A “huge” number of children are playing truant on Fridays, as persistent absence continues to soar in the wake of the pandemic, the Children’s Commissioner has said.
Dame Rachel de Souza said her department’s analysis of school data show that damaging “new attitudes” to schooling have begun to emerge in the post-Covid world.
“We’re seeing a huge amount of Friday absence that wasn’t there before [the pandemic],” she told MPs at the Education Select Committee on Tuesday.
“Parents are at home on Fridays. We’ve had evidence from kids [who think]: ‘Well, mum and dad are at home so I’ll stay at home.’”
Dame Rachel said the trend had contributed to record levels of persistent absence, where children miss more than 10 per cent of the total school year.
