More than one in four pupils were persistently absent from lessons during the spring and summer terms last year, new Department for Education figures reveal.
The figures have been published today in new analysis based on school census data for the 2021-22 academic year.
The proportion of pupils who were persistently absent - missing 10 per cent or more of their sessions - across the year was 22.5 per cent.
Looking at persistent absence over specific terms, the figures were even higher. The persistent absence rates were 23.5 per cent in the autumn, 27.2 per cent in the spring and 26.4 per cent in the summer.
And data for disadvantaged pupils shows that well over a third (37.2 per cent) of pupils who were eligible for free school meals were persistently absent across 2021-22, compared with 17.5 per cent of pupils who were not eligible.
In general, persistent absence in the last academic year was much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The persistent absence rate decreased from 11.2 per cent in 2017-18 to 10.9 per cent in 2018-19, the last full academic year before Covid.
The impact of Covid on persistent pupil absence
Persistent absence figures include pupils who were off school due to illness, counting positive tests for Covid.
Across the academic year 2021-22 the overall absence rate - the percentage of sessions missed - was 7.6 per cent.
This compares with a pre-pandemic figure of 4.7 per cent in 2018-19
Across terms in 2021-22, overall absence rates were 6.7 per cent in the autumn, 7.9 per cent in the spring and 8 per cent in the summer.
The DfE analysis says that illness was the major driver of overall absence, at 4.4 per cent across the academic year. The rise in absence in the summer term was driven by an increase in students not attending classes in secondary schools, while primary and special school absence rates decreased from spring to summer.
Commenting on the increases since before the pandemic, Russell Hobby, chief executive of Teach First, said: ”It is deeply worrying to see a rise in pupil absences compared to the last academic year before the lockdown.
“Alongside ongoing sickness, the pandemic contributed to this - triggering a disengagement with school for some and increased mental health concerns. Pupils from the poorest backgrounds have the least resources to deal with these challenges.
“Schools and teachers cannot tackle this alone. As a start, the government should prioritise school funding towards the most disadvantaged communities, to help these schools implement targeted support to the pupils most in need.”
Changes in the way Covid absence recorded
The 2021-22 academic year included a transition away from schools recording Covid absence separately.
In both 2020-21 and 2021-22, data was collected on the number of sessions which pupils did not attend “in circumstances related to coronavirus”.
Initially, this included where pupils were self-isolating and shielding, including when a class or bubble was required to stay at home.
For these sessions, pupils were expected not to attend or were prohibited from going to school, and were therefore treated separately and not counted within the standard absence rates.
The DfE analysis says that in 2021-22 this category should mostly have been used to record where a pupil was absent from school with symptoms of Covid while awaiting the results of a test.
From April 2022, schools were no longer advised to record pupils who did not attend for reasons related to Covid using a separate attendance code (Code X). Instead these absences were normally recorded as illness.
When combining Covid and other absence, there was a rate of 8.5 per cent absence across 2021-22.
This compares with 25.9 per cent in 2020-21, when national restrictions and partial school closures had a large impact on attendance.
In the spring of 2021, this combined rate was 60.8 per cent, as a result of the second national lockdown in which schools only provided in-person learning for children of critical workers and vulnerable pupils.
