Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard here
Data for Spring term 2023/24 relates to the period from 2 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.
Comparisons in this section are drawn to Spring term 2022/23 National Statistics absence figures as the detailed and authoritative source of information provided by all schools in the school census. The present publication provides an indicative figure for absence based on regular data automatically submitted to the DfE. Due to the timeliness of this data and that they are based on a subset of schools, figures are estimates that we expect to change as registers are adjusted. To see Spring term figures based on the automatically submitted attendance data for Spring term 2022/23, please see this historic publication.
The overall absence rate for the Spring term was 7.3%, slightly above the Spring 2022/23 census absence figure of 7.0%. This is likely due to higher levels of illness absence with an illness absence rate of 3.8% in Spring 2023/24 compared to the Spring 2022/23 census figure of 3.6%.
Across the Spring term the persistent absence rate (pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions) was 21.9%. This is a small increase from the Spring 2022/23 census persistent absence rate of 20.6%.
Absence remained high in the first week of the Spring term (7.9%) then fell to 6.5% in the week commencing 8 January. It then increased across the first half of the Spring term to a peak of 8.0% in the week just prior to half-term. Absence fell following the Spring half-term to 6.8%, remaining around this level until the week commencing 11 March when it was 7.5% and then rising to 8.3% in the final week of the Spring term. The increase in absence prior to half-term and the end of term is in line with weekly patterns seen during 2022/23 and in historical attendance data.
Changes in absence during the Spring term have mainly been driven by illness absence, which was 3.1% in the week commencing 8 January, but then increased to 4.5% in the week commencing 22 January. Illness remained around this level until the half-term break. Illness fell following the Spring half-term, to 3.2% in the week commencing 19 February however rose across the second half of the term to a peak of 4.0% in the final week of the Spring term.
Unauthorised absence remained high in the first week of 2024 (3.1%) however then fell and remained around 2.3% for most of the first half of Spring term. There was a small increase in unauthorised absence in the week prior to half-term, when it was 2.6%. Unauthorised absence remained around 2.5% for most of the second half of the Spring term, peaking at 3.1% in the final week of the Spring term.
Free school meals (FSM)
The overall absence rate for pupils who are eligible for free school meals was 11.3% in the Spring term. This compares to 5.9% for those pupils who were not eligible for free school meals.
34.8% of pupils who were eligible for free school meals were persistently absent in the Spring term, compared to 17.3% 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 13.6% in the Spring term. This compares to 11.2% for pupils with SEN support and 6.6% with no identified SEN.
36.1% of pupils with an EHC plan were persistently absent in the Spring term, compared to 31.9% for pupils with SEN support and 20.0% for pupils with no identified SEN.
Sex
The overall absence rate during the Spring term was 7.4% for female pupils and 7.3% for male pupils.
The persistent absence rate during the Spring term was 22.1% for female pupils and 21.8% for male pupils.
Users should be aware of the following:
- Response rate - 66% 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: 68% of state-funded primary schools, 63% of state-funded secondary schools and 60% of state-funded special schools. These figures are lower than in previous weeks due to some schools observing holidays in the week commencing 25 March.
- 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.