School sick days up 50% during flu season – analysis
Sick days taken from school have increased by 50% during flu season, analysis has found, as health experts call on the Government to increase vaccine rollout.
Analysis by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) found the school absence rate due to illness increased from 3% in October to an average of 4.5% during the peak of the 2025/26 flu season.
This is a 50% increase in the number of sessions missed from October, the RSPH said, and equates to arounds a million extra half days missed each week.
Less than half (46%) of school age children have had a flu vaccine so far this year compared with 70% of older adults, the RSPH said, despite children aged two up to year 11 being eligible for the flu vaccine on the NHS.
Using Department for Education (DfE) data, the RSPH found the authorised absence rate due to illness was 2.79% in mid-October, and had hit a peak of 4.72% in the weak commencing December 1.
RSPH chief executive William Roberts said: “Too many children still aren’t receiving the flu vaccine, either because they miss their chance at school, their parents struggle to secure a follow-up appointment, or they don’t understand its importance.
“It is vital that we all work together over the next year to ensure that next year marks a step change in children’s uptake of the flu vaccine.
“If children miss their vaccine at school, we need to make it as easy as possible for them to catch up.”
The RSPH is calling on the Government to roll out the flu vaccine to all schools before the October half term, as well as working with pharmacies and councils to increase vaccine availability outside of schools.
Schools can also help by providing multiple vaccination opportunities, and starting communication well in advance with parents and pupils.
Pharmacies and pop-up clinics could deliver “hundreds of thousands” more vaccines every year with more support, Mr Roberts said.
We also need parents to prioritise getting their children vaccinated, he added.
Schools have been facing an attendance crisis since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of children missing school hitting a peak across the autumn and spring terms of 2021/22.
Figures released in the autumn showed improvements in students who were persistently absent, but an increase in the percentage of schoolchildren missing more than half of their classes.
Published: by Radio NewsHub