I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out where this magical 440,000 figure came from which the DfE are quoting as the reduction in persistent absence…
…because that’s NOT what the official data shows!!
The more important point that is rather glossed over here is that the persistent absence rate of 21.2% in 2022/23 is still nearly DOUBLE the pre-pandemic rate of 10.9%.
Hardly something to be boasting about!
But if the official DfE report states that just 70,000 fewer children have been persistently absent in 2022/23 compared to the previous year…
…why is the government quoting a reduction of 440,000 pupils, more than 6 times the official figure?!
We need to dig a little deeper…
Up until April 2022, an additional code was used in school registers:
▪️CODE X: “Not attending in circumstances related to COVID”.
Code X was used in the Autumn & Spring terms in 2021/22.
After April 2022, this code was no longer used for this purpose.
Prior to April 2022, Code X was used for children who were required to self-isolate (eg. due to close contact) but who did *not* have Covid themselves (those with Covid were recorded as Code I for illness).
Importantly: Code X is NOT counted as an absence in official figures.
Of course, if you include these Code X absences (which are NOT included in official figures), then the number of pupils who missed more than 10% of sessions in 2021/22 is considerably higher.
370,000 pupils higher to be exact.
You may notice a subtlety in the wording used here.
In the official report, they don’t describe these pupils as persistently absent, they refer to them as pupils who missed 10% or more sessions…
…because Code X absences DON’T count towards official persistent absence figures.
So there we are… mystery solved.
The way they arrived at the 440,000 reduction in pupils who are ‘persistently absent’ is by including Code X absences which are NOT officially counted as absences.
I don’t know about you, but this feels a little bit like cheating to me…
Now you may be wondering what’s causing all this persistent absence…
In 2022/23, the #1 driver of persistent absence in every age group was ILLNESS.
In fact, in primary schools, persistent absences due to ILLNESS accounted for OVER HALF of the total.
It’s little wonder so many parents are furious about the government’s irresponsible attendance campaign which actively encourages parents to send sick children to school, as covered here in iNews by @AasmaDay.
‘Covid’ may have become a taboo word, but we need to face up to the inconvenient truth that it’s making our kids sick… a LOT.
‘Living with Covid’ shouldn’t mean just ignoring it.
It should mean making environments as safe as possible to reduce the risk of infection.
UK schools are generally poorly ventilated, creating perfect conditions for disease transmission, especially in winter when windows are usually closed.
A CO₂ level ~800ppm indicates good ventilation.
Below are the horrifically high CO₂ levels for a typical UK classroom.
Cleaning the air by improving ventilation & air filtration is a simple, low cost, non-intrusive measure that could HUGELY reduce the spread of Covid in schools.
And it doesn’t just work for Covid - it helps reduce transmission of ALL airborne pathogens - measles, flu, RSV etc.
Clean air in schools is not a restrictive mitigation; it’s an ENABLING mitigation.
It would allow our children to attend school with less risk, less illness, less absence.
And for clinically vulnerable children, it could even be a life-saver.
There’s no downside to clean air.
There’s a mountain of evidence that improving ventilation & air filtration can hugely reduce the spread of airborne illnesses:
▪️A study conducted at Addenbrooke’s hospital showed that air filters removed almost all traces of airborne Covid virus.
▪️A Swiss study demonstrated that HEPA air filters delivering a clean air delivery rate of 5 air changes per hour (800m3/h) in a typical classroom led to a 5-fold decrease in the cumulative viral dose absorbed by exposed occupants.
▪️A study conducted in Bradford showed that Covid-related illness absence in schools was reduced by >20% when HEPA air filters were used in classrooms.
If you’d like to see more research, here’s a link to a website which has collated 56 research studies from around the world which demonstrate the effectiveness of air filters at removing Covid from the air in different settings:
Of course, the government have quietly invested in clean air and installed state-of-the-art air filtration systems in the Houses of Parliament, Ministry of Defence and other government buildings.
It looks like the World Health Organisation are about to come up with alternative terminology for ‘airborne transmission’ in an attempt to save face after denying that Covid was airborne for so long.
“We must better support our children to attend school safely in any future similar event.”
“We cannot allow our elderly, those in care homes & the vulnerable to be placed at such risk in a future pandemic.”
“Most viruses are airborne.”
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Somehow @SuellaBraverman has lined up all the pieces of the jigsaw 🧩 , but still can’t see the bigger picture that is literally staring her in the face!
✅ Yes, another pandemic is coming (as well as the one we’re still in right now).
“We live immersed in an ocean of air, yet we hardly ever notice its presence. However, without air we would simply not be able to survive.”
“We must reshape & redesign the building environment, while focusing on optimizing indoor ventilation and the air we breathe.”
Introduction:
This purpose of this document is to introduce “an innovative method to quantify the risk of SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in indoor settings, thereby providing an alternative approach to developing ventilation requirements that lower the risk of infection.”
▪️Changes in health status following SARS-CoV-2 infection are common and can occur at any age.
▪️Symptoms are frequently experienced for months or years and can increase over time.
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▪️Future health impacts can be expected in addition to the effects that are already observed.
▪️ Some people who are currently well post-Covid are already expressing biomarkers of risk for cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune diseases & cancers.
2. This is one of the new studies published this week (29 Feb 2024).
Researchers found that those with Long Covid had measurable memory & cognitive deficits equivalent to a difference of 6 IQ points which lasted for a year or more after infection.