remains a possibility of an increase in restrictions in January, with Queen’s University having already decided to move most students to remote learning once the new term starts in the new year.
