Week 15 2025

Pupil attendance in schools

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Introduction

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 (opens in a new tab) for each pupil on their registers during the morning and afternoon sessions.

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.

The figures are published as official statistics in development to give an indicative figure for the absence rate during the 2024/25 academic year, from the 09 September 2024 to 11 April 2025. National level figures for the week commencing 02 September 2024 are included in underlying data of the first publication of the academic year. For the full 2023/24 academic year and termly pupil absence data, including by characteristics please see this historical publication.

The pupil attendance dashboard (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) will be updated fortnightly, providing aggregate metrics on overall absence and reasons for absence estimated at national, regional and local authority level only. Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, 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 frequent Accredited Official Statistics on pupil absence (which include school level breakdowns). The Accredited Official Statistics are updated termly, with the latest data published on 20 March 2025 relating to the 2023/24 academic year, including data on characteristics.

From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data (opens in a new tab) with the DfE. If you are a school that is not already sharing your daily attendance data, you need to approve this in your Wonde portal. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports (opens in a new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.

Schools can use the ‘Compare your attendance (opens in a new tab)’ 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.


Headline facts and figures - 2025

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Spring term

Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard (opens in a new tab) here

Data for spring term 2024/25 relates to the period from 06 January and 11 April 2025.

The overall absence rate for the spring term 2024/25 was 7.0%. This was 0.4 percentage points lower than spring term 2023/24 where it was 7.3%. 

This decrease in absence is equivalent to approximately 1.88 million more days in school compared to the 2023/24 spring term, assuming pupil numbers are equal across years. In autumn 2024/25, there were approximately 1.25 million more days in school compared to the 2023/24 autumn term.  This amounts to approximately 3.13 million more days in schools in the year to date. For further information on how these new estimates are calculated, see the 'Calculating days in school' section of the Pupil attendance in schools methodology.

The persistent absence rate (pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions) was 20.3%. This was 1.7 percentage points lower than spring term 2023/24 where it was 22.0%. 

Absence was 6.8% in the first week of the spring term, it fell to 6.4% in the following week before increasing across the half term to 7.6% in the week commencing 10 February 2025, prior to the spring half term. Following the half term absence decreased to 6.3% and remained stable around 6.0% - 6.6% for the rest of the term before peaking in the final week of the spring term at 9.7%. The Monday of this week marked Eid al-Fitr celebrations where there were higher levels of absence due to authorised religious observances. The increase in absence between half term and the end of the spring term is also in line with patterns seen during 2023/24. 

Authorised absence increased from 4.2% at the beginning of the spring term to 5.2% in the week before half term. It then fell to 4.0% in the week following half term before increasing across the term to 6.5% in the final week. These increases were mainly due to increases in illness absence, which was 4.0% in the week before half term and 3.5% in the final week of term - both up from the start of term when it was 3.0%. The peak in authorised absence in final week of term was also due to an increase in authorised religious observance around Eid al-Fitr, which was 1.7% in the week commencing 31 March 2025.

Unauthorised absence was 2.6% in the first week of the spring term, it then decreased to 2.0% where it remained fairly stable across the term. There were increases to 2.4% in the week prior to the half term and to 3.2% in the final week of term.

Free school meals (FSM)

The overall absence rate for pupils who are eligible for free school meals was 10.8% in the spring term. This compares to 5.5% for those pupils who were not eligible for free school meals.

33.3% of pupils who were eligible for free school meals were persistently absent in the spring term, compared to 15.3% of pupils who were not eligible.

Special educational needs (SEN)

The overall absence rate for pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan was 13.9% in the spring term. This compares to 10.8% for pupils with SEN support and 6.1% with no identified SEN.

35.8% of pupils with an EHC plan were persistently absent in the spring term, compared to 30.3% for pupils with SEN support and 18.1% for pupils with no identified SEN.

Sex

The overall absence rate during the spring term was 7.0% for female pupils and 6.9% for male pupils.

The persistent absence rate during the spring term was 20.4% for female pupils and 20.2% for male pupils.

Users should be aware of the following:

  • 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 have been weighted based on the Spring 2024 school census.
  • Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for particular days to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that the absence rate could decrease around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures from week 37 onwards will be recalculated in each publication.

From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data (opens in a new tab) with the DfE. If you are a school that is not already sharing your daily attendance data, you need to approve this in your Wonde portal. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports (opens in a new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are undergoing a development. They have been developed under the guidance of the Head of Profession for Statistics and published to involve users and stakeholders at an early stage in assessing their suitability and quality.

They have been produced as far as possible in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Pupil attendance in schools statistics and data:

School Census Statistics Team

Email: schools.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: School Census Statistics Team

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)