Pupil absence in schools in England, Autumn term 2022/23

This release looks at pupil absence in Autumn term 2022/23, including by reason and school types, derived from the school census.

Experimental official statistics produced from daily data submitted automatically by schools to the Department are available in the Pupil attendance in schools publication. Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, the figures are estimates that we expect to change as registers are adjusted. They should be viewed as an early indicator for the data provided in later national statistics releases.

During the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, data is given on both pupil absences and where a pupil was recorded as not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus (Code X). Where a pupil was not attending in these circumstances, schools were expected to provide immediate access to remote education. From April 2022, schools were advised to no longer use this category and as such no figures are presented in this publication for this category for Autumn 2022/23. Throughout the pandemic, schools were advised to record pupils with a confirmed case of COVID-19 as absent due to illness (Code I).

School level data was collected via the Department’s education settings survey on pupil attendance throughout the pandemic. However, this release is derived from the pupil level school census from which further analysis, such as persistent absence, can be produced. The categories of absence in this release match those used on school registers and differ to those used in the education settings survey.

Previous publications relating to the Autumn term are available in the Pupil absence in schools in England: Autumn term publication. From Autumn term 2022/23, pupil absence releases will be available in this single release using the ‘Releases in this series’ option in the right hand pane.