Schools across England have been getting into the spirit of the Euro 2020 championship, with some allowing pupils a lie-in on Monday following the final.
Children have been allowed to wear football shirts, or the colours of their team, at a number of schools on Friday ahead of England’s game against Italy at Wembley on Sunday evening.
School leaders are expecting possible absences on Monday morning after pupil attendance reportedly dropped in some schools on Thursday after England beat Denmark in extra-time.
One secondary school in South Yorkshire saw a threefold increase in the number of unexplained absences on Thursday, rising from around 20 last week to 66 the morning after the semi-final.
Pepe Di’Iasio, vice president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and head of Wales High School near Sheffield, told the PA news agency: “Our attendance is usually very good, it’s well above national average.
“But we had triple the amount of unknown absences, undeclared absences, than we would have on a normal day.
“That may not be down to the England game alone, it may be down to the pandemic, but certainly our attendance team are reporting that they had to make more calls than normal for this time of year.
“I suppose what that does is it makes me think: did the England game going on so late have an impact? Will that have an impact on Monday morning?”
Already a number of schools have said they will allow pupils to start later on Monday if they want to.
Gemma Donnelly, head of Braywick Court School in Bray, Berkshire, has told parents that children will not be marked as late if they are in by 10.30am.
