Year 6 pupils up and down the country sat Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests (often called SATs) last week.

We thought we’d look at what absence rates were like last week using data collected from over 6,000 primary schools subscribing to FFT Attendance Tracker.

Absence rates were much lower each day than in preceding weeks on Monday to Thursday, the four days on which tests took place.

The rate was below 2% each day Monday to Thursday. In the 3 preceding weeks, it was around 5%.

The absence rate on Friday was more than double that of the rest of the week though still lower than preceding weeks.

By contrast, the rate of absence among pupils in Year 5 remained around the 5% mark each day.

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.