Up to 10,000 pupils missed an entire term of school last autumn, according to new analysis that estimates 128,000 children were withdrawn from state education in England in the year up to the January 2021 lockdown.
The figures, based on data from schools collated by the education research group FFT Education Datalab, comes as the government wants new measures to boost attendance, while Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, has vowed to track down missing children.
