Attendance of pupils in maintained schools: 4 to 15 September 2023

This headline presents information on the attendance of pupils in schools during the current academic year. This is the first publication of the academic year.

The 2023/24 academic year began on 1 September 2023. Most schools had no pupils in attendance on 1 September 2023 due to INSET days. Therefore, this headline presents data from 4 September 2023 onwards.

All data in this headline is based on the definition of attendance that was in use and published before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The data here is not comparable with the data published during the pandemic for 2020/21 and 2021/22, except for Table 7 which has been calculated on the same basis. For more details see the quality section below and accompanying spreadsheet.

The data in Table 7 is provided to enable comparisons between current and historical attendance levels. Whilst the data is comparable over time, we would encourage users to treat comparisons between 2023/24 and earlier years with caution at present until further data is available for the current year and current trends become more robust and stable.

Data for primary and special schools in Powys, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire is not included in this release due to technical issues extracting data from their management information systems.

Main points

• The average attendance for this academic year to date is 93.4%.
• The latest week is 11 to 15 September, the last week was the 4 to 8 September. 
• An average of 92.9% of half-day school sessions were recorded as present for pupils aged 5 to 15 over the latest week, down from 93.9% the week before. Data for the latest week is provisional. 
• An average of 4.4% of half-day school sessions were recorded as authorised absence for pupils aged 5 to 15 over the latest week, up from 3.3% the week before.
• An average of 2.8% of half-day school sessions were recorded as unauthorised absence for pupils aged 5 to 15 over the latest week, down from 2.9% the week before.
• There has been no difference in the attendance rate for males and females for the academic year to date, 93.4% for both.
• The attendance rate by year group for the academic year to date has been highest for pupils in Year 7 (96.2%) and lowest for pupils in Year 11 (89.7%).
• The attendance rate for the academic year to date has been higher for pupils not eligible for free school meals (94.7%) than pupils who are eligible for free school meals (89.7%).
• The most common reason for absence for the academic year to date has been illness, with 30.6% of sessions missed being for this reason. 

Quality

This data is management information extracted from school management information systems once a week. This data has not undergone the same level of quality assurance as official statistics and the data may be subject to future revisions. The figures for the latest two weeks should be treated as provisional. Earlier figures are final and are not subject to change.

All data in this headline is based on the definition of attendance that was in use and published before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The data here is not comparable with the data published during the pandemic for 2020/21 and 2021/22, except for Table 7 which has been calculated on the same basis. The main differences in definitions are:

• Data is presented as the percentage of half day sessions missed instead of the percentage of pupils absent.
• Data is for pupils of statutory school age only (aged 5-15) instead of data for all ages.
• Data is for pupils in primary, middle, secondary and special schools only and does not include data for nursery schools or pupil referral units.
• Code Y (partial and forced closure) is now counted as "not required to attend" rather than "absent".

Comparability

All 4 nations are publishing regular data on attendance in school. We do not advise making comparisons between the nations due to differences in data collection methods, presentation and definitions.

National Statistics status

These statistics are not National Statistics and have been produced quickly in response to developing national and local events.