However, we are concerned about the possibility that some secondary school pupils have not returned to school. “What we may be seeing is a number of year 11 pupils who have become disengaged during the course of lockdown and who have not gone back. Data from the Department for Education shows that after pupils returned on 8 March, attendance in secondary schools rose from 81% to 89%. But the remaining 9% of pupils is roughly double the usual rate of absenteeism in normal times, which runs at about 4.5% of the mainstream school population. That would mean around 140,000 to 150,000 more secondary pupils are absent compared with pre-Covid terms.

Source: The Guardian March 26, 2021 14:15 UTC