The schools with the highest absence rates in Manchester - with a quarter of pupils missing more than a month

Nearly a quarter of children in Manchester missed around a month or more of school in the last academic year, according to the latest council data available.

School attendance in the city was ‘strong’, according to town hall bosses, but 23.5 % of children were absent on one in 10 days in the last academic year.

The level of persistent absenteeism – the proportion of pupils whose school attendance is 90 % or lower – was 20.3 % in Manchester’s primary schools.

But in secondary schools, 24.7 % of students missed around 19 days or more with the highest levels of persistent absenteeism identified in years 8 and 9.

And the figures for non-mainstream schools are higher with 54 % in special schools and 74.7 % in Pupil Referral Units recorded as ‘persistently absent’.

Since January 2022, 453 pupils had an attendance record of 20 % or lower.

Manchester city council is ‘proud’ of its overall school attendance record which was 93 % last year – expected to be above the national and regional rate.

It comes after Covid lockdowns and restrictions regularly disrupted schools for two years and continued to affect attendance after the rules were relaxed.

However, local authority leaders say school attendance levels, which are yet to return to what they were before the pandemic, are still not ‘good enough’.

They have promised to tackle persistent absenteeism in the new school year.

Speaking to councillors at a scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday (September 7), director of education services Amanda Corcoran said Manchester usually has a higher attendance than elsewhere in England.

She said: “It’s good comparatively, but it’s still arguably not good enough.

“We want to get back to where it was before the pandemic.”

Anxiety after Covid - and term time holidays

There was a disproportionately high level of illness in the last school year, much of it caused by Covid, according to a council report, which also revealed a ‘significant’ rise in the number of families taking holidays during term time.

The council chief also spoke of a high level of anxiety about children returning to school following the pandemic, particularly for those with special needs.

Improving school attendance is now a national priority, councillors were told.

It follows research by Department for Education which found that every extra day of school missed lowers a child’s chance of attaining good GCSE grades.

Manchester has now been given £1.2m of government funding for three years to work with young people with poor attendance who are at risk of exclusion.

Schools in the city have said they will try to tackle anxiety this year and support students with their mental health, according to town hall bosses.

Every school will be subject to termly meetings to monitor attendance.