Telford school attendances 'above national average' as pupils return after five months
School attendances were “above the national average” in Telford & Wrekin this week during the first few days back after the coronavirus closure, a senior council officer has said.
The council's policy and governance chief, Anthea Lowe, told councillors every school is being contacted in a detailed borough-wide survey and its results will inform how it approaches “less enthusiastic” families.
She was replying to a question yesterday from children and young people scrutiny committee member Janice Jones, who asked how the local authority is “looking at people who are not willing to send their children, for whatever reason, back to school”.
Ms Lowe said she was “not sure it’s going to be a significant issue”, but a more detailed update would be given to the committee’s next meeting.
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Pupils started returning to schools around England from Tuesday, September 1, having shut down for most students five months previously.
Ms Lowe told Councillor Jones it was “fairly early days” to judge what proportion of students had returned in the borough.
“Some of the schools have only just opened today,” she said.
“We are doing a piece of work this week where we’ll have contacted every school to see how the attendance has been.
“From the information we gain we’ll then do an assessment and get a sense of the scale of any problem.
“From there a programme will be produced to address some of those, perhaps, less enthusiastic people who may, for whatever reason, not be keen to attend.
“But the sense that we’ve got this week is that there’s very good numbers, certainly above the national average, that we’re seeing at the moment, so I’m not sure it’s going to be a significant issue.”
