Where are England’s 7,000 missing schoolchildren?

Up to 7,700 pupils left secondary schools between 2012 and 2017 in unknown circumstances

Pupils sit exams
 
(Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Up to 7,700 secondary school pupils in England have left mainstream schooling and slipped off the radar, according to new research.

Of the 553,000 children who started Year 7 at state schools in England in 2012, 531,000 were still enrolled in 2017, when they would be due to sit their GCSEs, according to education research group FFT Education Datalab.

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