Hull and East Riding school pupils missing at least half of classes rises to 1,479

Department for Education (DfE) figures showed 866 Hull pupils and 613 in the East Riding were recorded as severely absent in the 2022/3 school year.

Hull’s figure made up 2.3 per cent of its total school cohort while the East Riding’s made up 1.3 per cent, with both up compared to the previous year.

A Hull City Council spokesperson said they had invested heavily in trying to reverse a fall in attendance.

East Riding Council Education Portfolio Holder Cllr Victoria Aitken said it was working closely with the Government to prepare for new rules on attendance coming into effect later this year.

It comes as amount of severe absences has reached record highs nationally, according to a think tank’s analysis of the latest figures.

The Centre for Social Justice found the number of severely absent pupils, sometimes referred to as ghost children, has gone up by 161.8 per cent compared pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.

About one in 50 pupils nationally missed more than half of school time during the 2022/3 academic year.

The figure was up from 1.65 per cent the previous academic year.

The Centre for Social Justice’s Education Lead Beth Prescott said the figures confirmed their worst fears that long periods of absence were becoming entrenched.

It also comes as fines for parents and carers for their children being absent is set to rise to £80 if paid within 21 days and up to £160 after from August.

New rules will also require all schools to consider fining parents and carers if their children misses five days or more for unauthorised reasons.

Councils can get court orders to get children into school and parents and carers can be prosecuted, fined £2,500 or get a three-month prison sentence in the most serious cases.

Hull’s severely absent pupils figure of 2.3 per cent, 866 pupils, rose from 1.9 per cent or 686 year-on-year.

The East Riding’s rose from 526 or 1.3 per cent in 2021/2 to 613. 1.5 per cent, the following year.

Data also showed 8,982 pupils, almost a quarter of Hull’s school cohort at 23.9 per cent, were persistently absent meaning they missed at least one tenth of school time.

The amount fell from 9,448 or 25.6 per cent the previous academic year of 2021/2.

In the East Riding, persistent absentees fell from 8,832 or 22.1 per cent in 2021/2 to 7,765 or 19.4 per cent.

Nationally, the amount fell from 22.5 per cent to 21.21 per cent year-on-year.

The proportion of school sessions persistently missed for unauthorised reasons in Hull rose from 9.6 per cent in 2021/2 to 12.18 per cent in the last academic year.

In the East Riding, the proportion went up from 5.1 per cent to 7.3 per cent.

Two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, make up one school day.

The percentage of sessions missed because of unauthorised holidays was 0.63 per cent in 2022/3, up from 0.46 per cent compared to the previous academic year.

The amount in the East Riding rose from 0.46 per cent to 0.58 per cent, compared to a national increase from 0.4 per cent to 0.51 per cent.

Nationally, the overall absence rate for state-funded primary, secondary and special schools fell year-on-year from 7.6 per cent to 7.4 per cent.

East Riding Council’s Cllr Victoria Aitken said school attendance locally continues to be higher than the national average but more improvements could be made.

The portfolio holder said: “Data from the last whole academic year shows that overall attendance in the East Riding was 93 per cent.

“Over the last 18 months the council has been working closely with schools ahead of changes in the law that will come into effect in August.

“The changes focus on the importance of working in partnership with schools and with families to find supportive routes to improve attendance and so that prompt action can be taken to address any underlying issues.

“Further improvements in attendance rates are achievable.

“All involved in education play an active role in removing the wide-ranging and complex barriers to learning that can exist both within and outside of schools.”