- National school attendance charity School-Home Support introduced School Attendance Gap Day on 4 February 2025 – signalling the final school day of the year for ‘severely absent’ pupils who are losing at least 50% of their learning.
- Latest data on pupil absence shows an increase in severe absence, with 171,000 children in England having their last day of school on 4 February.
- In the 5 years since schools closed their doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, severe absence has increased by 184%.
- The data shows a slight improvement in persistent absence, with 1.49 million (20%) persistently absent pupils in 2023/2024 – down from 21.2% / 1.57 million in 2022/2023.
- Severe absence has worsened, with 171,000 (2.3%) severely absent pupils in 2023/2024 – up from 150,256 (2%) in 2022/2023.
- New Government Research confirms the crucial link between attendance, educational attainment and lifetime earnings.
- School-Home Support is calling for a Lords’ amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for a ‘family support worker for every school’ to strengthen relationships with parents and prevent young people becoming ‘ severely absent’.
The latest data on pupil absence for the academic year 2023/2024, released today by the Department of Education, reveals an increase in severe absence across schools in England. By the Government’s definition, ‘severely absent’ children miss at least 50% of school. They are losing at least half of their learning and are out of school as often as they are in. The number of children missing this much of school is 184% higher than pre-pandemic (2018/2019). This means that collectively we are still failing huge numbers of children, and the problem of school absence is getting worse rather than better.
4 February 2025 marked the final school day for 171,000 pupils in England
4 February 2025 marked School Attendance Gap Day, the halfway point in the school year which signaled the final day of school for pupils who are ‘severely absent’. Introduced by national school attendance charity School-Home Support, School Attendance Gap Day is a new campaign and awareness day to raise public awareness about the worryingly low levels of school attendance and promote positive collaboration to build the inclusive education system that is needed to tackle absence. By marking this day each year, we will measure our collective progress in tackling absenteeism.
Today’s data reveals that a record 171,000 children had their final school day on 4 February.
School absence worsening educational inequality
The scale of ‘lost learning’ to school absence is alarming, particularly for children already experiencing barriers to opportunity such as poverty, unmet special educational needs or structural racism. Recent research from the Department for Education has substantiated the positive link between attending school and a pupil’s educational attainment and their future lifetime earnings, and the role of missing school in worsening educational inequality. Contributing to the evidence base, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) report into school absences show that unauthorised school absences are the leading driver of the widening educational attainment gap. The time is now to go further and faster with targeted attendance support if we are to tackle the scale of the crisis we face and break down barriers to opportunity for a whole generation of children.
Jaine Stannard, School-Home Support CEO said:
‘Government is right to prioritise the attendance issue – the problem of ’severe absence’ is still getting worse. We have a record number of children losing half of their learning which equates to the school year ending on 4 February. Every day of lost learning is a day too many. We must do more to support families of children struggling with attendance before they become severely absent.
Low attendance in schools has been at critical levels for too long. We need a whole family support worker for every school to help strengthen relationships between home and school and tackle absence head on.’