Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard here
Data for the academic year 2023/24 relates to the period from 11 September 2023 to 8 December 2023. Data is available in the pupil attendance dashboard and the data catalogue available on this page (see “Explore data and files”). The dashboard displays attendance and absence headline figures, and reasons for absence at national, regional and local authority geographic levels. Data is available across primary, secondary and special schools and can be broken down by individual school type.
Overall absence during the 2023/24 year to date was 6.6%. Absence increased from 5.0% at the start of the Autumn term to a peak of 7.1% in the week commencing 16 October (immediately prior to half-term for most schools). Following half-term, absence rates fell to 6.3% in the week commencing 6 November but have since risen and were 8.0% in the week commencing 4 December.
The majority of the change in absence has been driven by illness absence, however there have also been some smaller changes in unauthorised absence. Similarly to overall absence, unauthorised absence increased towards half-term and peaked at 2.5% in the week commencing 16 October (immediately prior to half-term). Unauthorised absence fell following half-term and was 2.0% in the week commencing 20 November but has since increased and was 2.5% in the week commencing 4 December.
The increase in absence prior to half-term is in line with weekly patterns seen during 2022/23 and in historical attendance data. In the 2022/23 academic year, absence increased by 1.1 percentage points between the week commencing 10 October and the week commencing 17 October, similar to the increase seen between the equivalent weeks of this academic year, although half-term dates do differ slightly between academic years.
The increase in absence between half-term and the end of the Autumn term is also in line with patterns seen during 2022/23 and in historical attendance data, although last academic year saw a larger increase in absence towards the end of term due to high levels of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses, as shown in UK Health Security Authority data. In the 2022/23 academic year, absence increased by 4.8 percentage points between the week commencing 31 October and the week commencing 5 December, compared to an increase of 1.5 percentage points between the equivalent weeks of this academic year.
Users should be aware of the following:
- Response rate - 88% of schools shared data in the most recent week (though this has varied throughout the period of data collection), therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 89% of state-funded primary schools, 83% of state-funded secondary schools and 78% of state-funded special schools.
- Estimates for non-response - In recognition that response rates are not equal across school types and, therefore, not representative of the total school population, the total rates for all schools has been weighted based on the Spring 2023 school census.
- Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for a particular day to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that this could be a decrease in the absence rate of around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures will be recalculated in each publication.
If you are a school that has not yet signed up to share your data, please visit Share your daily school attendance data for more information. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.
Schools can now use the ‘Compare your attendance’ dashboard to compare with other schools in the local authority. This has been updated to show data for this current academic year. Use it to compare absence and unauthorised absence for your school, as well as special educational needs and free school meals pupils.