New statutory guidance for schools in relation to recording and managing attendance (and absence) came into effect in September last year.

This saw the introduction of some new absence codes for use in schools’ registers and changes to definition of some existing codes.

We looked at how these new codes were initially being used at the end of September.

In particular we drew out less use of the B code (educated off-site) and provided some estimates of the number of pupils on school-initiated part-time tables based on the newly-introduced C2 code.

Now with the academic year behind us, we look at how they were used over the rest of the year.

Data

We use data for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years collected from around 9,000 schools subscribing to FFT Attendance Tracker.

Attendance

Code “/” is used to denote a pupil is present in the morning and code “\” in the afternoon.

There was an increase in the percentage of sessions marked present in 2025, up from 92.3% to 92.6% in primary and from 85.8% to 86.4% in secondary.

In addition, there are other codes which count as attendance. These are shown for 2025 in the following chart.

These additional codes are:

K            attending educational provision arranged by the local authority

L            late arrival before the register has closed

P            participating in a sporting activity

V            educational visit or trip

W          attending work experience

B            any other approved educational activity not categorised above

Added to the figures for pupils present in school, these push up the figures for attendance in primary schools by 2.1 percentage points (to 94.7%) and in secondary schools by 4.6 percentage points (to 91.0%).

Code K was introduced for 2024/25. This is used when a pupil is attending education provision arranged by the local authority. This code was rarely used. 0.01% of primary sessions and 0.06% of secondary sessions were marked as K.

By far the most common of these codes is L: Late before registers closed. The guidance on the use of this code was tightened this year, with a 30 minute limit on keeping registers open imposed.

Code B (education off-site) rules were also tightened, with emphasis being placed on activities being supervised by a suitably qualified individual. This is a code we’ve looked at in some detail previously.

We can compare data for 2023/24 and 2024/25 for codes L and B.

Overall, there has been little change so far in registration sessions coded L, but there has been a notable decrease in the use of code B. ASCL highlight that DfE have made clear that remote learning should be counted as absence rather than code B and this could be a factor in the fall in prevalence between 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Authorised absence

Next let’s turn to absence codes classified as authorised absence.

Authorised absence codes^[1] are as follows:

C           exceptional circumstances

C1         in a regulated performance/undertaking regulated employment abroad

C2         due to part-time timetable

E            suspended or permanently excluded

I             illness

J1           education/ employment interview

M           medical or dental appointment

R            religious observance

S            study leave

T            parent travelling for occupational purposes

Illness remains the most likely reason for absence, accounting for 2.7% of registration sessions among primary-aged pupils and 3.6% among secondary-aged pupils.

The second most common authorised absence code (C: leave of absence) has now been split into three categories. C1 is for participating in a regulated performance or working abroad and C2 is for a part-time timetable. Code C remains for other forms of leave of absence in exceptional circumstances.

According to the DfE guidance, C2 only applies to pupils who are not in full-time education for a temporary period. The code is not supposed to be used for pupils in full-time education but only attending a school part-time (e.g. flexi-schooling).

Nonetheless, 0.13% of sessions for primary-aged pupils and 0.35% of sessions for secondary-aged pupils were marked C2.

We find that 1.1% of primary-aged and 3.7% of secondary-aged pupils were marked as absent coded C2 for at least 1 session in 2024/25. This would gross up to around 43,000 primary-aged pupils and 121,000 secondary-aged pupils.

These pupils tend to have high rates of absence for the year as a whole:

• 47% of secondary-aged pupils (21% of primary-aged pupils) with at least one absence recorded C2 were severe absentees, that is are absent for at least 50% of sessions.
• 92% of secondary-aged pupils (73% of primary-aged pupils) with at least one absence recorded C2 were persistent absentees, that is are absent for at least 10% of sessions.

We will provide more data on this group in a future blog post.

Unauthorised absence

For completeness, we show prevalence of the four unauthorised absence codes.

G            holiday not granted by the school

N           reason for absence not yet established

U           arrived in school after register closed

O           absent in other or unknown circumstances

There have been no changes to these codes, although the new guidance underlines that code U (or another appropriate absence code) should be used if a pupil arrives more than 30 minutes after registration. 0.17% of sessions relating to primary-aged pupils and 0.31% of sessions relating to secondary-aged pupils were marked as code U last year (slightly up on 0.16% and 0.27% in 2023/24).

Overall, 1.7% of sessions were missed due to unauthorized absence among primary-aged pupils and 3.5% among secondary-aged pupils.

For secondary-aged pupils, these figures were similar in size to absences due to illness.

Codes that do not count in absence statistics

Some absence codes are ignored in the calculation of absence statistics. These include code D for pupils who are dual registered and who are expected to be attending another school and code # for a planned school closure.

A new code, Q, has been added this year for when pupils cannot attend due a lack of access arrangements.

In addition, the previous Y code (unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances) has been split into 7 further sub-categories.

Y1         Unable to attend due to transport normally provided not being available

Y2         Unable to attend due to widespread disruption to travel

Y3         Unable to attend due to part of the school premises being closed

Y4         Unable to attend due to the whole school site being unexpectedly closed

Y5         Unable to attend as pupil is in criminal justice detention

Y6         Unable to attend in accordance with public health guidance or law

Y7         Unable to attend because of any other unavoidable cause

These codes are rarely used with the exception but they do give an indication of how often exceptional circumstances prevent pupils from attending schools. Y4, an unexpected closure, was the most common exceptional circumstance.

Absence codes and SEN status

Finally, we examine how pupil absences vary by SEN status. In the following table, we include attendances, authorised absences, unauthorised absences and sessions that pupils were unable to attend (Q and Y codes). As a result, these attendance figures are slightly lower than they should be due to the inclusion of the Q and Y codes^[2].

Pupils with EHC plans are less likely to be present in school than other pupils. We can see here that they are more likely than other pupils to be educated off-site (code B) or in local authority alternative provision (code K). They are also more likely to be absent due to leave of absence (code C), a part-time timetable (code C2), and illness (code I). They are also more likely not to be able to attend due to a lack of access arrangements (code Q) and because transport was not available (Y1) although the absolute risk of these events is low.

Summing up

Compared to 2023/24, the percentage of sessions marked present in 2024/25 increased by 0.3 percentage points in primary schools (from 92.3% to 92.6%) in primary and from by 0.6 percentage points in secondary schools (85.8% to 86.4% in secondary).

The overall attendance rates additionally include some pupils not marked as present, notably those marked L (late), B (educated off-site) and V (educational visit). Although we see a 0.6 percentage point increase in pupils marked present in secondary schools, we only see a 0.3 percentage point increase in pupils attending (90.7% in 2023/24 and 91.0% in 2024/25).

This is largely the result of less use of code B.

A new code (C2) was introduced in 2024/25 for pupils on part-time timetables, excluding those who are being “flexi-schooled”. We estimate that around 43,000 primary-aged pupils and 121,000 secondary-aged pupils were absent for at least one session coded C2. These pupils tend to have higher rates of overall absence.

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