COVID-19: More disadvantaged children risk missing school since lockdown | UK News

Underprivileged children are the least likely to return to school after confinement, according to a new study.

A report by the Social Finance think tank found that there was a 25% increase in consistently absent school children.

Average attendance rates have improved since the coronavirus lockdown, but the enthusiasm of some to go back to school masks a problem among the poorest children.

The figures, which exclude COVIDrelated to absences, show that one in 10 children living in the most disadvantaged areas missed school one day or more per week.

Most of the constantly absent students (61%) received free school meals, were in contact with social services or had special educational needs.

Sara Parsonage, director of Social Finance, told Sky News: “There are concerns that the drop in school attendance and new trends in exclusion after the lockdown may be linked to experiences of ‘hidden harm’ such as domestic violence, the mental health of parents or children or the wider impacts of poverty and digital exclusion.

“The main concerns we have seen are that the children who are most absent are the children we should be worried about the most. These children are invisible and we must make them visible.”

Kiran Gill, CEO of education charity The Difference, said: “New analysis highlights that children most at risk of losing their education are those who not only live in poverty, but may also have had an education. social worker because life outside of school is not safe. “

The study was conducted among nearly 17,000 students in Cheshire West and Chester – and confirms what principals see anecdotally in many parts of the country.

Some school leaders in London are so worried that they have formed a new group to tackle the problem.

David Boyle, CEO of Dunraven School, is part …