Labour uses King’s Speech debate to warn of “lost generation of school children”, as one in four set to miss school regularly
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The Labour Party will use Wednesday’s King’s Speech debate to warn
of a “lost generation of children” in England, as new analysis lays
bare the scale of the persistent absence challenge facing schools
across the country. The party’s findings show that over two million
children could be regularly missing school by 2025 if the number of
pupils absent from classrooms continues at the current rate - one
in four of all children currently at primary and secondary
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The Labour Party will use Wednesday’s King’s Speech debate to warn of a “lost generation of children” in England, as new analysis lays bare the scale of the persistent absence challenge facing schools across the country. The party’s findings show that over two million children could be regularly missing school by 2025 if the number of pupils absent from classrooms continues at the current rate - one in four of all children currently at primary and secondary school. Labour has begun to set out its long-term plan to start tackling persistent absence in schools, including pledges to set up mental health hubs in every community, mental health counsellors in every secondary school and universal free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil in England to help drive greater attendance. A child is deemed persistently absent if they miss 10 per cent of lessons or more, and severely absent if they miss over 50 per cent of lessons. Over the course of a year missing ten per cent of lessons would equate to four weeks’ worth of schooling. Across both the Autumn and Spring terms this year, over 1.5 million children (or one in five), were persistently absent from both primary and secondary school, almost double the number who were absent during the same term five years ago. Data for Spring term 2023 shows that almost 140,000 pupils were severely absent, double the figure in Autumn term 2019.
Labour said that the “tidal wave” of mental ill health among
children failing to get treatment through the NHS was a major
contributing factor, alongside family struggles with the cost of
living and insecure housing.
Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said: “Every day of education matters to the life chances of children: that’s why tackling persistent absence would be mission critical for Labour in government. “The Conservatives have no plans to get to grips with the epidemic of persistent absence and the stakes couldn’t be higher: we could see a lost generation of school children without firm action. “Tackling that epidemic starts with start with Labour mending the broken relationship between schools, families and government.” Ends Notes:
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