As OnTheWight reported in November 2013, in 2011/12 the Isle of Wight secondary schools had the highest level of absenteeism in the country.
The Government have now published the next set of data for school absenteeism in 2012/13.
Persistent absence
The data reveals that Island schools have seen improvements with ‘persistent absence’, with the Island moving from 150th to 146th in the league table.
Persistent absence in secondary IW schools dropped from 13.6% in 2011/12 to 9.9% in 2012/13.
However, it is still lagging behind the England average of 6.5%, which dropped from 7.4% in 2011/12.
Overall absence
The Isle of Wight has also risen up the table from 150th position to 146th for ‘overall absence’ in secondary schools at 7.4% compared to 5.9% for England.
It’s not hard to link the levels of absenteeism with poor GCSE results. Although improvements are being made, the gap between here and the rest of the country remains to be closed.
The Department for Children, Schools & Families say,
If a school can improve attendance by 1% they will see a 5-6% improvement in attainment.
The statistics
The full stats on how many pupils were absent from school, whether it be primary, secondary or special schools, and whether it be authorised or not, can be found in the table below.
Image: Todd Binger under CC BY 2.0
