School absence due to COVID- was 2.5% in all state-funded schools on 30 September, Department for Education statistics on attendance has shown.

Children in secondary school seemed to be the worst affected as while COVID-related absence was 1.9% in state-funded primary schools on 30 September, it was 3.2% in secondary schools.

This means that the number of children missing out on education due to COVID rose by two-thirds to 204,000 in the two weeks to 30 September.

As a result, school attendance in all state-funded schools was 89.5% on 30 September – broken down into 92.6% attendance rate in primary schools and 86.3% in secondary schools.

“We estimate 2.5% (204,000) of all pupils on roll in state-funded schools did not attend school for COVID-19 related reasons on 30 Sept, up from 1.5% (122,000) on 16 Sept,” said the report.

Included in those cases, it is estimated that there were 84,000 pupils with a suspected case of coronavirus, 1.0% of pupils on roll in open schools up from 0.5% on 16 Sept when there were 45,000 suspected cases.

It is estimated that there were 102,000 pupils with a confirmed case of coronavirus, 1.3% of pupils on roll in open schools up from 0.7% on 16 Sept when there were 59,000 confirmed cases.

Attendance of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) and pupils with a social worker is typically lower than for other pupils. Around 84% of all pupils with an EHCP on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance on 30 September, down from 87% on 16 September.

Approximately 83% of all pupils with a social worker on roll in all state-funded schools were in attendance on 30 September, down from 86% on 16 September.

Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak