Dozens of children are missing education in Shropshire

Dozens of children are missing education in Shropshire, new figures show.

Department for Education figures show 39,200 children were missing education across England during this year’s autumn school term, up 59% from 24,700 over the same period in 2022-23.

This means 0.5% of children in the country were missing education this autumn, compared to 0.3% two years before.

In Shropshire, around 80 children were missing education this autumn school term, slightly down from 90 two years prior.

This represents about 0.2% of children in the area. Of those, 20 had been missing education for between 26 weeks and a year.

Children deemed to be missing education are those of compulsory school age who are not registered at a school and are not receiving suitable education somewhere else.

This includes children who are currently awaiting a school place and those local authorities are supporting to place into suitable education.

However, it does not include pupils who are receiving suitable home education, nor those who are registered at a school but are persistently absent.

It comes as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which aims to better protect children and raise standards in education, was put forward to Parliament.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the number of children missing education is “extremely worrying”.

He said: “In addition to learning loss, many of these children may also be experiencing very difficult personal circumstances which impact on their welfare — such as homelessness, or mental health problems.

“It is vital that everything possible is done to support these young people and help get them back into school as soon as possible.”

Councillor Kirstie Hurst-Knight, cabinet member for children and education, said:  “We know that children missing out on school time can have a negative effect on their development and achievement. Sometimes children will find it difficult to settle back into school after a break because they have fallen behind in their learning.

“School attendance is key to achieving good educational outcomes, and we want to encourage attendance at school every day so that we start children and young people off with good habits that build up into adulthood.

“We therefore welcome any new legislation that will help ensure children attend school throughout the school terms.

“However, we understand living through the pandemic has had an impact on some children and young people’s feelings about returning to school/settings, so we want to encourage everyone to play their part in supporting our children, young people and families to access their entitlement to education.

“We are proud that attendance at school in Shropshire is an improving picture and is in line with national averages at both primary and secondary phases. “The local authority team has been working hard to support families to help their child / young person to return to school where they have not been in education and there are now just under 80 where this is the case (out of approximately 34,000 statutory school age children in Shropshire).

“In the Autumn term of 2024, Shropshire’s rate of CME (Children Missing Education) was only 0.2, this is lower than the national rate of 0.5 and our statistical neighbours at 0.3.

“Our team has also supported over 30 children to return to school since the end of the summer term through to December 31.

“We are here to help parents and carers with the right support at the right time to help their child to return to school or improve their attendance.”

To find out what help is available, visit https://shropshire-fid.directory platform.com/ or call 01743 254400.