More than 6,000 children – or one in five – missed school persistently in Brighton and Hove during the 2022-23 academic year, according to figures from the Department for Education (DfE).
The rate of persistent absence has soared since the coronavirus pandemic restrictions from 11.5 per cent in 2018-19, before covid, to 21.6 per cent in the latest full-year figures.
The school day is divided into two sessions – morning and afternoon – and pupils who miss more than 1 in 10 sessions are classed as persistently absent.
Some 6,194 children out of 28,673 were persistently absent from state-funded schools in Brighton and Hove in 2022-23, according to the DfE.
The rate of 21.6 per cent in Brighton and Hove is slightly above the national average rate of 21.2 per cent – or 1.6 million children. Persistence absence has dropped slightly in the past year.
The national rate fell from 22.5 per cent in 2021-22 but is nearly double the rate in 2018-19 when 10.9 per cent of pupils were persistently absent.
The proportion of children whose parents were fined – through a penalty notice – rose to 7.8 per cent in Brighton and Hove in 2022-23, up from 4.9 per cent the year before.
The rate in West Sussex was 5.6 per cent, up from 3.2 per cent, and in East Sussex the proportion rose from 3 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
The main reason given by schools for issuing a fine or penalty notice was parents taking children on an unauthorised family holiday.
Fines start at £60 – or £120 if they are not paid within 21 days – but from September they are due to go up to £80 and £160.
The number of school sessions missed in Brighton and Hove stood at 755,000 out of 9,749,000 – and, of these absences, 199,000 were unauthorised.
The proportion of unauthorised absences in Brighton and Hove – 2 per cent – was up from 1.5 per cent in 2018-19, according to the DfE.
The national rate of unauthorised absence has risen from 1.4 per cent in 2018-19 to 2.4 per cent in 2022-23.
A think-tank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), said that nationally more than 150,000 children were classed as severely absent, missing more sessions than they attended, in the summer term last year.
Almost 1.7 million children were persistently absent during the summer term 2023, with the think-tank saying that disadvantaged children – those eligible for free school meals – were most likely to be severely absent.
The CSJ’s education lead Beth Prescott said: “These record high figures for severe absence – with persistent absence back on the increase – confirm our worst fears that absence from school is becoming entrenched.
“The latest government data for summer term 2023 reveals 157,722 children missed 50 per cent or more of their school time, up more than 12 per cent on the previous term. This is an increase of over 160 per cent since before the pandemic.
“Persistent absence, where children miss more than 10 per cent of school time, is back up to 1,688,649 children, an increase of more than 15 per cent since the previous term and up more than 80 per cent since before the pandemic.
“The data also shows that disadvantaged children are disproportionately affected, with children on free school meals more than three times more likely to be severely absent than their more affluent peers over the 2022-23 academic year.
“Given the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their peers is at its highest level in over a decade, crisis levels of severe absence will further entrench post-pandemic disparities.
“Failure to get these children back to school will have enduring consequences for them, for wider society and for the economy.”
Or are now being educated at home since trust in the local school system became eroded by toolkits, CRT and other matters which don’t belong in the school system.
Well, that’s an opinion. I’d argue the data shows that even your statement “being educated at home” is not accurate, as there seems to be a relationship there with low attainment.
The National Curriculum and the syllabi for formal exams are basically tool kits so are you against them too Barry?
The vast majority of the kids referred to in this article aren’t been home schooled in any way shape or form.
If a parent is formally home schooling their children they will have notified the school they have withdrawn their child from,
https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/home-education/how-educate-your-child-home
I wonder if this is anything to do with the apparent rise in gangs of feral youths engaging in petty crime, as well as antisocial behaviour and sometimes violent attacks?
I don’t think it is a huge leap in logic to link low attainment and attendance at school with criminal behaviour. A lot of data supports that theory that low educational support increases the risk of criminality.