The vast majority of secondary schools are concerned about students who arrive at school but then do not attend lessons, according to research published today.
Some 95 per cent of secondary school teachers who took part in a Teacher Tapp poll said their schools were concerned about internal truancy, with nearly half believing this to be an even bigger challenge than external truancy from school.
The findings published today also include an analysis carried out by FFT Education Datalab, which shows a rise of over 20 per cent in suspensions and exclusions compared with the figure for the same time in the previous year, which was in itself a record.
Education leaders have warned of challenging behaviour in classrooms and an attendance crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research, published in a paper by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank and education charity The Difference, also predicts the overall exclusion and suspension rate hitting 17 per cent for secondary-age children - equivalent to nearly one in five secondary schoolchildren.
The paper also references as yet unpublished research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and The Difference that reveals “a large proportion of schools have, or are in the process of establishing, internal alternative provision for children who are at risk of exclusion or persistent absence”.
The scale of school suspensions and absence
The latest analysis from the IPPR and The Difference also suggests that 32 million days of learning were lost through suspensions and unauthorised absences in the 2022-23 academic year, up from 19 million days in 2018-19 - the last full school year before the Covid pandemic.
Department for Education data published in July showed that there were 786,961 suspensions in the 2022-23 academic year in England, compared with 578,280 in 2021-22 - a rise of 36 per cent.
Overall, there were 9,376 permanent exclusions in 2022-23, compared with 6,495 the year before - a rise of 44 per cent, the figures showed.
Children from low-income backgrounds, those with special educational needs and disabilities and those with mental health issues are the most likely to miss learning, according to today’s report.
A new “Who’s Losing Learning Solutions Council” is now being being set up to outline how the education sector should respond to the challenge after hearing evidence from school leaders, parents and relevant organisations.
It will be chaired by Pepe Di’lasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, and will also include multi-academy trust leaders Sir Dan Moynihan and Liz Robinson and children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza.
Kiran Gill, IPPR associate fellow and chief executive of The Difference, said: “We should all be worried about the social injustice that the most marginalised children - who already have the biggest barriers to opportunity outside of school - are those most likely to be not in classrooms through absence, suspension and exclusion.”
A DfE spokesperson said the government had “committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs”.
“But we know poor behaviour can also be rooted in wider issues, which is why the government is developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty led by a taskforce co-chaired by the education secretary so that we can break down the barriers to opportunity,” they added.
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