school attendance | Schools Week

‘Someone’s got to do it, so we’re doing it’

Schools are swapping English and maths for lessons in wellbeing, running interventions akin to those used for drug addicts and setting up “zen dens” to tackle pupils’ worsening mental health and get them back into schools. One in four parents cited anxiety or mental health problems as a reason why their child was absent from […]

‘The new epidemic’: Why more pupils are missing school

Absenteeism has become endemic in our schools. The search for solutions is keeping headteachers awake at night but, despite concerted efforts, absence rates are not improving

DfE will no longer publish school Covid absence updates

Leaders warn ‘having no stats doesn’t mean Covid has disappeared’

Schools must publish improvement plans in absence crackdown

The DfE is consulting on more prescriptive absence rules, ordering schools to be ‘proactive’ and councils to use their ‘full range of legal powers’

Three in four secondary schools reopen to more pupils

Almost three in four secondary schools began face-to-face support for year 10 and 12 pupils last week, while almost nine in ten primary schools had reopened more widely. The latest attendance data from the Department for Education shows 89 per cent of schools normally open to reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils had reopened […]