Pupils: Attendance

(asked on 7th March 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of flu on pupils’ attendance over winter 2022-23.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 15th March 2023

Regular school attendance is important for pupils’ educational progress, their wellbeing, and their wider development.

As this is the first winter without pandemic restrictions in two years, pupils and adults may be more susceptible to the usual winter bugs and viruses this year. December saw high levels of illness in pupils and young people including flu, scarlet fever, group A streptococcus and COVID-19 that will have contributed to high levels of absence. In previous years, there has been more seasonal spread of these infections. For example, group A streptococcus usually peaks in March. More recently there have been reductions in the incidence of these infections, but it cannot yet be predicted if there will be further resurgences.

During the week commencing 12 December, the weekly illness absence rate was at its highest level since the start of 2022 autumn term. The illness absence rate was 9.1%, which was up from 7.5% in the previous week and 2.6% at the start of term. In the latest data between 6 to 10 February 2023, the total weekly illness absence rate was 3.9%.

In the 2022 autumn term, all primary school aged pupils in England were offered a flu vaccination by the NHS school-aged immunisation service to manage the spread of some winter illnesses, such as flu. The Department has also provided over 8,000 air cleaning units to schools that identified poorly ventilated spaces. These devices filter airborne respiratory aerosols from the air. The Department hopes this will have a positive impact on sickness absence going forward.

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