The Department for Education’s recent report, Year-on-Year Change in Pupil Attendance (May 2025), offers valuable insights into pupil attendance patterns across England’s state-funded mainstream schools between the 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years. By examining how students transition between different absence levels, the report highlights critical periods where interventions can be most effective.
Key Findings
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Consistent Attendance Among Low-Absence Pupils: Students with minimal absences (0–5%) in 2021/22 were highly likely to maintain strong attendance in 2022/23, with 93% to 96% remaining below the 10% absence threshold, depending on their year group.
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Declining Attendance in Older Students: The likelihood of maintaining low absence rates decreased with age. For instance, while 86% of Year 1 pupils with 5–10% absence in 2021/22 improved to below 10% absence in 2022/23, only 75% of Year 7 pupils achieved the same.
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Persistent Absence Among High-Absence Pupils: Over 80% of secondary school students who had more than 15% absence in 2021/22 continued to be persistently (over 10% absence) or severely (over 50% absence) absent in 2022/23. In primary schools, more than 60% of pupils with over 15% absence remained in these high-absence categories the following year.
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Critical Transition from Primary to Secondary: The shift from Year 6 to Year 7 emerged as a pivotal period. Over 70% of Year 6 pupils with more than 15% absence in 2021/22 remained persistently or severely absent in Year 7 during 2022/23.
Implications for Policy and Practice
These findings underscore the importance of early and targeted interventions, especially during key transitional phases like the move from primary to secondary education. Identifying and supporting students with moderate absence rates (10–15%) could prevent escalation to more severe absenteeism.
Moreover, the data suggests that once students fall into higher absence brackets, reversing this trend becomes increasingly challenging. Therefore, proactive measures, including parental engagement, mental health support, and tailored attendance strategies, are crucial to address and mitigate persistent absenteeism.
For a more detailed exploration of the data and methodologies employed, you can access the full report here: Year-on-Year Change in Pupil Attendance.
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Sources:
1. Year-on-year change in pupil attendance – GOV.UK
2. Fixing public services: Schools | Institute for Government
3. How does absence change as pupils get older? – FFT Education Datalab
4. New DfE secondary attendance data to review at your next meeting
