VentnorBlog has discovered that the Absence record of pupils of compulsory school age was higher than National averages in the Autumn 2009 and Spring 2010 terms.
Figures from the Department for Education report that 19 schools on the Isle of Wight have above average levels of Persistent Absence which is defined as – those children who were not present at school for 52 or more half-day sessions.
Lake: over 2.5 times National average
The official figures show that the Island’s highest level of Persistent Absence was at Lake Middle School, Sandown. 5% of the enrolled pupils were reported as being away from school for 52+ half-days – that’s over two and a half times the England average of 1.8%.
We got in contact with the head of Lake Middle, Chris Gorski. He was surprised at the figures, saying that he couldn’t understand how they were so high.
One possible reason he identified might be the change in Government guidance, which dictated that all in-term holidays must be marked down as unauthorised absence. “I’ve taken a very firm line on that. Only funerals & family weddings were allowed,” he told us.
He also pointed out that the school was heavily hit by flu in Christmas 2009, although it’s likely that that would be authorised, not unauthorised absence.
Ten schools on Zero
This is a stark contrast to the nine Island Primary schools that have a zero rate – Arreton St George’s; Bembridge; Chillerton and Rookley; Gurnard; Hunnyhill; Newchurch; St Thomas of Canterbury; Weston Community School and Yarmouth.
The average Persistent Absence across the Island is 2.8% – one percent above national levels.
No word from Colin Peak, Director for Children and Young People
Given, what appears to be a serious problem with the schools under his control, we sent off five questions to the person with overall responsibility for schools at the Isle of Wight council, Colin Peak.
Despite receiving messages saying that they’d respond, “as soon as they are able to,” we’ve been waiting for over a day and a half, and not received answers to what many may view as a serious and worrying issue.
When we hear back, we’ll update the story.
Table
The table below is ordered in two different ways. In order of the highest “Persistent absence” first and the second tab (at the bottom of the table), in alphabetical order.
Source: DfE Performance tables 2010
Key
So you can understand what the various classes of absence are, below is the definition provided by the DfE.
- Overall absence is the percentage of possible half-days recorded as an absence from school for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised.
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Unauthorised absence is the percentage of possible half-days recorded as an absence from school under any combination of the following reasons:
- Family holiday not agreed, or days taken in excess of an agreed family holiday (code G).
- Arrived after register closed (code U).
- Sessions missed for an unauthorised absence not covered by any other code/description (code O).
- Sessions missed for a reason that has not been provided (code N).
- Persistent absence is the percentage of pupils enrolments equalling or exceeding the threshold number of half-day absences (set to around 20% of the national average number of possible half-day sessions) over the Autumn term 2009 and Spring term 2010 combined. The persistent absence threshold for Autumn and Spring 2009/2010 is 52 or more half-day sessions.
Image: dollarside under CC BY 2.0
