Children are older starting school and fewer likely to repeat a year, new data shows

In 2000, almost 7,000 students repeated a year of primary school, compared to just under 2,000 in 2020. File picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

More children are starting school older, and fewer are repeating a year of primary school, now than at the turn of the millennium.

The vast majority of schools remain under religious patronage, despite the introduction of Government targets to improve parental choice when it comes to schools, and the closure of roughly eight Catholic schools on average each year since 2011.