Responding to new indicative figures which show that pupil absence stood at 6.9% during the 2024/25 school year - down from 7.2% last year, but still significantly higher than pre-pandemic rates, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said:

“Overall, these figures are another small step in the right direction. It is clear however that there is still a long way to go to improve pupil attendance and that significant barriers remain for some children who missed a majority of their school sessions during the autumn term.

“Schools work tirelessly to ensure children are in the classroom, but they alone are not equipped to address all the deep-seated reasons for absence which can range from routine sickness to mental ill-health and social challenges facing children and families, including poverty.

“Fining parents is a crude tool which does not address many of the root causes – what is needed is better support for families and schools. Plans including the roll-out of free breakfast clubs and a register of children not in school, will help.

“But we also need fresh investment in services like mental health support and social care which did not get the funding they needed under the previous government, when important roles like education welfare officers who worked directly with families to improve attendance ended up being cut.”

Separate, updated figures for the 2024/25 autumn term were also published this morning, showing that 6.38% of possible sessions were recorded as absence - a decrease from 6.69 percent in autumn 2023/24. However, those figures did show an increase in pupils who were ‘severely absent’, meaning they missed 50% or more of sessions. The number of pupils who were severely absent increased from 142,000 (1.97%) in autumn term 2023/24 to 148,000 (2.04%) in autumn term 2024/25. A breakdown of severe absence is not included in the indicative full-year figures.