Department for Education publishes the latest data on attendance in education and early years settings

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: 

“Last week marked the first, cautious step in a phased approach to bringing more children back into the classroom with their friends and teachers again. It is encouraging to see the majority of primary schools open their doors to more pupils, and almost double the number of children now attending early years settings. 

“This is still a difficult time for families and many feel anxious about their children going back - but I can reassure families, and those working in education settings, that the welfare of children and staff will continue to be at the heart of all our decisions.

“Families should also be reassured by the incredible work teachers and support staff are doing to adapt their settings and routines, while making sure schools and nurseries remain as welcoming as they have always been.”

Background

·       Attendance statistics are published on a weekly basis, looking back at the previous school week. This week data is available up to 4 June.

·       Last week we saw the number of primaries taking nursery, Reception, year 1 or year 6 pupils steadily rise as part of the phased, cautious wider reopening of schools, and that rise has continued into this week. As of yesterday, of the 18,000 schools that responded to the Department, around 70% of responding primaries told us that they are now open –  this weeks’ data will be published on Tuesday 16 June.

·       Our narrative continues to focus on comparisons between Thursdays to maintain comparability with previous weeks. Comparisons are made between Thursday 4 June and Thursday 21 May, given Thursday 28 May was during half term. 

• On Thursday 4 June, approximately 91% of education settings were open in some capacity, up from 80% on 21 May. 
• On 4 June, around half of settings (52%) that normally have children in nursery, reception, year 1 or year 6 were open to at least one of these year groups. 

·       We expect this figure to increase next week as schools begin to open more widely throughout the course of this week. A number of schools which reported they were closed to these year groups last week said they expected to be open to at least one of them on 8 June. 

·       We will continue to support schools who haven’t yet been able to open more widely to do so as soon as possible.

·       Early years settings were also asked to begin welcoming back all children from 1 June. We estimate that 166,000 children were attending early years settings on 4 June, up from 88,000 on 21 May.  This represents around 10% of the number of children who usually attend in term time. This increase reflects higher numbers of children of critical workers and vulnerable children attending, as well as other pupils now attending due to wider opening.