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This report that was originally published on Tuesday 14 July 2020 has been updated. Data has now been provided by three further authorities: Wrexham, Blaenau Gwent and Cardiff.

On Wednesday 10 June 2020 it was announced that schools would be open for more pupils from 29 JuneThe Welsh Government has worked with DataCymru to develop a weekly data collection from local authorities. This captures the number of:

  • schools that were open
  • children that were invited to attend school
  • children who did attend school for at least one session during the week

1. Coverage

As at 16 July 2020, full data has been provided by 19 local authorities. These authorities are Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Wrexham, Powys, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Torfaen, Monmouthshire, Newport and Cardiff.

Children in Isle of Anglesey continue to attend their hubs and schools remain closed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in Llangefni.

No data has been received from Flintshire and Swansea. These figures will be updated next week if further data returns are received.

2. Provisional national figures

The key figures for Wales during the week of 6 to 10 July in the 19 local authorities that provided a full return are:

  • 1,269 out of 1,277 schools were open (99.4%)
  • around 275,000 pupils were invited to attend at least one session last week
  • 169,000 pupils did attend at least one session last week
  • of those pupils that were invited, 61% of pupils attended, slightly down on the 63% that attended in the first week
  • 46% of the total number of pupils attended at least one session (based on the number of pupils in each local authority minus those in years 11 and 13 who are much less likely to attend). This is up on the 45% that attended at least one session in the first week.

3. Quality information

The data should be regarded as provisional. Figures have been taken from management information and are subject to change as furthermore up to date information is received. They have not yet been subject to the same validation processes undertaken for official statistics releases.

4. Next update

We are expecting other local authorities to provide data this week and we will update this information as soon as we can.

Data for the week of 13 to 17 July will be published on Tuesday 21 July at midday.

5. Background information

Schools in Wales have been closed to most pupils since 20 March.

Up to 26 June we collected and published daily information on attendance at local authority settings. This is not comparable to the data presented in this headline.

For further information on the process of reopening schools, please see our guidance on increasing operations in schools from 29 June.

For more general information on coronavirus please see our guidance on Education and child care: coronavirus

6. Contact details

Statistician: Stephen Hughes
Telephone: 0300 025 5060
Email: school.stats@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 85/2020