IT COULD take up to 10 years for school attendance figures to recover following the Covid pandemic, councillors have been told.
However education officials in Torfaen believe the borough is ahead of the curve and could see attendances return to where they were before the 2020 pandemic in five to seven years time.
Andy Rothwell, head of learning and achievement for Torfaen Borough Council, said: “We still continue to see an improvement in overall attendance in Torfaen and that is really pleasing but we’re still not where we were pre pandemic.”
He said the 10 year figure has been estimated by Welsh education inspectors Estyn.
“Torfaen is just ahead of that and we’re confident it could be more like five to seven years,” said Mr Rothwell.
He also said the council is taking a “robust approach” to attendance including using fixed penalty fines and its ‘Not In Miss Out’ campaign to promote the benefits of going to school which it will also extend to nursery age children to promote “good habits” from a young age.
The council has also asked schools to set informal attendance targets “to inform their own improvement efforts”, according to a report presented to the council’s education scrutiny committee. Torfaen ranks as having the sixth best attendance record of 22 councils in Wales based on unverified data while two years ago it was in 17th spot.
Rates of exclusions have improved since September 2024 but councillors were told they “remain high”.
This reflects a trend across England and Wales of an increase in exclusions following the pandemic.
Primary school attendance in Torfaen currently ranges from 95.77 per cent to 91.13 per cent with an overall figure of 93.12 per cent which is up on the previous four years but still below 2019/20, the last full year before the pandemic, when the figure was 94.8 per cent.
Secondary school attendance ranges from 93.97 per cent to 85.69 and overall attendance is 89.12 per cent which has again risen over the past four years but remains below the 93.9 per cent recorded in 2019/20.
The percentage of persistently absent pupils, those with attendance below 90 per cent, in Torfaen primary schools dropped from 23.47 per cent in April 2024 to 20.38 per cent this year while in secondary schools the figure fell from 33.94 per cent to 30.69 per cent over the same period.
The Welsh Government had, in November 2023, altered the criteria for persistent absence from those missing 20 per cent or more of school to those missing 10 per cent or more.
Attendance is highest in year five, which are children aged nine and 10, and lowest in year 11 which are 15 and 16 year olds in the last year of compulsory education. The year groups with the lowest attendance are years nine, 10 and 11 which reflects a national trend and Torfaen council says its research with pupils highlights “emotional based school avoidance” is a notable reason cited for non-attendance in older year groups.
Support for pupils with mental health was also outlined to councillors and they were told support is based in schools but waiting lists for children’s mental heath services were also noted.
Schools across South Wales are also working together on how they can support pupils with emotional needs to attend school and bring them back into school from online learning.
The number of fixed term exclusions and permanent exclusions from Torfaen schools also reduced over the term from September 2024 to February this year from the same period a year before.
There were 261 fewer suspensions of five days or less so far in this school year than the 1,178 in the September 2023 to February 2024 period and suspensions of six days or more reduced from 29 to nine over the same period while there were just five permanent exclusions compared to 10 in the previous period.
