When we last looked at pupil absence, at the end of Autumn Term, we saw a small improvement compared with the previous Autumn. And we showed that this was mostly due to a reduction in absence recorded as illness, particularly at primary. Though rates of absence and persistent absence remained some way above pre-pandemic norms.

In this post, we’ll see what happened in Spring Term.

As usual, we’ll be using data from our 10,000 Attendance Tracker schools – around 2,800 secondary and 7,500 primary schools.

Weekly absence rates

Let’s start by plotting absence rates in each week so far this year, and compare with the equivalent weeks last year. We’ll add the pre-pandemic termly averages as dotted lines.

In the first half-term back after Christmas, absence at primary broadly tracked the same weeks last year. Since the half-term break, it has generally been slightly lower than last year.

At secondary, in the first half-term back absence was slightly higher than last year in most weeks. But after the break, it has been broadly similar to last year.

At primary, and particularly secondary, absence remains above pre-pandemic levels.

Rates across the academic year so far

Now let’s add up the percentage of sessions missed due to absence across the academic year to date. We’ll compare with Autumn and Spring Terms last year, and with pre-pandemic (Autumn and Spring 2018/19). And we’ll break the data down by the reasons recorded for absence in schools’ registers.

The 5.7% of sessions missed on average by primary pupils so far this year is 0.6 percentage points lower than the 6.3% missed last year, but 1.8 percentage points higher than the 3.9% missed in 2018/19.

At secondary, the improvement compared with last year is smaller, and the gap compared with pre-pandemic is larger. Secondary pupils have missed 9.0% of sessions so far this year, compared with 9.2% last year and 5.2% in 2018/19.

Looking at the reason breakdown, we can see that the main driver behind the improvement at primary from last year is a reduction in absence coded as illness. Absence coded as illness also accounts for the majority of the difference between this year’s absence rates and pre-pandemic’s, though an increase in unauthorised absence is also a factor.

There has been a small reduction in absence coded as illness since last year at secondary too. All types of absence at secondary are higher so far this year than they were pre-pandemic. An increase in unauthorised absence is the biggest factor (around half of the difference), followed by an increase in absence coded as illness (around a third of the difference), and then other types of authorised absence[1].

Persistent absence by year group

Moving on now to look at persistent absence. Below we plot the percentage of pupils who have missed at least 10% of sessions so far this year (or been “persistently absent”). We show primary and secondary overall, and by year group. And, again, we compare this year with last year and with pre-pandemic.

Similar to the picture we saw with absence rates, persistent absence has improved at both primary and secondary compared with last year, with primary improving slightly more than secondary. However, both remain some way above pre-pandemic norms, with a larger gap at secondary than primary.

The biggest improvements compared with last year can be seen among the youngest pupils – those in Reception and Year 1. At primary, the smallest change was among Year 5 pupils.

At secondary, all year groups improved by a similar amount compared with last year.

Year 11 persistent absence by region

To finish, and with Key Stage 4 exams lurking around the corner, let’s focus on Year 11. We repeat the same chart, but this time we limit it to just Year 11 pupils, and break the data down by region.

Persistent absence rates among Year 11 pupils are lower this year than last in all regions. The highest rates this year are in the South West (31% of pupils) and lowest in London (24%). And the biggest improvements compared with last year have been among schools in the North East and London.

We can also break this down by pupil characteristics. Below, we plot the percentage of Year 11 pupils who were persistently absent by disadvantage and by SEN status (where we define “disadvantage” as having been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, or “FSM6”). This time, we show the percentage of pupils who missed at least 10% of sessions, and the percentage who missed at least 20% of sessions.

Unsurprisingly, disadvantaged pupils and those with an identified SEN were more likely to be persistently absent than their peers. For example, while around one in four FSM6 pupils missed at least 20% of sessions, the equivalent of a day off every week, only one in twelve non-FSM6 pupils did.

Summing up

Rates of absence and persistent absence are slightly lower so far this year than last, but remain some way above pre-pandemic rates. At primary, the improvement compared with last year is slightly larger than at secondary, and the increase compared with pre-pandemic is smaller.

Rates of persistent absence among Year 11 pupils remain high across the country.

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research from FFT Education Datalab? Sign up to Datalab’s mailing list to get notifications about new blogposts, or to receive the team’s half-termly newsletter.