More than 400 pupils in local authority improved school attendance after receiving fines

Anthony Lewis – Local democracy reporter

More than 400 pupils in one Welsh local authority improved their school attendance after receiving fines for unauthorised absences or holidays during term time last year.

A report for Merthyr Tydfil Council’s learning and local government education services committee on Monday, March 3, shows that 441 of the 534 pupils issued with fines in 2023-24 improved their attendance afterwards.

Of the 534 pupils 164 were fined for unauthorised absence and 370 were fined for a term-time holiday.

Figures for the autumn term of this year (2024-25) show 281 pupils have been fined with 151 fined for unauthorised absences and 130 for term-time holidays.

Payment

The figure for the number of pupils who improved their attendance after being fined in the autumn of 2024-25 cannot be seen yet as as most are still in the 42-day time period for payment, the report said.

In September 2024 the Welsh Government released data for 2023-24 secondary attendance which showed Merthyr Tydfil was 22nd out 22 Welsh councils at 86.22%, 1.8% below the national average of 88%.

In 2022-23, Merthyr Tydfil was 17th out of 22 at 86.3% which was 1.2% behind the Welsh average.

Overall attendance for the autumn term in 2024-25 in primary schools is 92.12% which is up from 92.08% in the autumn term of 2023-24 and 90.59% in the autumn term of 2022-23.

For secondary schools it is 88.62% for the autumn of 2024-25 which is up from 86.5% in the autumn of 2023-24 and 85.8% in the autumn of 2022-23.

Years one and two had a lower attendance than the Merthyr Tydfil primary school average of 92.12% in the autumn of 2024-25 and years nine to 11 had a lower attendance than the Merthyr Tydfil secondary school average of  88.62% in the autumn of 2024-25.

Sickness

The report said the most common reasons  for absences in the autumn term have been high holiday absences in some schools, high sickness levels with cases such as hand foot and mouth, chicken pox, scarlet fever, earaches, whooping cough, chest infections, as well as some long-term medical cases and mental health.

The report said Merthyr Tydfil has seen a reduction in persistent absenteeism which is defined as pupils whose absence level is more than 10% (less than 90% attendance). This came into effect in September 2023.

Secondary schools in Merthyr Tydfil have seen a decrease of 3.74% in persistent absenteeism at the 80% threshold and a decrease of 5.24% at the  90% threshold.

Primary schools have seen a decrease of 0.48% at 80% but an increase of
0.04% at 90%, which can be attributed to high sickness levels, the report said.

The report said that the persistent absentee data remains a fluctuating picture as families continue to book holidays in term time post-Covid while anxiety and social issues are also a cause for low attendance.

With the revised threshold of 90% the report said this will have a significant impact on support and challenge for schools and the council due to the
volume of pupils and staff capacity.

But it said that this academic year progress has been encouraging and they have seen a reduction in persistent absenteeism.