More than 233,000 school children in England are "persistent absentees" – missing at least one day of school every week, statistics showed today. For primary, secondary and special schools, 6.29% of possible half days are missed due to absence, compared to 6.49% the previous year. 3.6% of pupil enrolments are classed as persistent absentees, compared to 4.1% the previous year, typically missing 20% or more of possible half days of attendance.
Some more figures regarding Persistent Absence (PA):
- In primary schools PAs accounted for 1.7 per cent of enrolments;
- Compared with 2006/07, the rate of PAs has reduced from 4.1per cent to 3.6 per cent.
- The rate of overall absence for PAs is 35.15 per cent, which is over 5 times higher than the rate for all pupils.
- In 2007/08 some 3.7 per cent of girls in primary, secondary and special schools were PAs. This is slightly higher than the proportion of boys who were PAs.
- The occurrence of PAs was higher amongst pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM). In 2007/08, 8.2 per cent of pupils who were known to be eligible for FSM were PAs, compared with 2.8 per cent for the rest of the school population.
- The percentage of PAs increases as pupils progress through school. For national curriculum year groups up to year 11, the highest percentage of PAs is in year 11, where some 9.5 per cent of enrolments were PAs.
- The percentage of PAs was highest for the Traveller of Irish Heritage (36.8 per cent of all Traveller of Irish Heritage children were PAs); Gypsy/Roma (30.2 per cent) and Mixed (White and Black Caribbean) (5.3 per cent) ethnic groups. The percentage of PAs for all pupils was 3.6 per cent.
- In most primary schools (84 per cent), less than 3 per cent of the school population are PAs.
Many more figures are available in the official document.
