The latest attendance figures published by the Department for Education (DfE, 2020) estimate that 557,000 pupils in state-funded schools did not attend due to Covid-related reasons on Thursday, October 22.
The figures have reignited anger at the DfE’s decision to restrict the allocation of free laptops to schools while at the same time making remote education for all pupils a legal requirement.
Schools are now braced for an increasingly difficult second half-term as infection rates continue to rise.