One in five children regularly miss school, figures show

More than 1 successful 5 children successful England are often missing school, information shows, successful a motion attendance is inactive struggling to get backmost to pre-pandemic levels.

The children's commissioner said immoderate children play truant portion others acquisition anxiousness oregon person acquisition needs truthful find it easier astatine home.

Parents should get children backmost to school, urged Dame Rachel de Souza.

Before the pandemic, conscionable implicit 1 successful 10 students were persistently absent.

Pupils number arsenic persistently absent if they miss 10% oregon much of their schoolhouse days.

Over the past world year, Department for Education (DfE) figures amusement 22.3% of pupils successful England were persistently absent.

Speaking to BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Dame Rachel said this equated to 1.8 cardinal children, and estimated that 100,000 of those were playing truant.

"We've got a existent occupation post-pandemic astir attendance," she said. "1.8 cardinal of an 8 cardinal cohort is huge... that's treble the fig from earlier the pandemic".

In 2018/9 earlier the pandemic, astir 1 successful 10 children (10.9%) were persistently absent.

A breakdown of figures shows that the occupation is astir marked among children connected escaped schoolhouse meals (37.9%) and those with an education, wellness and attraction program (33.4%).

Dame Rachel said it was truly important to get those children who were anxious and "refusing connected an affectional basis" backmost to school.

There is grounds that if children miss much than a time successful the archetypal week of term, 55% spell connected to beryllium persistently absent for the remainder of the term.

But the instrumentality to schoolhouse this week already comes with disruption for galore parents and children aft the authorities forced immoderate schools to partially oregon afloat adjacent implicit concerns astir the information of buildings made from a crumbly concrete, known arsenic RAAC.

Labour's shadiness acquisition caput Bridget Phillipson said she was precise acrophobic astir young radical and their futures.

She told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg her enactment would present breakfasts clubs for each superior schoolhouse kid successful England and amended intelligence wellness enactment to assistance boost schoolhouse attendance.

Ms Phillipson added expanding truancy fines for parents who don't guarantee their children spell to schoolhouse was not the answer,

In January, the Commons acquisition prime committee launched an enquiry into persistent lack and enactment for disadvantaged pupils.

It volition purpose to analyse the reasons down the issue, the apt effectiveness of the DfE planned reforms, and the interaction of interventions similar meal clubs connected improving attendance.

The children's commissioner has antecedently raised concerns that immoderate pupils were missing schoolhouse connected Fridays since the pandemic due to the fact that their parents were astatine home,

Dame Rachel told MPs determination was "a immense amount" of lack connected Fridays - erstwhile "mum and dada are astatine home" that "wasn't determination before".

The DfE has been contacted for comment.