Overall absence across the 2025/26 academic year to date was 6.64% and the rate of persistent absence (pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions) was 18.52%.
Absence generally increased across the autumn term from 4.75% in the first week to its peak of 8.88% in the final week of the autumn term (week commencing 15 December 2025). Absence fell in the the first week of the spring term to 6.87% and was 6.85% in the most recent week.
The majority of the change in absence has been driven by illness absence, which peaked in the week commencing 01 December 2025 at 4.73%, up from 1.89% at the beginning of the autumn term. Illness absence fell in the first week of the spring term to 2.83% and has since increased to 3.54% in the most recent week.
Users should be aware of the following:
- Response rate - Of schools participating in the School Census, 99% provided information on the latest full day of data (06 February 2026). Therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 99% of state-funded primary schools, 98% of state-funded secondary schools and 98% of state-funded special schools. The response rate may vary at certain points of the year due to different term dates. It also became mandatory for schools to share attendance data with the DfE from the start of the 2024/25 academic year, meaning the number of schools reporting may change over time.
- 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 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 new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.