OLDHAM schools are putting wellbeing at the centre of 'catch up' education provision amid sky high absence rates and rising reports of children with mental health issues.

As the pandemic raged towards the end of last year Oldham’s absence rate was among the highest in England, figures reveal.

Pupils in the borough missed the equivalent of 329,136 days of in-person education between September and December, Department for Education figures show.

That was an absence rate of 12.3 per cent – among the highest in England – and equivalent to roughly eight days per pupil.

In an interview with The Oldham Times, Oldham Council’s managing director of children and young people, Gerard Jones said there had been a rise in persistent absence across Oldham and a 56 per cent increase in elective home education.

He said: “The longer-term impact (of Covid-19) is persistent absence and elective home education.There’s a group of children that we might really struggle to ever get back into education.”

The rate of persistent absence in secondary schools during the autumn term rose from 14.1 in 2019-2020 to 21 in 2020-21.

Mr Jones does not however consider extra “learning resources” a standalone solution to missed school days.

“It has been a very difficult time for young people’s mental health we’ve seen more children going to A&E at Royal Oldham with mental health related issues.

“What really helps children learn is to be happy, healthy and safe. It is not just the learning resources we need it is the support around children’s mental health that enables them to learn,” he added.

At Oasis Academy Leesbrook in Oldham “wellbeing and readiness” for the next school year is taking centre stage at the academy’s ‘Summer School’ sessions.

The principal, Sarah Livesey, said the academy had also “invested catch-up funding” into expanding the school’s team with mental health experts to support students in need.

Glyn Potts, the headteacher at Newman RC College in Oldham, said his pupils will meanwhile have access to “mental health resilience sessions”.

It comes after latest NHS data reveals more than twice as many children and adolescents were referred to mental health services year on year in England as Covid cases rocketed.

Emergency referrals to crisis-care teams for under-18s were 62 per cent higher in March 2021 than the previous year.

The need for “catch up” provision in Oldham schools has been amplified by the borough’s towering absence rate.

A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), based on interviews with senior leaders in 50 schools serving predominantly deprived areas in England, revealed that leaders considered the emphasis on academic tutoring as the main catch-up strategy as “unhelpful” and instead urged for an equal focus on emotional recovery and enrichment.

Last month, the Department for Education (DfE) announced an additional £1.4 billion of funding, on top of the £1.7 billion already pledged for catch-up, to help pupils in England make up for lost learning due to school closures.

The programme includes £1 billion to support up to six million, 15-hour tutoring courses for disadvantaged pupils, as well as an expansion of the 16-19 tuition fund.

Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Community Learning, which runs 53 schools including Oasis Academy Oldham, and Oasis Academy Leesbrook said: “The 1.4 billion probably deals with the catch-up stuff but not the readiness to learn which is much longer term. We have got to take that seriously.”