The majority of schools and colleges were on Easter break week commencing 12 April. As such, a brief summary of attendance is provided here based on schools who had returned from the Easter break. This data is not included in the underlying data tables.
- Settings on Easter break have been excluded from our estimates to give the clearest picture of attendance
- This commentary focuses on data as of Thursday 15 April which represent around one-third of state-funded schools instead of all schools and is therefore not comparable to previous weeks [1]
Pupil on-site attendance
- Pupil attendance in state-funded schools was 94% on 15 April, excluding those on Easter break
- Attendance was 96% in state-funded primary schools
- Attendance was 91% in state-funded secondary schools
- Attendance was 88% in state-funded special schools
Attendance in further education colleges
- Approximately 121,000 students attended colleges on-site on 15 April, excluding colleges on Easter break
Attendance of vulnerable children and pupils eligible for free school meals
In state-funded schools on 15 April, excluding those on Easter break:
- Attendance of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) was 89%
- Attendance of pupils with a social worker was 85% [2]
- Attendance of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) was 90%
Attendance of vulnerable children and pupils eligible for free school meals is typically lower than for other pupils.
Early years settings
The data collection has been paused for the Easter break this week and due to return next week.
The Department for Education has been collecting local authority-level data on Early Years childcare provision since April 2020 on a weekly basis. This data has been crucial to the Department during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure it holds accurate data and that there are enough childcare places. Having reviewed the need for this collection, as well as acting on feedback from the sector, we are consulting on moving to a fortnightly data collection from the end of April until the summer half term. After half term we will review the frequency again as the need for this timely data decreases. This aims to find a balance between reducing some of the time and resource pressures on local authorities and providers, whilst ensuring the Department maintains having timely data. If you have any feedback on this proposal, then please contact earlyyears.entitlements@education.gov.uk with your views.
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[1] The vast majority of schools in the following local authorities had returned from Easter break for all or part of week commencing 12 April: Barnsley, Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Cambridgeshire, Central Bedfordshire, Darlington, Doncaster, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, Essex, Hartlepool, Isle of Wight, City of Kingston upon Hull, Kirklees, Knowsley, Lancashire, Leicester, Leicestershire, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Norfolk, North Tyneside, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Peterborough, Redcar and Cleveland, Rotherham, Sefton, Southend-on-Sea, Stockport, Suffolk, Sunderland, Thurrock, Tower Hamlets, Wakefield, Wirral, York. Some schools in other local authorities had also returned from Easter break. Academies are not required to follow local authority term dates and schools can set their own inset days. We estimate 34% of schools were not on Easter break on 15 April.
[2] Pupils with a social worker are considered ‘children in need’. Our analysis after adjusting for non-response suggests that schools may be under-reporting the number of children with a social worker when compared to the most recently published children in need statistics. Therefore these estimates only account for pupils with a social worker that are identified by schools. Schools report on the form how many children with a social worker they have on roll. Our analysis suggests that the total number of children with a social worker differs by at least 30% compared to published figures for children with a social worker. This means our attendance figures for pupils with a social worker are likely to overestimate attendance.