School figures show that 88% of students returned at the beginning of the term

The first official school attendance figures in England for the autumn term show that 88% of pupils returned.

This is a higher absence rate than the usual figure of around 5%, but it is not broken down to show whether students were home due to the Covid outbreaks.

Figures show attendance last Thursday, but about a quarter of schools did not provide information.

Since the reopening, school leaders have warned that testing delays are causing age groups to be sent home.

In the run-up to the new period, the government asked parents to send their children back to school, with the assurance that security measures would be taken to protect them from the spread of Covid-19.

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It had been speculated that some parents would leave their children at home, but Department of Education figures show that nearly nine out of 10 returned.

The department also estimates that 92% of all school statistical schools were fully open, and that 99.9% were at least partially open.

Testing delays

However, there have been repeated local cases of schools having to send groups of year-old pupils home, either because of infections or because of problems obtaining Covid tests for staff or pupils.

On Tuesday, nearly 300 Royal Wootton Bassett Academy pupils at the Wiltshire school were sent home after a Covid case.

And at Bishop Fox’s school in Taunton, Somerset, there are 415 students who self-isolate in response to Covid infections.

On Monday, Steve Chalke, director of the Oasis academy trust, said that about 1,200 students had been sent home from their schools, in a way that he claimed had become “default rotation.”

The guide to the safe reopening of schools in England had promised: “The government will ensure that it is as easy as possible to obtain a test through a wide range of routes that are locally accessible, fast and convenient.”

But principals have warned that, in practice, lack of access to tests threatens to create teacher shortages and force schools to partially close.

Sean Maher, principal of the Richard Challoner School in New Malden, Surrey, said the Covid testing system had turned into a “complete and utter disaster.”

He said the students wanted to go back to school, but on Monday there had been 70 absentees, and many of these absences are attributable to difficulties obtaining exams.

The online parent network Netmums has written an open letter to the government complaining of difficulties for parents struggling to get tested for Covid.

“It’s broken, it’s not working, and it needs to be fixed. Our children have been back in school for a week or so, and the assessment system is already at a breaking point. And so are we,” the letter says.

England’s Secretary of Education Gavin Williamson said: “The best place for children and young people to learn is the classroom, and it is heartening to see that last week more than seven million students returned to their classmates and teachers in the schools. schools across the country. “