Arranged by schools in Devon
Teaching for children who cannot attend in person, so that their education carries on while everything else is being sorted out.
5 January 2026 to 31 March 2026
When a child cannot attend school, the obligation to keep educating them does not pause. It moves to the local authority. In practice the child is still on a school roll, still known to a head of year, and still waiting for someone to arrange something.
Where a child of compulsory school age would not otherwise receive suitable education, the local authority must arrange it.
Section 19, Education Act 1996
of secondary pupils in England were persistently absent, missing a tenth or more of their sessions, autumn term 2024/25.
Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, released 7 August 2025.
In 2 Devon schools last term, the thing that got arranged was Purple Ruler. Across the county we are engaged with 5. This page sets out exactly what that amounted to over one term.
Between 5 January 2026 and 31 March 2026, this is what Purple Ruler taught in Devon. Every figure counts only sessions that actually ran.
These are the schools in the authority that have brought Purple Ruler in for at least one child. Individual referral numbers are each school's own business, so they are not published here.
Children out of the classroom still sat a real timetable. Across the term we taught 4 subjects in Devon, led by the core three.
Schools choose the provision that fits the child. These are the four in use across the authority, and how many schools use each.
A full-time online school place for a child who cannot attend any physical setting.
Curriculum-matched teaching that keeps a child on their own school's syllabus while they are out of the room.
Targeted teaching aimed squarely at exams and attainment.
This is not a Devon story. It is the closest published account of what happens when a partner stops buying places one child at a time and builds shared provision instead, and it is the pattern we would bring to Devon.
A partner facing the same pressure, one school at a time, moved to a single shared provision that any of its schools could draw on. The full account is published, with their name on it.
Read the accountProvision that discharges a statutory duty has to stand up to scrutiny. These are the mechanisms behind every lesson counted on this page.
Every lesson is taught by a qualified teacher. This is school provision delivered online, not supplementary tutoring.
Lessons are recorded, staff are DBS checked, and safeguarding follows KCSIE. A designated lead is reachable throughout the school day.
Sessions are observed and graded against a rubric, so quality is measured continuously rather than reported after the fact.
Each placement produces an attendance and progress record the school and the authority can use as evidence that the duty is being met.
Every one of these schools found us on their own. That works, but it means Devon is buying the same provision 5 times over, with no single view of which children are in it. An authority-level arrangement changes that.
We can walk through this term's delivery, the schools involved, and what an authority-wide arrangement would look like in practice.
hello@purpleruler.com · purpleruler.com
Our figures. Lesson counts are taken from Purple Ruler's own delivery records for the term stated, counting only sessions that ran and were completed. Cancelled and flagged sessions are excluded. Placement and school counts cover all Purple Ruler work in the authority to date.
21.09% (autumn term 2024/25): Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, released 7 August 2025.
This page reports delivery only. It makes no claim about attendance rates or examination outcomes, which are held by the schools.