School attendance: The green shoots of recovery?

Data published by the Department for Education today (Friday 8 August 2025) suggests schools in England are starting to see the green shoots of recovery with regards pupil attendance.

Absence rates spiked after the Covid-19 lockdowns during which most learners were schooled at home, and rates have remained stubbornly high since, especially at secondary school. Rates of persistent absence (when a learner’s overall absence equates to 10% or more of possible sessions) more than doubled after the pandemic and they too have barely shifted since.

What’s more, the “attendance gap” – the difference in absence rates between disadvantaged learners and their non-disadvantaged peers – which has long been a problem, was stretched during the pandemic, with learners from disadvantaged backgrounds significantly more likely to be both absent and persistently absent than their peers. In fact, since Covid, disadvantaged learners have been, on average, more than twice as likely as their non-disadvantaged peers to be persistently absent.

But now, say the DfE, “children across England are returning to school in record numbers, with over 5 million more days in classrooms this year – signalling the biggest year-on-year improvement in attendance for a decade”.

The latest figures do indeed show that more than 140,000 fewer pupils were persistently absent compared to last year.

The government says that this improvement means teachers have saved over 10,000 days that would have been spent helping absent pupils catch up, freeing them to focus on delivering excellent education to whole classes.

But, whilst there is much to celebrate in this data, there remain some stubborn attendance issues to tackle…

What does the data tell us?

The headlines

Overall and persistent absence rates decreased compared to the previous autumn term, while severe absence rate increased. Here are the stats:

6.38% of possible sessions were recorded as absence in autumn term 2024/25, a decrease from 6.69% in autumn 2023/24, but higher than pre-pandemic rates which were consistently below 5%.
The majority of absence was due to illness, which accounted for 3.31% of possible sessions. The level of illness absence also reduced compared to autumn term 2023/24 but remained higher than the pre-pandemic levels.
17.79% of pupils were persistently absent in autumn 2024/25 (i.e. missed 10% or more sessions). This is a decrease from 19.44% in autumn 2023/24.
2.04% of pupils were severely absent in autumn 2024/25 (i.e. missed 50% or more sessions). This is an increase from 1.97% in autumn 2024/25.

A deeper dive into the data

Overall absence decreased compared to the previous autumn term

The overall absence rate fell to 6.38% in autumn term 2024/25, down from 6.69% in the previous autumn term, though still above pre-pandemic levels of under 5%. Authorised and unauthorised absence declined by 0.16 and 0.14 percentage points, respectively.

Overall absence decreased across all school types

Between autumn term 2023/24 and autumn term 2024/25, overall absence:

decreased in primary schools from 5.25% to 5.07%
decreased in secondary schools from 8.15% to 7.66%
decreased in special schools from 12.71% to 12.55%

Both authorised and unauthorised absence decreased in primary and secondary schools compared to the previous autumn. In special schools authorised absence decreased, while unauthorised absence increased slightly.

The rate of persistent absence decreased compared to the previous autumn term

The number of pupils persistently absent decreased from 1.41 million (19.44%) in autumn term 2023/24 to 1.28 million (17.79%) in autumn term 2024/25. This remains above the pre-pandemic rate of 10.94% in autumn term 2018/19.

Illness is a major component of persistent absence with 6.88% of all pupils being persistently absent due to illness alone.

Between autumn 2023/24 and autumn 2024/25 the rate of persistent absence decreased:

in primary schools, from 15.41% to 14.29%
in secondary schools, from 23.44% to 21.09%
in special schools, from 36.19% to 34.90%

However...

The rate of severe absence increased

The number of pupils severely absent increased from 142,000 (1.97%) in autumn term 2023/24 to 148,000 (2.04%) in autumn term 2024/25.

The rate of pupils with severe absence increased:

in primary schools, from 0.81% to 0.89%
in secondary schools, from 3.14% to 3.19%
in special schools, from 6.15% to 6.32%

And geographical differences remain…

In autumn term 2024/25, overall and persistent absence rates decreased across all regions, while severe absence rates increased compared to the previous autumn.

London had the lowest overall, persistent, and severe absence rates at 5.80%, 16.58% and 1.49%, respectively.

The North East had the highest overall (6.86%) and persistent absence (19.58%) rates and Yorkshire and The Humber had the highest severe absence rate at 2.39%.

Pupil characteristics continue to impact attendance, too…

Disadvantaged and SEND learners continued to have lower attendance.

For context, in autumn term 2024/25:

the overall absence rate was 6.38%
the persistent absence rate was 17.79%
the severe absence rate was 2.04%

Free school meals:

Overall and persistent absence rates decreased for both FSM eligible and FSM not eligible pupils in autumn term 2024/25, compared to the previous autumn term.

BUT… the rate of overall absence for FSM eligible pupils continued to be almost twice that of pupils not eligible and FSM eligible pupils were more than twice as likely to be a persistent absentee than pupils not eligible for FSM.

Severe absence also decreased slightly for FSM eligible pupils but increased slightly for pupils not eligible for FSM.

BUT… Pupils eligible for FSM remain over three and half times more likely to be severe absentees than those not eligible for FSM.

SEND:

Compared to the previous autumn term, overall absence for pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan increased in autumn term 2024/25, while overall absence rates for pupil with SEN support and pupils with no identified SEN decreased.

The gap has continued to increase between pupils with SEN and those with no identified SEN, looking at autumn terms, with the overall absence rate for all pupils with SEN just under twice that of pupils with no identified SEN.

Persistent absence rates decreased across all pupil groups compared to the previous autumn term, but the gap between pupils with SEN and those with no identified SEN continued to increase.

Severe absence increased for pupils with EHC plans and SEN support, compared to a slight decrease for pupils with no identified SEN. The gap between SEN and no SEN continued to widen, with SEN pupils over four and a half times more likely to be a severe absentee than pupils with no identified SEN.

Ethnicity:

In autumn term 2024/25, Irish Traveller and Gypsy/Roma pupils had the highest overall absence rates at 20.45% and 16.47%, while Chinese and Black African pupils had the lowest at 2.64% and 3.48%. Irish Traveller and Gypsy/Roma pupils also had the highest persistent and severe absence rates, continuing trends seen in previous years.

Compared to the previous autumn term, overall and persistent absence rates fell across all ethnicities except Caribbean, which saw a slight increase. Severe absence rates rose across most ethnicities, except Chinese (which decreased) and Irish Traveller (which remained unchanged).

What does this tell us?

What we’re doing to improve overall attendance is working. But it’s not yet working well enough for disadvantaged learners and those with SEND. These attendance gaps are stubborn and growing.

What can we do about it?

We need to understand the root causes of absence for those with additional risk factors – and it’s complicated and intersectional! But fundamentally, it’s about fostering a sense of inclusion and belonging for these learners who, at present, do not feel that they have a place in school. We need them to feel seen and heard, valued and respected, and we need to overcome the barriers they face to accessing school life.

We can help…

Why not sign up for our courses: we provide training on improving the attendance of disadvantaged learners and improving the attendance of SEND learners.