Absenteeism from secondary schools: September 2023 to August 2024
Data on authorised and unauthorised absenteeism by pupils of compulsory school age for September 2023 to August 2024.
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In this page
Introduction
The data in this release relates to attendance of pupils of compulsory school age (ages 11 to 15) in maintained middle, secondary and special schools. The data is derived from the statutory returns provided by local authorities following the end of the academic year. However, the data does not cover the entire school year, because of the effect on attendance at public exams which occur in May and June. The collection of this data was suspended at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020 and no data is available for the school years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22.
Since September 2020 we have been collecting and publishing daily attendance data from schools. This data is extracted directly from school Management Information Systems (MIS) once a week. This data is collected as management information and is not validated or agreed with schools or local authorities. It does therefore not have the same level of quality assurance as the annual attendance data contained within this release. Both weekly and annual data are available for the 2023/24 school year, but for the above reasons are not fully comparable although overall results for a full academic year at the Wales level are consistent.
For further information on the different sources of official attendance data and advice on which to use please see quality and methodology information section.
The collection and publication of the Absenteeism from primary schools’ data was also suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has now been reinstated and data for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in December 2024.
Maintained special schools
Data for maintained special schools is collected at aggregate school level and most of the data on absence by pupil characteristics is not available for pupils in these schools. Any data and figures below that include special schools will be noted as such. If there is no note on coverage, then the data will only include maintained middle and secondary schools.
Main points
- The percentage of half-day sessions missed by secondary school-aged pupils has nearly doubled to 12.0% between 2018/19 and 2023/24. It has slightly reduced from 12.5% in 2022/23
- Secondary school-aged pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) missed 20.1% of half-day sessions in 2023/24, while secondary school-aged pupils who are not eligible for Free School Meals missed 9.8% of half-day sessions. Both figures are nearly double the percentages of absences in 2018/19 but have slightly improved since 2022/23 when they were 20.6% and 10.2% of session missed respectively.
- The percentage of half-day sessions missed by year 11 pupils in 2023/24 was 14.7%, staying at over double the 6.8% of sessions in 2018/19. However, pupils in year 11 saw the largest fall in absence since 2022/23 of any secondary school year group, down 0.9 percentage points from 15.5% in 2022/23.
- For year 7 pupils, 8.9% of half-day sessions were missed in 2023/24, down from 9.4% of sessions in 2022/23
- The percentage of secondary school-aged pupils that were persistently absent (absent for 10% or more half day school sessions) has more than doubled to 37.1% between 2018/19 and 2023/24. However, this is down from 40.1% of pupils in 2022/23.
- 61.4% of secondary school-aged pupils eligible for FSM were persistently absent in 2023/24, this is down from 64.3% in 2022/23. In 2018/19, 35.5% of pupils eligible for FSM were persistently absent.
- 30.9% of secondary pupils not eligible for FSM were persistently absent, down from 33.9% in 2022/23. In 2018/19,13.4% of pupils not eligible for FSM were persistently absent.
- 45.2% of year 11 pupils were persistently absent in 2023/24, down from 49.0% in 2022/23. In 2018/19, 18.8% of year 11 pupils were persistently absent.
- 28.2% of year 7 pupils were persistently absent in 2023/24, down from 31.2% in 2022/23. In 2018/19 12.5% of year 7 pupils were persistently absent.
Overall absence
Figure 1: Percentage of half-day sessions absent from school of secondary school-age pupils, 2013/14 to 2023/24
Description of Figure 1: A line graph showing absence between 2013/14 and 2023/24. Absence is broken down into authorised and unauthorised absence. There was a sharp increase in overall absence doubling between 2018/19 and 2022/23 following the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023/24 whilst overall absence and authorised absences decreased, unauthorised absence rose (by 0.1 percentage points).
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle, secondary and special schools)
[Note 1] There is no data in this collection for the years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22. This is the grey area in the chart.
Absence by year group
Figure 2: Percentage of half-day sessions of absence by year group between 2018/19 and 2023/24
Description of Figure 2: A series of stacked bars showing a sharp increase in absence across all year groups following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in 2023/24 the absence rates across all year groups are lower compared with those in 2022/23. Year 11 pupils have the highest absence both in 2018/19 and 2023/24 and the largest increase between those two years.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24. (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
Absence by Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility
Pupils are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians receive certain means-tested benefits or support payments.
There have been recent significant changes in FSM provision in Wales as part of the rollout of Universal Free School Meals. For further detail, please read the section in the quality and methodology information.
Figure 3: Percentage of half-day sessions of absence by FSM eligibility between 2018/19 and 2022/23 (revised)
Description of Figure 3: Stacked bars showing a sharp increase in absence for pupils eligible and not eligible for FSM following the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall absence for both groups doubled between 2018/19 and 2022/23, however FSM eligible pupils have a significantly higher proportion of unauthorised absence. The absence rates for both groups have improved slightly in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
Figure 3 shows both pupils eligible and not eligible for FSM have seen their overall absence double between 2018/19 and 2023/24 and both groups have seen an increase in unauthorised absence as a proportion of their overall absence.
- Pupils not eligible for FSM were absent for 9.8% of all school sessions in 2023/24. This is down from 10.2% in 2022/23 but up from 5.3% in 2018/19. In 2023//24 32% of these absences were unauthorised.
- Pupils eligible for FSM were absent for 20.1% of all school sessions in 2023/24, down from 20.6% in 2022/23 but almost double the 10.5% of all sessions in 2018/19. In 2023/24 49% of these absences were unauthorised.
- Between 2013/14 and 2018/19 the attendance figures for all year groups were stable.
FSM eligibility and year group
The pattern between pupils eligible and ineligible for FSM is not the same across year groups.
Figure 4: Percentage point gap between the percentage of half day sessions of absence of pupils eligible and pupils not eligible for FSM by year group between 2018/19 and 2023/24
Description of Figure 4: A bar chart showing an increasing gap in absence between pupils eligible and not eligible for FSM as the year group increases. The pattern appears in 2018/19however it is more pronounced in 2022/23 and 2023/24. In 2023/24, the percentage point gap has reduced for pupils in years 10 and 11 compared with in 2022/23.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
The gap between pupils eligible and not eligible for FSM has nearly doubled across all year groups between 2018/19 and 2023/24. Between 2013/14 and 2018/19 the gap was consistently between 3.7 and 6.0 percentage points.
The difference between the gap for year 7 pupils and year 11 pupils has widened between 2018/19 and 2023/24, from 1.8 percentage points in 2018/19 to 3.9 percentage points in 2023/24.
Care should be taken when interpreting this information. It’s not necessarily the case that for a future group of pupils progressing through year groups that their FSM gap will widen to the degree above. It is possible that COVID-19 pandemic affected year groups differently.
Absence by further characteristics
Absence by sex
In 2023/24 female pupils missed an average of 12.5% of half-day sessions and male pupils missed an average of 11.5% of half-day sessions in middle, secondary and special schools. These figures have both decreased by 0.5% percentage points compared to 2022/23.
Absence by ethnic background
All ethnic groups have seen an increase in absence between 2018/19 and 2023/24.
In 2023/24 pupils who identify as Travelers have the highest rate of absence with 32.6% absence, down from 36.7% in 2022/23 and pupils who identify as Chinese or Chinese British the lowest rate of absence with 3.7% absence, up from 3.5% in 2022/23.
Absence by Special Educational Needs/Additional Learning Needs (SEN/ALN)
In 2023/24 17.2% of half-day sessions were missed by pupils with an SEN/ALN provision compared to 11.2% without an SEN/ALN provision. Both of these absence rates have reduced slightly since 2022/23 (0.3% points).
Absence by reason
Illness was the most common reason for absence accounting for 42.1% of all absences in 2023/24, compared with 45% in 2022/23 and 54% in 2018/19.
Persistent absence
Not all pupils are required to be in school for the same number of sessions. School closures, moving school, inset days, etc. are all instances where a pupil might not be required to attend school, while other pupils might still be required to attend.
Historically, persistent absence was defined as being absent for 20% or more of the most common number of required sessions. So, if most pupils are required to be in school for 300 half-day session in the year, the threshold for persistent absence is 60 sessions. These sessions need not be continuous for a pupil to be considered persistently absent.
The Welsh Government has now changed the official threshold for persistent absence to 10% of the most common number of required sessions.
The threshold for persistent absence for secondary school-age pupils in 2023/24 is 31 sessions.
Figure 5: Percentage of secondary school-age pupils persistently absent, 2013/14 to 2023/24
Description of Figure 5: A line graph showing percentage of persistently absent secondary school age pupils stayed between 19.0% and 15.9% between 2013/14 and 2018/19. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent absence has more than doubled between 2018/19 and 2023/24 and the percentage is now 37.1%, down from 40.1% in 2022/23.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
[Note 1] There is no data in this collection for the years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22. This is the grey area in the chart.
Persistent absence by year group
Figure 6: Percentage of pupils persistently absent by year group, 2018/19 and 2023/24
Description of Figure 6: A bar chart showing the percentage of persistently absent pupils by year group between 2018/19 and 2023/24 has approximately doubled in most cases. For years 7,8 and 11, the percentage has more than doubled. However, there was a fall in the percentage of pupils who were persistently absent in all year groups when compared to 2022/23.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
Between 2013/14 and 2018/19 the range of difference in persistent absence between year groups was no greater than 9.7 percentage points. The range was 17.0 percentage points in 2023/24, though that is lower than 17.8 percentage points in 2022/23.
Year 11 pupils have the highest rates of persistent absence, with 45.2% of pupils persistently absent during 2023/24, down from 49% in 2022/23. Year 7 has the lowest rate of persistent absence during 2023/24, with 28.2% percent of pupils persistently absent, down from 31.2% in 2022/23.
Persistent absence by FSM eligibility
In 2023/24 the percentage of persistently absent pupils eligible for FSM is 61.4% compared with 35.5% in 2018/19 but down from a high of 64.3% in 2022/23. In 2023/24 the gap between the persistent absence of pupils eligible for FSM and not eligible for FSM is 30.5 percentage points the same as in 2022/23.
Figure 7: Percentage of pupils persistently absent by FSM, 2018/19 and 2023/24
Description of Figure 7: A bar chart showing that percentage of persistent absence has almost doubled for pupils eligible for FSM and more than doubled for not eligible pupils between 2018/19 and 2023/24. However, percentage absence is down compared to 2022/23.
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24 (includes maintained middle and secondary schools)
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportionate increase of persistent absence of pupils not eligible for FSM is higher than the equivalent for eligible pupils. However, the percentage of persistently absent pupils eligible for FSM is 2 times higher than the equivalent for pupils not eligible for FSM.
Persistent absence by further characteristics
Persistent absence by sex
An increase in persistent absence has been seen in pupils of both sexes since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the percentage of pupils that were persistently absent has risen from 17.0% to 38.6% of female secondary school-aged pupils and from 17.2% to 35.6% of male secondary school-aged pupils. Compared with 2022/23 these figures are down from 41.6% of female pupils and 38.8% of male pupils.
Persistent absence by ethnic background
An increase in persistent absence has been seen in pupils of all ethnic backgrounds since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023/24 the ethnic background with the lowest percentage of persistent absence was Chinese or Chinese British (at 7.2%), down from 7.7% in 2022/23. The ethnic backgrounds with highest percentage of persistent absence were Roma (at 90.9%, up from 86.7% in 2022/23) and Traveler (at 82.1%, down from 87.8% in 2022/23).
Persistent absence by Special Educational Needs/Additional Learning Needs (SEN/ALN)
In 2023/24 the percentage of all SEN/ALN pupils that were persistently absent is 49.0% down from 51.6% in 2022/23.
Quality and methodology information
Definitions
Local authority maintained schools
Schools maintained by the local authorities. The authorities meet their expenditure partly from council tax and partly from general grants made by the Welsh Government.
Middle schools
Ages 3/4 to 16/18.
Secondary schools
Ages 11 to 16/18.
Special schools
Special schools, both day and boarding, provide education for children with ALN or SEN who cannot be educated satisfactorily in mainstream schools.
Additional learning needs (ALN) and special educational needs (SEN)
A person has ALN/SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise) which calls for additional learning provision or special educational provision. Learners with ALN will have their needs identified in individual development plans (IDPs) which are statutory plans created under the ALN Act. Learners with SEN may have School Action, School Action Plus or a Statement, which will cease in August 2025 when the implementation of the ALN system is complete.
Changes to special educational needs data following the implementation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018
The Additional Learning Needs Code for Wales 2021 (the ALN Code) and regulations came into force on 1 September 2021 to ensure children and young people aged 0 to 25 can access the provision to meet their needs.
Implementation of the ALN system is ongoing, with children moving from the SEN system to the ALN system until August 2025. Learners with ALN will have their needs identified in IDPs maintained by either a school or a local authority.
Analysis of the data, along with feedback from local authorities suggest that the fall in ALN/SEN learners over the last three years is due to a systematic review by schools of their ALN/SEN identification and data, both in readiness for and during implementation of the ALN system. Learners supported through School Action and School Action Plus (those requiring the least amount of special educational provision) may no longer be identified as ALN/SEN in PLASC. This is either because their needs are short term, do not require provision additional to, or different from, that which is provided for other learners, that can be addressed as part of holistic provision.
Additionally, schools were asked to stop using the ‘General learning difficulties’ category and to reassess an appropriate category of need for such pupils. This category had become a catch-all for those requiring catch up support, with minor needs and/or where multiple needs existed, instead of its original intent, which was to capture learners awaiting assessment. This has also led to some pupils no longer being identified as ALN/SEN in PLASC. The ‘General learning difficulties’ category was removed from the 2023 and 2024 schools’ censuses.
Welsh Government will continue to monitor the numbers throughout implementation of the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act and work with our partners to ensure the data presents an accurate reflection of the numbers and categories of learners with ALN in Wales.
Individual Development Plans
Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.
Pupils with statements
Pupils for whom the authority maintains a statement of special educational needs under Part iv of the Education Act 1996. A statement may be issued by the local authority after assessment of a child’s needs.
School Action
When a class or subject teacher identify that a pupil has special educational needs they provide interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum.
School Action Plus
When the class or subject teacher and the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator are provided with advice or support from outside specialists, so that alternative interventions additional or different to those provided for the pupil through 'School Action' can be put in place. The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator usually takes the lead although day-to-day provision continues to be the responsibility of class or subject teacher.
Free school meals
Pupils are eligible for free school meals if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments.
Transitional protection for free school meals
On 1 April 2019 the Welsh Government introduced a new transitional protection for free school meals policy. This was brought in to ensure that pupils have their free school meals protected during the Universal Credit rollout period.
This protection applies to individual pupils and will continue until the end of their current school phase, being the end of primary school or end of secondary school.
Any pupil that was eligible for free school meals on the introduction of the policy on 1 April 2019 should also be transitionally protected. In addition, any pupil that has become eligible at any point during the Universal Credit rollout under the new eligibility criteria should also be transitionally protected.
The FSM analysis in this release only includes pupils who are eligible through the means tested criteria. Those eligible through TP or UPFSM are not included.
Types of absence
All (or ‘overall’) absences comprise those which are authorised and unauthorised:
- An authorised absence is an absence with permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes instances of absence for which a satisfactory explanation has been provided (e.g. illness, family bereavement or religious observance).
- An unauthorised absence is an absence without permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences.
Note that pupils undertaking approved and supervised educational activities conducted away from the school (e.g. work experience or educational visits) are deemed to be present at the school.
See Table 15: Register Codes for a fuller description of attendance codes and their definitions.
Sources of official data on attendance at maintained schools in Wales
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic we collected and published attendance data annually. This annual data set was collected in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority) and is designated as National Statistics. Absenteeism from secondary schools was usually published in August, absenteeism from primary schools in December and an additional bulletin on absenteeism from schools by pupil characteristics followed in February.
The data collections underpinning these outputs were suspended at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. There is no data from these collections for the 2019/20, 2020/21 or 2021/22 school years. This release presents the results from the recommencement of these annual collections from secondary schools from the 2023/24 school year onwards.
To inform our policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic we started collecting daily management information on attendance in schools from September 2020 onwards. This data is extracted directly from school management information systems and is not validated or verified in any way with the schools and data is not always available for every school on every day. It is not National Statistics and is of lower quality than the annual data presented in this release. However, it is useful in looking at overall levels of absence and trends at the Wales level and looking at patterns between pupils with different characteristics e.g., free school meals. Attendance at maintained schools has been published weekly since September 2020.
Main differences in data collected on school attendance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
In October 2022 we published a summary release on attendance before and during the pandemic. This looked at the key differences between the annual and weekly data collections and detailed information on those differences can be found in that release.
Attendance data for the 2023/24 school year
This release contains fully quality assured attendance data to Accredited Official Statistics standards for secondary schools for the 2023/24 school year.
We have also published a weekly release of the management information during the 2023/24 school year leading to an overlap in the time period covered by the two collections. Our advice is that users should use the data in this release as far as possible and only refer to the data in the weekly release if the information needed cannot be found or produced from this annual data set.
| Year Group | Annual data | Weekly management information [Note 1] | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 91.1 | 90.9 | 0.2 |
| 8 | 88.7 | 88.3 | 0.4 |
| 9 | 87.6 | 87.2 | 0.4 |
| 10 | 87.3 | 86.9 | 0.4 |
| 11 | 85.3 | 84.6 | 0.7 |
Source: Attendance Data Collection: Secondary 2023/24, Attendance Data - Management Information
[Note 1] This data is from the 06 June 2024 release as it covers the closest timeframe to the data presented here.
The table shows overall attendance for secondary schools by year group from September 2023 to May 2024. It shows that both the annual and weekly collections produce consistent results with the greatest difference for year 11 pupils at 0.7 percentage points.
The above table confirms that at the Wales level both collections for 2023/24 are producing reasonably consistent results. However, it is likely that due to the way the weekly data are collected and the lack of validation that there would be greater and more significant differences at below the Wales level.
Official statistics status
All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority).
These are accredited official statistics. They were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in July 2010. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.
Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
All our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.
These accredited official statistics (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.
Trustworthiness
The data in this release relates to attendance of pupils of compulsory school age (ages 11 to 15) in maintained middle, secondary and special schools. The data are recorded throughout the year in the school’s management information system following statutory guidance for recoding attendance and absence. The data is derived from the statutory returns provided by local authorities. The data being recorded throughout the year in school’s management information system following statutory guidance for recoding attendance and absence. The returns are authorised and validated by local authorities.
The data collection and validation were carried out between May and September. This year, the data has been published in October. Previously, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the data was published in August.
All personal data underlying these statistics are processed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
These statistics are pre-announced on the Statistics and Research area of the Welsh Government website. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).
Quality
The published figures provided are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset. Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistical Authority) and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.
We work closely with local authorities to ensure all data is validated before tables are published. Data is collated by local authorities into an electronic return and submitted to the Welsh Government through DEWi, a secure online data transfer system developed by the Welsh Government. Various stages of automated validation and sense-checking are built into the process to ensure a high quality of data.
All stages in the collection, validation and production of these statistics are led by statisticians from the Government Statistical Group.
The data in this release relate to the 2023/24 school year beginning Friday 1 September 2024 and finishing at the late May bank holiday. It does not cover the entire school year, because of the effect on attendance at public exams which occur in May and June.
DEWi was available for uploading files on 30 May 2024. Local authorities were then asked to validate their data within a specified validation period.
Value
These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:
- advice to ministers
- to inform the education policy decision-making process in Wales
- to inform Estyn during school inspections
- the education domain of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
- to assist in research in educational attainment
This release is accompanied by an Open Document Spreadsheet which can be shared and reused widely and which complies with the Government Analysis Function guidance on Releasing statistics in spreadsheets. It is also accompanied by detailed tables on StatsWales, a free to use service that allows visitors to view, manipulate, create and download data.
Data are clearly presented in each table, with the spreadsheet also including a cover sheet listing each table. The commentary and notes in the release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to the widest range of users. Furthermore, all our school statistics outputs are published in Welsh and English.
Comparability
England
Statistics: pupil absence (Department for Education)
Scotland
Weekly school attendance (Scottish Government)
Northern Ireland
Education statistics (Department of Education, Northern Ireland)
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier, and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the Well-being goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. The 46 national indicators were laid in March 2016.
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.
