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School attendance: Time to clean the air?

New research has shown the notable impact that using air filters in classrooms can have on reducing student absence. Chris Fabby says it’s time the government acts on this evidence…
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The importance of school attendance and the concerning data on absence rates are rightly dominating many of our conversations right now.

And the data is concerning. Department for Education figures show that 22.3% of pupils missed more than one in 10 sessions in the 2022/23 academic year. This has barely improved from 22.5% in 2021/22, despite the huge efforts of schools.

And the most recent figures from the autumn term 2023 show that persistent absence is at 20.1%, rising to 24.6% in secondary schools.

But what is also concerning is the government’s response – or in many ways lack of response – to this issue. Minsters are pushing the narrative that this is entirely down to parents – implying in particular, as former schools minister Nick Gibb did last year, that parents are keeping children off school for minor coughs and colds.

While this narrative may make good headlines, this messaging risks a blanket and unfair demonisation of parents, will be particularly distressing for parents of children with underlying health conditions, and fails to get to the complex roots of the problem.

School leaders, teachers and support staff know the reasons for increased absences are many and varied – they see it every day.

Yes, the pandemic has played a role and some parents are more alert to illness now, but there are many other factors – the cuts to wraparound services and social care, the crisis in SEND funding, soaring child and food poverty levels, the cost-of-living crisis, the mental health crisis, and all of this is not helped by the narrowing of the curriculum.

You can perhaps see why the government would want to distract attention from this list by focusing on the parents.

Another fact that is not being talked about enough is that authorised illness remains the primary reason for pupil absence (Education Select Committee, 2023). I do not believe that this can be explained by over-worried parents and minor coughs and colds.

The truth is that following years of austerity, the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, the nation as a whole is getting sicker. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (2023) show that 2.8 million people are not working due to long term ill-health – an increase of more than 700,000 since 2020. Are we to believe that somehow children are immune? The distressing daily reports from schools of hungry and sleep-deprived children would suggest not.

We need the government to properly invest in education, the NHS, public health, children’s health, mental health and wellbeing. That means increasing public funding to match demand.

In the meantime, we need to do all we can to reduce the spread of illness in our schools to maximise attendance.

We are all by now well-versed on the need to ensure good ventilation and hand hygiene. But what about cleaning the air? You may remember that during the pandemic, the Department for Education (eventually) provided a very small number of schools with HEPA air filters. These filters reduce infectious particles and harmful pollutants in the air.

And now research from the Class-ACT Study has yielded some impressive results. The study involved 30 schools from across Bradford taking part in a randomised control trial of air cleaning technologies. It was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency with DfE officials sitting on the working group.

The trial is cited in a recent report from the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG, 2023) which reports: “By combining health records with school absences, the study found that schools that had these relatively low-cost air cleaning technologies fitted showed significantly lower absence rates.”

In fact according to Professor Cath Noakes, the study’s lead investigator, underlying illness absence rate was reduced by more than 20% in those schools with HEPA air filters in place (see WHO, 2023; see also Noakes et al, 2023).

Our sister union NASUWT is helpfully distributing a leaflet to all schools with additional research on air filters which demonstrates their other benefits.

For example in California, following a massive release of natural gas, schools within a five-mile radius were fitted with air filtration units. Research comparing schools “just within” the five-mile zone (i.e. those provided with the air filters) to those “just outside” discovered a significant improvement in test results, equivalent to reducing class sizes by one-third. This paper also confirms earlier research from Israel that found a causal link between air pollution and test results (Ebenstein et al, 2016).

Given these results it is great to see that London mayor Sadiq Khan is installing air filters in 200 schools with a view to potentially providing them to every school in the capital. City Hall confirmed that the schools are to be selected based on pollution levels, with those in more deprived areas also being prioritised (see Mayor of London, 2024).

Given the mounting evidence, it is clear that air filters should be fitted in our schools to help protect children’s health, to help maximise attendance, and (as a big added bonus) to improve test results. It is time to clean the air.

  • Chris Fabby is national officer at UNISON.

 

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