Pupils: Coronavirus

(asked on 20th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school pupils were absent from school in (a) Luton and (b) England during the autumn term 2020 due to covid-19 infection.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

The Department collects daily data from schools and colleges via the educational setting status form, which was set up to help the Government monitor the impact of COVID-19 on schools and colleges. The form was expanded to collect detailed data on the reasons for pupil absence from 12 October 2020. This data has been published at national level on a weekly basis since 20 October 2020 and was published at local authority level on 15 December 2020.

The Department has published the number and proportion of pupils absent due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, a suspected case of COVID-19 or self-isolation in state funded schools in England on each Thursday between 15 October and 17 December 2020, excluding the October half term period. These estimates are summarised in table 11,2,3.

Table 1: Estimates of the number of pupils absent in state-funded schools in England due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, suspected case of COVID-19 and self-isolation

Number of pupils absent in state-funded schools absent due to confirmed case of COVID-19

Number of pupils absent in state-funded schools absent due to suspected case of COVID-19

Number of pupils absent in state-funded schools absent due to self-isolation

15-Oct

8,000

37,000

up to 355,000

05-Nov

12,000

22,000

up to 301,000

12-Nov

14,000

28,000

up to 552,000

19-Nov

18,000

31,000

up to 761,000

26-Nov

18,000

29,000

up to 688,000

03-Dec

16,000

28,000

up to 569,000

10-Dec

17,000

30,000

up to 594,000

16-Dec1

18,000

38,000

up to 679,000

The Department has also published this data for all local authorities in England, including Luton. This data is based on responding schools only and no adjustments have been made for non-response. This data is available for each Thursday between 15 October and 17 December 2020. Data for Luton is summarised at the following link1,2,3,4 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/e284e1f4-5a40-4348-9f16-5b3376e7f6f9.

1 Data is given for Wednesday 16 December instead of Thursday 17 December due to a decrease in response rates on Thursday 17 December which make estimates for this date less reliable. Data is not given for Thursdays 22 and 29 October as this data is affected by half term.

2 This data is as reported directly by schools via the Department for Education's daily education settings survey. It is not the primary source of data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall.

3 Pupils self-isolating because of COVID-19 is reported as a range to account for possible double counting.

4 Local authority level figures are based on responding schools only.

Reticulating Splines