Almost one in four primary-aged children attended school in England last week as demand for places continued to rise during the latest lockdown.
Official government data showed that 23% of pupils in state primary schools were on site last Thursday, up from 21% last month. Attendance was also up in special schools, which have been asked to remain open, from 30% in January to 35% last week.
Attendance figures have been rising since the prime minister announced the start of the latest lockdown on 5 January, closing schools to all but children of key workers and vulnerable pupils who are eligible to attend, while all other children learn remotely.
Since then head teachers have repeatedly raised safety concerns, reporting far higher numbers of pupils in attendance in primary schools compared with the first lockdown last March, particularly among key workers’ children.
The government’s latest attendance data showed 16% of all state school pupils were in class on 4 February, up from 15% the week before. Of those, 895,000 were children of key workers – up from 850,000 on 28 January.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, has raised members’ concerns with government. He said: “We have asked the Department for Education (DfE) whether the number of children in school at any one time needs to be capped in light of the fact that the prime minister has urged people to stay at home and save lives.
“However the department appears to be unconcerned and has told us that it currently has no plans to further reduce attendance. We agree that it is important to have provision for vulnerable children and children of key workers. But we are not sure how there being no upper limit on this provision squares with the notion of a national lockdown.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education responded: “Schools remain open to vulnerable children and children of critical workers, but if critical workers can work from home and look after their children at the same time then they should do so.”
While numbers in England’s primary schools have continued to rise, attendance in secondary schools has remained flat at 5%. The numbers of vulnerable pupils have risen overall, however, with 38% of all pupils with an education, health and care plan in attendance on 4 February, up from 34% on 13 January. The DfE figures also show that about 45% of all pupils with a social worker on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance last Thursday, up from 40%.
