Four in five schools in London either restricted attendance or closed as a result of yesterday’s teacher strikes, government data suggests, with the capital’s schools far more likely to be affected than those elsewhere in England.
National Education Union members took three days of action this week in their dispute with the government over pay and school funding, with three different regions affected each day.
Attendance data published by the government today shows the impact the walkouts had on schools varied depending on where they were in the country.
On Tuesday, 54 per cent of schools in the north east, north west and Yorkshire and the Humber either restricted attendance (47 per cent) or fully closed (7 per cent).
This tallies with data published earlier this week by school management information system provider Arbor.
The proportion of schools affected varied from 48 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber to 58 per cent in the north west.
On Wednesday, 40 per cent of schools in the East Midlands, West Midlands and east of England either restricted attendance (36 per cent) or closed (4 per cent).
Again, this varied between the regions, with 35 per cent of schools affected in the East Midlands, compared to 46 per cent in the east of England.
But the biggest outlier was London, where on Thursday 80 per cent of schools either restricted attendance (62 per cent) or closed completely (18 per cent).
In the south east and south west, which also saw walkouts yesterday, the proportion of affected schools ranged from 48 to 50 per cent, closer to the levels seen in the north on Tuesday, but higher than walkouts in the midlands on Wednesday.
In every region, the proportion of secondary schools affected was much higher than primary.
For example, on Thursday, 90 per cent of secondary schools in London, the south east and south west either closed or restricted attendance, compared to 51 per cent of primary schools.