FOI release

Children taken off school registers

An FOI request concerning children taken off the school register.

Documents

Details

  • Date requested: 1 April 2011
  • Publish date: 26 April 2011
  • Updated: 26 May 2011

Request

Can the department provide the latest figures for the number of children taken off their school register because they did not return from a visit abroad and the ethnic breakdown?

Release

Following a search of the department’s paper and electronic records, it has been established that the information requested is not held by this department.

The department’s National Pupil Database (NPD) is populated with data from the School Census and other pupil level collections and can be used for some pupil mobility analysis. However, there are substantial limitations to this. For example, pupils may move to an independent school or general hospital school from which individual level data is not collected, or pupils may also move to other countries.

It is therefore not possible to distinguish pupils leaving a school for one of the reasons mentioned here, from those who are deregistered because they have not returned from a visit abroad.

Under the Pupil Registration Regulations schools have a duty to inform their Local Authority when a pupil is removed from the school register. Local Authorities use the information in taking forward their duty to ensure children are not missing education.

Updates to this page

Published 26 April 2011

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