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.