-More than 5,000 children in Bury were absent for more than 10 per cent of school lessons in the past year, new figures show. Figures published by Bury Council reveal a fifth of students in the borough were persistently absent from school.
Persistent absence is defined as missing 10 per cent or more sessions which would equate to missing a minimum of 14.5 days over the school year. Under this criteria a fifth of Bury pupils (more than 5,000) missed on average almost three weeks of learning time in schools.
Education chiefs in the borough said ‘absence is too high’ and that they were committed to getting the level of attendance at at school back to pre-pandemic levels. The figures also show that total absence from school has risen by more than three days a year per pupil since the Covid pandemic.
