Absence rates for the autumn term have improved slightly compared with last year, according to the latest data, but headteachers’ leaders have warned that there is still “a long way to go” to solve attendance issues.
The absence rate for the 2024-25 autumn term was 6.5 per cent, down from 6.8 per cent in the same term last year, according to Department for Education attendance statistics published today.
The overall absence rate for the autumn term in the 2022-23 academic year was 7.8 per cent.
However, weekly DfE attendance data shows that in the final school week of the calendar year attendance reached its lowest point in the 2024-25 autumn term.
Pupil absence falls
The absence rate for the week beginning 16 December was 9.5 per cent - up from 7.8 per cent a week earlier. And the unauthorised absence rate for this week was 3.4 per cent compared with 2.3 per cent a week earlier.
The overall fall in absence last term compared with the same term in 2023-24 comes after a change in attendance codes, which sector leaders have warned could risk making data on absence unreliable.
Bigger absence fines for parents have also been introduced this academic year, although experts have argued that “punitive fines” are not the answer to the attendance crisis.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said he was encouraged by the slight drop in absence but acknowledged that there was still more to do.
“There is still a long way to go, and schools are continuing to work incredibly hard to increase attendance, including by tackling unauthorised absence,” he said.
Unauthorised absence decreased by 0.1 percentage point last term, from 2.2 in the autumn term of 2023 to 2.1 per cent in 2024.
While the unauthorised absence rate for secondary dropped (from 3.1 per cent to 2.9 per cent), the primary rate remained the same at 1.4 per cent.
In special schools unauthorised absence increased slightly over these same time periods, up from 3.0 per cent last year to 3.2 per cent this year.
Experts have previously told Tes that the change in attendance codes could impact the alternative provision and specialist sector in particular, warning that there may be “very legitimate reasons” for pupils being late after the registers close.
Mr Whiteman said he welcomed new measures to tackle absence in the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament this week.
However, he added that the government still needs to reinvest in “crucial services which support families and schools”.
”Fresh investment in services like social care, mental health and special education needs, and roles like education welfare officers, allied with tangible action to address the causes of poverty, would help to make a real difference to children’s attendance at school,” Mr Whiteman said.
Darren Northcott, the NASUWT’s national official for education, said the union’s members were saying that attendance “remains a serious issue”.
“The evidence confirms that tackling the problem requires a nationally coordinated plan that will deliver the extra resources schools need, as well as better support for children, young people and families,” he added.
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