Growing numbers of pupils are missing more than half of school, new absence figures show.
While overall attendance has improved, the number of those deemed severely absent — who are out of the classroom for at least half of the time — has grown to 142,000 pupils.
This means that 2 per cent of pupils in England were severely absent in the autumn term of this year, up from 1.7 per cent in 2022 and 0.9 per cent before the pandemic. Critics said the government appeared to have “given up” on the issue.
Overall absence rates for the term fell to 6.7 per cent from 7.5 per cent in the autumn term the year before.
Gillian Keegan recently said parents working from home on Fridays were partly to blame for higher absence figures on that day of the week
TAYFUN SALCI/ZUMA
Authorised absence decreased from 5.4 to 4.5 per cent but
