Nearly half of secondary schools have pupils isolating

Around half of all state-funded secondary schools have pupils self-isolating, it has been revealed in DfE data that now includes pupils being asked to self isolate.

Previously only partially or fully closed schools were asked to provide data on Covid-related absences, but now DfE collects  “more comprehensive data on pupils being asked to self isolate”.

The latest figures for 15 October show four to five per cent of pupils, around 409,000, are estimated to have attended schools for covid related reasons.

Of these pupils, 0.1 per cent had a confirmed case of coronavirus, while 0.5 per cent had a suspected case of coronavirus.

Between 3.9 and 4.3 per cent were self-isolating due to contact with a case of coronavirus, but just 0.2 per cent of pupils were in schools closed for covid related reasons.  

More than one in five state-funded schools said they had one or more pupils self-isolating due to potential contact with a case of coronavirus inside the school.

This accounted for 46 per cent of state-funded secondaries, and 16 per cent of state-funded primaries. However the DfE is no longer publishing the figure for the number of schools that are only partially open because of the pandemic.

But they do now show that around 11 to 13 per cent of schools had more than 30 pupils self-isolating due to potential contact with a case of coronavirus inside the school.

In primary schools the average size of the group of pupils self-isolating was around 12 per cent of the total number on roll and was between four to five per cent in secondary schools.

Overall the proportion of open state schools fell by 0.1 per cent from last week to 99.7 per cent, while attendance in all state schools dropped from 89.8 to 89.2 per cent.