Southall, Emma, Holmes, Alexander, Hill, Edward M., Atkins, Benjamin D., Leng, Trystan, Thompson, Robin N., Dyson, Louise, Keeling, Matthew James and Tildesley, Michael J. (2021) An analysis of school absences in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Medicine, 19 (1). 137. doi:10.1186/s12916-021-01990-x ISSN 1741-7015.

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Abstract

Background: The introduction of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection, in the UK in early 2020, resulted in the introduction of several control policies to reduce disease spread. As part of these restrictions, schools were closed to all pupils in March (except for vulnerable and key worker children), before re-opening to certain year groups in June. Finally, all school children returned to the classroom in September. Methods: Here, we analyse data on school absences in late 2020 as a result of COVID-19 infection and how that varied through time as other measures in the community were introduced. We utilise data from the Department for Education Educational Settings database and examine how pupil and teacher absences change in both primary and secondary schools. Results: Our results show that absences as a result of COVID-19 infection rose steadily following the re-opening of schools in September. Cases in teachers declined during the November lockdown, particularly in regions previously in tier 3, the highest level of control at the time. Cases in secondary school pupils increased for the first 2 weeks of the November lockdown, before decreasing. Since the introduction of the tier system, the number of absences with confirmed infection in primary schools was observed to be (markedly) lower than that in secondary schools. In December, we observed a large rise in the number of absences per school in secondary school settings in the South East and London, but such rises were not observed in other regions or in primary school settings. We conjecture that the increased transmissibility of the new variant in these regions may have contributed to this rise in secondary school cases. Finally, we observe a positive correlation between cases in the community and cases in schools in most regions, with weak evidence suggesting that cases in schools lag behind cases in the surrounding community. Conclusions: We conclude that there is no significant evidence to suggest that schools are playing a substantial role in driving spread in the community and that careful monitoring may be required as schools re-open to determine the effect associated with open schools upon community incidence.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman L Education > L Education (General) Q Science > Q Science (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Mathematics
SWORD Depositor:	Library Publications Router
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	COVID-19 (Disease), Schools, Children, Research
Journal or Publication Title:	BMC Medicine
Publisher:	BioMed Central
ISSN:	1741-7015
Official Date:	7 June 2021
Dates:	Date Event 7 June 2021 Published 21 April 2021 Accepted
Volume:	19
Number:	1
Article Number:	137
DOI:	10.1186/s12916-021-01990-x
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights):	** From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications Router ** History: received 19-02-2021; accepted 21-04-2021; registration 21-04-2021; pub-electronic 07-06-2021; online 07-06-2021; collection 12-2021. ** Licence for this article: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	8 June 2021
Date of first compliant Open Access:	8 June 2021
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:	Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID EP/S022244/1 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266 MR/V009761/1 [MRC] Medical Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265 MR/V038613/1 [MRC] Medical Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
Is Part Of:	1
Related URLs:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4...

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