As reported by BBC News, Ofsted warns of a worrying rise in part-time schooling and chronic absences, deepened by the pandemic, affecting thousands of children
The “alarming” level of children missing school has become a “stubborn and damaging issue”, according to the chief inspector of Ofsted, England’s schools regulator.
Sir Martyn Oliver said he was also worried about a rise in “flexi-schooling”, where parents educate their children at home for part of the week. It is not clear how many children are taught in this manner.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the government was putting education “back at the forefront of national life”. Ofsted’s annual report said attendance issues had “deepened” since the pandemic.
Around 158,000 children missed at least half of their classes in the autumn and spring terms of the last academic year, it said, citing the latest DfE figures.
Around 34,000 children are thought to be educated according to part-time timetables, and 92,000 are estimated to be home-educated.
The report said many home-educated children received a good education, but they were still part of a significant number who have “been opted out of more orthodox patterns of education”.
Sir Martyn said part-time schooling could be an effective temporary measure to help get children back into school, but this hybrid style of
education was “not an excuse to avoid full-time schooling throughout school years”.
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