At least 32,000 students are likely to have been on part-time school timetables last month, according to analysis published today.

Last year government guidance warned that part-time timetables should not be used “to manage a pupil’s behaviour”, echoing a similar call from Ofsted.

FFT Education Datalab previously tried to estimate the number of pupils affected, suggesting that 34,000 was the “upper bound of an estimate”.

But since then Department for Education guidance on attendance codes has been updated, with a new code, C2, covering part-time timetables.

This has provided more accurate data on the number of students on part-time timetables, according to FFT’s latest analysis, which puts the figure at 32,000, excluding those with flexi-school arrangements.

Code C2 was used for 0.7 per cent of secondary-aged students and 0.3 per cent of primary-aged pupils at least once during September 2024.

School attendance: pupils on part-time timetables

If this was reflected nationally, it would mean around 11,000 primary-aged pupils and 21,000 secondary-aged students were put on a part-time timetable last month, FFT’s post today states.

According to the latest DfE guidance, the C2 code only applies to pupils who are not in full-time education for a temporary period.

The code is not supposed to be used for pupils in full-time education but who only attend a school part-time - such as through flexi-schooling.

The FFT analysis also shows a “notable” drop in the use of B codes - used for off-site learning - in September this year, compared with last year.

In secondary schools, 0.49 per cent of students missed at least one session coded as B in September 2023, falling to 0.28 per cent in September 2024.

Tes revealed last year that there were concerns within the DfE about how the B code was being used - both in terms of inconsistent use and the provision that children were being sent to.

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The FFT blog points out that the DfE’s latest guidance makes it clear that pupils who are learning remotely should be counted as absent, rather than as a code B.

The Association of School and College Leaders also highlighted this in advice to its members at the start of term, and Margaret Mulholland, the union’s SEND and inclusion specialist, warned last month that the guidance could adversely affect children learning remotely for medical reasons.

The latest government guidance says that, in order for schools to use code B, a pupil has to be attending an activity of an educational nature, the school has to have approved the pupil’s attendance at the place for the activity, and the activity should be supervised by a “person considered by the school to have the appropriate skills, training, experience and knowledge”.

Overall, the FFT Education Datalab analysis of data from the 9,000 schools using its Attendance Tracker shows there was a slight increase in the percentage of sessions marked as present in September 2024.

In primaries, the figure has climbed from 94.1 per cent to 94.2 per cent, and in secondaries it has risen from 89.7 per cent to 90 per cent.