We have been collecting data on school attendance each week so we can understand the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on schools across the country and see just how many pupils are absent as a result at any given time. Here we look at what the stats tell us.
Of those schools that weren’t shut for half term, 99% of schools are open and 86% of pupils were in school
- Although we can’t compare with other years directly, typically on any given day around 95% of the school population will be in attendance with a number of pupils missing school due to illness or other reasons
- Last week around 6-7% of pupils were absent for Covid-19 related reasons. This doesn’t mean they all had Covid-19, most of them will simply have been asked to stay at home as a precaution
- In fact only one pupil in every 1,000 has Covid-19 while four will be off because they have Covid symptoms. Seven will be off because their school is closed.
- Around 48-60 pupils out of every 1,000 around the country are off school because they are self-isolating due to a possible exposure to Covid-19
- It means that 862 pupils out of every thousand are in school at the moment
- With 66-78 out of every thousand off school because of reasons not related to Covid-19 like other illnesses or authorised absences
- We're clear that the system of controls we have in place to limit the spread of Covid-19 while keeping schools open is working