Week 36 2023

Pupil attendance in schools

Data guidance

Published 7 September 2023

Description

This data file provides figures related to the attendance of 5 to 15 year old (i.e. compulsory school age) pupils in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England.

These figures are derived from regular data automatically submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) by participating schools. The data is submitted on a daily basis and includes the attendance codes for each pupil on their registers during the morning and afternoon sessions.

The figures are published as experimental official statistics to give an indicative figure for the absence rate for the Tuesday of the first week of the 2023/24 academic year. Fortnightly publications and pupil attendance dashboard updates, including overall absence and reasons for absence, will resume from 28 September 2023. These are intended to continue the series that was previously sourced from the daily Educational Settings Survey (EdSet). 

Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, the figures are estimates that we expect to change as registers are adjusted. They should be viewed as an early indicator for the more detailed but less regular National Statistics on pupil absence (which include school level breakdowns).

85% of state-funded primary, secondary and special schools have opted in to submitting data. On 5 September 2023 DfE received data from 69% of schools. It is on this 69% that figures are based. The lower response rate reflects how some schools operate inset days on their first days back and so may not have turned on their school registers. The response rate for schools whose first day back was expected to be Friday 1 September was 80%, and 69% for those expected to be back on Monday 4 September.

Users should be aware of the following:

• Response rate - 85% of schools have opted-in to submitting data, therefore national figures are estimates. On 5 September 2023 DfE received data from 69% of all schools. It is on this 69% that figures are based. The lower response rate reflects how some schools operate inset days on their first days back and so may not have turned on their school registers. The response rate for schools whose first day back was expected to be Friday 1 September was 80%, and 69% for those expected to be back on Monday 4 September. In recognition that response rates are not equal across school types and, therefore, not representative of the total school population, the overall absence figure for all schools has been weighted based on the Spring 2022 school census. Response rates for state-funded primary, secondary and special schools were 70%, 67% and 55% respectively.
• Inset days and phased returns - Schools may run inset days on the first days back of a new term. Additionally, some - particularly secondary schools - may use phased returns, which see individual year groups return a day ahead of others. The data allows us to infer when schools are operating this way and the figures presented only consider pupils who were expected to attend on the day. The data suggests that 2,689 schools (19%) were operating inset days, 442 schools (3%) phased returns and 312 (2%) half days on Tuesday 5 September 2023. Pupils who are coded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances are not included in absence rates as these sessions are not possible for pupils to attend.
• Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for a particular day to decrease over time. Figures are expected to change, therefore, between now and the reports due to be published from 28 September 2023. Historical figures will be recalculated in each publication.

For further information see the ‘Methodology’ section.

Coverage

The figures relate to the attendance of 5 to 15 year old (i.e. compulsory school age) pupils in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England.

File formats and conventions

Rounding

In recognition of the uncertainty around inset days, reporting lag and reduced response rate, rates have been rounded to 0 decimal places.

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Pupil attendance in schools - 5 September 2023

• Filename: pupil_attendance_in_schools.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2023 Week 36
• Content:

  Includes national level attendance and absence rates on 5 September 2023 for state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
absence_rate	Absence rate
attendance_rate	Attendance rate
response_rate	Response rate
school_type	School Type - State-funded primary, secondary and special