8,000 school children In Swindon are ‘persistently absent’ from school
1 in 5 kids are absent from Swindon schools persistently a week
The rate of absence among Swindon’s school population is dropping., although it is still much higher than before the Covi pandemic – and fully one-fifth of the borough’s school-age children are classified as persistently absent.
A report to Swindon Borough Council’s Children’s & Adults’ Overview & Scrutiny Committee says that the rate of absence from the schools in the borough is 6.9 per cent so far for this academic year, 2024-25, which is in line with the national average.
That is down, slightly from the 7 per cent rate for the autumn and spring terms 2023-24 and that itself was a drop of 0.2 per cent from the previous year.
But there are plenty of youngsters with a low attendance rate.
It says: “In Swindon almost 8000 children, representing just over 20 per cent of the total cohort of children of compulsory school age, are identified as persistently absent, this is children with an attendance rate of below 90 per cent.”
That means one in five school children are missing more than one day a week, of schooling, on average.
The report adds: “There are also 800 children, – just over 2 per cent of the total cohort of children of compulsory school age – who are identified as severely absent, an absence rate of below 50 per cent.
The report also shows the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdowns on school attendance.
In the autumn and spring terms of 2018-19, the absence rate was 4.5 per cent and that dropped in 2020-21 to 4.4 per cent.
But it jumped quickly over the next year to 7.5 per cent in the same terms for 2021-22 and has been slowly dropping every year since.
In August last year, new laws made it mandatory for the council to have a school attendance strategy, and to establish a team to support schools and families to improve attendance.
The attendance team has regular and targeted support meetings three times a year with schools to discuss concerns, and an education welfare officer from the attendance team work with social workers to help families.
The report tells councillors that letters to parents and then prosecutions are used only in the last resort when other approaches have not worked.
The Children’s & Adults’ Overview & Scrutiny Committee The meeting begins at 6pm on Thursday, February 13, and members of the public are entitled to attend.