Week 37 2020

Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Data guidance

Published 15 September 2020

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Table 1 - Daily attendance in state funded schools during the COVID-19 outbreak From 1 September

• Filename: table_1_daily_attendance_in_state_schools_during_covid_19_from1sept.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 Week 37

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
date	Date
number_children_attending_fully_open_state_schools	Number of children attending fully open state schools
number_children_attending_state_schools	Number of children attending state schools
number_fully_open_state_schools	Number of fully open state schools
number_open_state_schools	Number of open state schools
number_state_schools_responded	Number of state schools responded
proportion_children_attending_fully_open_state_schools	Proportion of children attending fully open state schools
proportion_children_attending_state_schools	Proportion of children attending state schools
proportion_fully_open_state_schools	Proportion of fully open state schools
proportion_open_state_schools	Proportion of open state schools
response_rate_state_schools	Response rate from state schools

Footnotes

1. The following education settings are included: academies (including free schools and studio schools), local authority maintained schools (excluding local authority nursery schools), non-maintained special schools, alternative provision and university technical colleges.
2. Schools are considered fully open if they are able to provide face-to-face teaching for all pupils on roll for the whole school day and they have not asked a group of pupils to self-isolate.
3. All figures are adjusted for non-response. See accompanying document for full methodology.

Table 2 - Daily attendance in early years settings during the COVID-19 outbreak

• Filename: table_2_daily_attendance_in_early_years_settings_during_the_covid19_outbreak.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 Week 16 to 2020 Week 37

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
Children_attending	Number of children attending
Children_of_critical_workers_attending	Children of critical workers attending
Closed_settings	Number of closed settings
date	Date
Open_settings	Number of open settings
Proportion_of_settings_closed	Proportion of settings closed
Proportion_of_settings_open	Proportion of settings open
Proportion_of_settings_with_unknown_status	Proportion of settings with unknown status
Settings_with_unknown_status	Number of settings with unknown status
Vulnerable_children_attending	Number of vulnerable children attending

Footnotes

1. The following early years settings are included: group-based providers (Ofsted-registered nurseries and pre-schools), school-based providers (any pre-school provision run by school governing bodies, nursery classes in schools and maintained nursery school provision) and Ofsted-registered childminders.
2. From 16 April to 18 June, the local authority early years survey was twice-weekly (Mondays and Thursdays). From 25 June, the survey changed to weekly (Thursdays).
3. All figures are adjusted for non-response. See accompanying document for full methodology.
4. From 1 June, the government asked early years settings to begin welcoming back all children in addition to those of critical workers and vulnerable children. The methodology to adjust figures for non-response was also updated to reflect this change.
5. Thursday 28 May would usually have been half term, and some settings, particularly those that are school-based, will have been closed. This may also have reduced demand for childcare.
6. The summer term had ended in most schools by Friday 17 July. Ordinarily, fewer early years settings are open and fewer children are in attendance during school summer holidays. This is due to reduced demand for childcare and the closure of school-based settings.
7. Settings are asked to provide a count of the number of children of critical workers and the number of vulnerable children. For the total, it is assumed that in the early years data there is no overlap between the number of children of critical workers and the number of vulnerable children.

Table 3 - Daily attendance in education settings during COVID-19 outbreak Pre 17 July

• Filename: table_3_daily_attendance_in_education_settings_during_covid19_pre17july.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 Week 13 to 2020 Week 29

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
attending_nursery	Children attending nursery
attending_reception	Children attending reception
attending_year1	Children attending year 1
attending_year10	Children attending year 10
attending_year12	Children attending year 12
attending_year6	Children attending year 6
children_attending	Children attending
children_critical_workers_attending	Children of critical workers attending
children_with_ehcp_attending	Children with an EHCP attending
children_with_ehcp_or_social_worker_attending	Children with an EHCP or social worker attending
children_with_social_worker_attending	Children with a social worker attending
date	Date
nonteaching_staff_attending_excluding_teaching_assistants	Non-teaching staff attending (excludes teaching assistants)
nonteaching_staff_attending_including_teaching_assistants	Non-teaching staff attending (includes teaching assistants)
open_settings	Open settings
open_settings_to_nursery_reception_year1_or_year6	Settings open to nursery reception year 1 or year 6
open_settings_to_year10_or_year12	Settings open to year 10 or year 12
otherwise_vulnerable_children_attending	Otherwise vulnerable children attending
proportion_attending_nursery_open_settings	Proportion of nursery children in open settings attending
proportion_attending_nursery_settings	Proportion of nursery children attending
proportion_attending_reception	Proportion of reception children attending
proportion_attending_reception_open_settings	Proportion of reception children in open settings attending
proportion_attending_year1	Proportion of year 1 children attending
proportion_attending_year1_open_settings	Proportion of year 1 children in open settings attending
proportion_attending_year10	Proportion of year 10 children attending
proportion_attending_year10_open_settings	Proportion of year 10 children in open settings attending
proportion_attending_year12	Proportion of year 12 children attending
proportion_attending_year12_open_settings	Proportion of year 12 children in open settings attending
proportion_attending_year6	Proportion of year 6 children attending
proportion_attending_year6_open_settings	Proportion of year 6 children in open settings attending
proportion_children_attending	Proportion of children attending
proportion_children_with_ehcp_or_social_worker_attending	Proportion of children with an EHCP or social worker attending
proportion_of_settings_open	Proportion of settings open
proportion_of_settings_open_to_nursery_reception_year1_or_year6	Proportion of settings usually accepting these year groups open to nursery reception year 1 or year 6
proportion_of_settings_open_to_year10_or_year12	Proportion of settings usually accepting these year groups open to year 10 or year 12
response_rate	Response rate
teaching_staff_attending_excluding_teaching_assistants	Teaching staff attending (excludes teaching assistants)
teaching_staff_attending_including_teaching_assistants	Teaching staff attending (includes teaching assistants)
vulnerable_children_attending	Vulnerable children attending

Footnotes

1. The response rates for Wednesday 13 and Friday 15 May were impacted slightly due to technical issues which made it more difficult for some schools to complete the survey. A lower response rate makes the methodology used to account for non-response slightly less reliable.
2. Settings are asked to provide a count of the number of children of critical workers and the number of vulnerable children. Some children are classified as both a child of a critical worker and a vulnerable child. Some settings have been counting these pupils as children of critical workers, but not in the count of vulnerable children. Therefore, the number of vulnerable children is an under-estimate. We estimate the true figure is up to 5% higher.
3. The following education settings are included: academies (including free schools and studio schools), local authority maintained schools (including local authority nursery schools), independent schools, non-maintained special schools, alternative provision, university technical colleges, FE colleges and sixth form colleges, and special post-16 institutions/specialist colleges.
4. The response rate between Monday 4 April and Friday 17 April was low because it was the Easter break for most settings in England. Similarly, the response rate between Monday 25 May and Friday 29 May was low because it was half term for most settings in England.
5. From 23 March to 2 July the Autumn school census was used to determine year group population size. From 3 July, we switched to using the newly published Spring census. This change has the biggest impact on the proportion of nursery children in attendance. We estimate that this proportion falls by 5 percentage points when compared to using the Autumn census. Other year group attendance rates see a change of around 0.1 percentage points.
6. The response rate for Friday 1 May was only 14% due to technical issues with DfE sign-in, the online system used by educational establishments to submit attendance data. This may have affected the accuracy of the figures. A lower response rate makes the methodology used to account for non-response slightly less reliable.
7. From 1 June, the government asked schools to welcome back children in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside children of critical workers and vulnerable children. As a result, changes were made to the survey of education settings to capture information about this wider group of attending pupils. From 15 June, secondary schools, sixth form and further education colleges were asked to begin providing face-to-face support to students in year 10 and 12 to supplement their learning from home, alongside full time provision for students from priority groups.
8. All figures are adjusted for non-response. This methodology was adjusted from Friday 27 March. See accompanying document for full methodology
9. The following education settings are included: academies (including free schools and studio schools), local authority maintained schools (including local authority nursery schools), independent schools, non-maintained special schools and alternative provision.
10. Figures from Friday 27 March relate to data as at 4pm on each day, prior to this figures related to data as at 6pm. Negligible changes to the estimates were seen between 4pm and 6pm.
11. Figures from Friday 27 March relate to data as at 4pm on each day, prior to this figures related to data as at 6pm. Negligible changes to the estimates were seen between 4pm and 6pm. Figures for Monday 1 June relate to data as at 3pm.

Table 4 - Daily attendance in responding education settings during the COVID-19 outbreak not nationally representative Pre 17 July

• Filename: table_4_daily_attendance_in_responding_education_settings_during_the_covid19_outbreak_not_nationally_representative_pre17july.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020 Week 23 to 2021 Week 20

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
date	Date
open_responding_settings_not_nationally_representative	Open responding settings (not nationally representative)
open_responding_settings_to_nursery_reception_year1_or_year6_not_nationally_representative	Settings open to nursery reception year 1 or year 6 (not nationally representative)
open_responding_settings_to_year10_or_year12_not_nationally_representative	Settings open to year 10 or year 12 (not nationally representative)
proportion_of_responding_settings_open_not_nationally_representative	Proportion of responding settings open (not nationally representative)
proportion_of_responding_settings_open_to_nursery_reception_year1_or_year6_not_nationally_representative	Proportion of settings usually accepting these year groups open to nursery reception year 1 or year 6 (not nationally representative)
proportion_of_responding_settings_open_to_year10_or_year12_not_nationally_representative	Proportion of settings usually accepting these year groups open to year 10 or year 12 (not nationally representative)
response_rate	Response rate

Footnotes

1. The following education settings are included: academies (including free schools and studio schools), local authority maintained schools (including local authority nursery schools), independent schools, non-maintained special schools, alternative provision, university technical colleges, FE colleges and sixth form colleges, and special post-16 institutions/specialist colleges.
2. These figures are included for methodological completeness and show the corresponding data before it has been adjusted for non-response.
3. Figures from Friday 27 March relate to data as at 4pm on each day, prior to this figures related to data as at 6pm. Negligible changes to the estimates were seen between 4pm and 6pm.
4. Figures from Friday 27 March relate to data as at 4pm on each day, prior to this figures related to data as at 6pm. Negligible changes to the estimates were seen between 4pm and 6pm. Figures for Monday 1 June relate to data as at 3pm.