What are ‘ghost children’?

Find out what ‘ghost children’ are, as well as the steps being taken to reduce this phenomenon within schools

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on gov.uk

School is the best environment for pupils to learn in. Being in school helps keep children safe and supports them to reach their potential, while being surrounded by teachers and friends.

Here, you’ll find out what you need to know about school attendance.

What are ‘ghost children’?                                                                             

‘Ghost children’ isn’t an official government term, but the media often uses it to refer to children who are not regularly attending school.

When the media refer to ghost children, they may mean children of school age, who are not registered pupils at a school and not receiving suitable education, such as adequate home-schooling.

What about children who are persistently or severely absent?

Children who are registered at a school but regularly fail to turn up are officially referred to as being ‘persistently’ or ‘severely’ absent.

The school day is split in to two sessions – one session counts as a morning or afternoon spent in school.

Pupils who have missed more than 10% of school sessions are persistently absent, while children who have missed more than 50% of school sessions are severely absent.

It’s encouraging that the number of absent pupils has fallen since the pandemic, but there is still work to do. That is why measures are being introduced to improve school attendance.

What’s being done to improve school attendance?

New guidance has been published on how schools, trusts and local authorities should work together to provide better whole-family support to tackle the reasons for absence.

As of September 2022, schools, academy trusts, local authorities and the government now have access to a data visualisation tool to make it easier for teachers to analyse attendance, compare to others in their region and across England, spot issues and intervene sooner.

There are also attendance advisors who are being trained to work with the local authorities and trusts that need help getting persistently absent pupils in the local area back into school.

This year also saw the launch of a 1-2-1 mentoring pilot in Middlesbrough aimed at tackling the factors behind non-attendance. The pilot will expand to provide tailored support to over 1,600 persistently and severely absent pupils over a three-year period.

Created by the Department for Education, an alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and other services is also collaborating to come up with ways to improve school attendance.

Why is attendance important?

Being in school is important to your child’s achievement, wellbeing, and wider development. Evidence shows that the students with the highest attendance throughout their time in school gain the best GCSE and A level results.

Our research found that pupils who performed better both at the end of primary and secondary school missed fewer days than those who didn’t perform as well. 

For example, data from 2019 shows that 84% of Key Stage 2 pupils who had 100% attendance achieved the expected standard, compared to 40% of pupils who were persistently absent across the key stage.

How is attendance for children who are home-schooled measured?

If you take your child out of school to educate them at home, your local authority will begin making enquiries as to whether that education is suitable.

Currently, local authorities are encouraged to keep a record of children in the area who are educated somewhere other than at a school. The plan is to make it compulsory for local authorities to do this.

While most home education is of good quality, this will help support children where their education falls short, making sure all children have the opportunity to learn and thrive.