Flu season school sick days spiral

SICK days taken from school have increased by 50% during the flu season, analysis has found, as health experts call on the Government to increase vaccination rollouts.

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Analysis by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) found the school absence rate due to illness increased from 3% in October to an average of 4.5% during the peak of the 2025/26 flu season. This is a 50% increase in the number of sessions missed from October, the RSPH said, and equates to around a million extra half days missed each week.

Just over half (51.6%) of school-aged children had received a flu vaccination up to the end of 2025, the latest UKHSA data shows, compared with 74% of older adults.