Post-pandemic pupil absences have remained stubbornly high

  • Having been stable for many years, pupil absence shot up during the 2021-2022 academic year by over 60% in secondary schools and more than 70% in primary schools to reach a total of nearly 190 million missed school sessions, up from about 110 million in previous years. Initial signs are that these historically high levels of absence have also been maintained into the current school year.
  • This has primarily been due to increases in authorised illness absences and unauthorised absences for unknown reasons, though authorised study leave and exclusions also rose, at least among secondary schools.
  • The increase in absences due to illness happened in every part of England and across all types of school, but tended to be lower in London and at schools with greater proportions of poor and ethnic-minority pupils, especially among secondary schools. They were also lower at schools with better Ofsted ratings.
  • At the same time, cases of 'persistent' and 'severe' absenteeism rose, with the former increasing roughly twofold among all schools to nearly a quarter of pupils and the latter doubling among secondary schools to just under 3% (corresponding to almost 90,000 pupils), though it declined among primary schools.
  • These rises in absenteeism were also seen in every region and type of school, but once again schools in London and those with larger ethnic-minority populations or better Ofsted ratings tended to show smaller increases. In contrast to the trends seen for absences due to illness, persistent absenteeism increased by more in poorer schools and local areas.
  • How long these effects will persist remains to be seen, but it is already clear that some of them are exacerbating historial disparities such as those between schools in London and the rest of England, or between schools with different Ofsted ratings. Policies and interventions intended to address absenteeism and its consequences need to take this into account.
Figure 1: Pupil absence at mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England
Notes: The small number of all-through schools have been classified as secondary. An 'unknown' designation means that a reason was expected to be received, but was not available at the time of recording.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash Insights; SchoolDash analysis.
Figure 2: Weekly pupil absence at mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England (2022-2023)
Notes: An 'unknown' designation means that a reason was expected to be received, but was not available at the time of recording.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash analysis.
Figure 3: Pupil absence at mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England
Notes: The small number of all-through schools have been classified as secondary. An 'unknown' designation means that a reason was expected to be received, but was not available at the time of recording.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash Insights; SchoolDash analysis.
Figure 4: Weekly pupil absence at mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England (2022-2023)
Notes: The 'no reason' categories for both authorised and unauthorised absences have been omitted because they could not be readily calculated from the weekly data. This does not materially affect the results. An 'unknown' designation means that a reason was expected to be received, but was not available at the time of recording.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash analysis.

(Use the menus to switch between different phases ad school groupings. Click on the figure legend to turn individual years on or off. Hover over the graph to see corresponding values.)

Figure 5: Authorised illness absences by school type
Notes: Includes only mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England. The small number of all-through schools have been classified as secondary. For mostly obvious reasons, there are no prior attainment, Key Stage 4 attainment, grammar school or sixth-form data for primary schools.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash Insights; SchoolDash analysis.
Figure 6: Persistent pupil absenteeism by school type
Notes: Includes only mainstream state primary and secondary schools in England. The small number of all-through schools have been classified as secondary. An 'unknown' designation means that a reason was expected to be received, but was not available at the time of recording.
Sources: Department for Education; SchoolDash Insights; SchoolDash analysis.
  1. One might expect absences to be higher in the winter due to seasonal infectious diseases such as colds, influenza and COVID-19. On the other hand, there are also well-established trends in which absences tend to rise through the school year, starting low at the beginning of the autumn term, when parents and pupils tend to be diligent and enthused, and ending high in the summer term, when, to put it politely, this is less true. It's not self-evident how these competing effects balance out in any given year, especially during the kind of highly unusual period that we are currently experiencing.
 

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