Guidance

Monitor your school attendance: user guide

Updated 9 September 2025

Applies to England

Overview

The monitor your school attendance tool can help you:

• identify trends
• identify pupils who may need support
• save time building attendance reports
• if you are a school, compare attendance within the local authority and nationally

You can use the data to discuss your school’s, trust’s or local authority’s current strategies to attendance. You can review their effectiveness and whether you need an alternative approach, in line with the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Use Department for Education (DfE) published statistics to compare your attendance with data on local authority, regional and national attendance levels via the pupil attendance and absence in England dashboard.

Getting access to the tool

You will first need to request access to ‘VYED – Monitor your school attendance’ using your DfE Sign-in account. If you need help, review the guidance on getting access to the tool.

Where the data comes from

Monitor your school attendance contains data from schools sharing daily attendance data with DfE.

All data comes from school management information systems (MIS) twice daily, in the morning and afternoon. Data in the tool will change when those systems are updated.

How we calculate your results

We include all possible attendance sessions in the academic year-to-date. This is from each pupil’s admission date to the latest-available possible attendance session.

If a pupil has left your school, we include their attendance rates in your results up to and including their leaving date.

Data in the tool may be different from data in your MIS, official statistics and other attendance data tools. Other reports may cover a term, an entire academic year or the academic year-to-date. This may cause particularly large differences in the number of persistently absent pupils.

Use our data definitions to understand the terms we use and how we calculate your results in school attendance reports.

Comparing data with DfE’s published statistics

Pupil attendance in schools presents figures from the daily attendance data at a national, regional and local authority level.

Data is released on Explore Education Statistics every 2 weeks. To allow for any retrospective changes to the data from schools, statistics are published with a 2-week lag.

Use DfE’s statistics methodology to understand why data may be different to your school attendance reports.

Data you can access and use

When you access the tool, you will have the option to view, compare or download attendance data, depending on your organisation type.

Schools and single academy trusts can access and use:

• the view school attendance data dashboard, which gives you data and insight into your school, pupil groups and individual pupils
• compare your school attendance tables to compare attendance with other schools in your local authority and see your school’s position for attendance nationally
• attendance summary reports which are Word documents of year-to-date school attendance (new reports are added at the end of each half and full term)
• similar schools’ comparison reports to compare your school’s attendance with 20 similar schools (new reports are added at the end of each half and full term)

Local authorities and multi-academy trusts can access and use:

• the view your school attendance data dashboard
• attendance data downloads which is a .csv file of year-to-date pupil-level data, up to the latest week (new files are available every Monday)
• attendance summary reports

View school attendance data dashboard

You can view your attendance and absence data by:

• whole school
• pupil
• term
• academic year

Using filters in your attendance data

Filters help you explore attendance data for different groups of pupils.

This includes:

• compulsory school age
• sex
• English as an additional language (EAL)
• ethnicity
• year group
• persistently absent
• severely absent
• special education needs (SEN) support
• SEN type
• free school meals
• education, health and care plan (EHCP)
• looked-after child
• previously looked-after child
• child in need
• child protection plan
• leavers 
• leaving date

How filters work

Filters use the most recent pupil characteristics from your school’s MIS. They do not show how a pupil’s characteristics have changed over time.

For example, if a pupil received SEN support last year but no longer does, they won’t appear when you filter for SEN support. Results are based on their current status.

Compare current and previous years

Filters show attendance for pupils this year, compared to their attendance last year.

For example, if you filter by ‘Year 8’, you’ll see how this year’s year 8 pupils performed last year, when they were in year 7.

Use caution with entry-year groups

Be careful when using the year group filter for entry years like year 7. These pupils may not have attendance data from their previous school (for example, year 6 in a primary school).

Unless your school includes both primary and secondary phases (such as an all-through school), you won’t be able to compare their current attendance with last year’s.

Understand how leavers affect results

The year group filter can give unexpected results for pupils who left the school.

For example, if a pupil left while in year 7 last year, they’ll still appear in the year 7 group for that year.

When you filter by ‘Year 7’:

• this year: you’ll see attendance for pupils currently in year 7
• last year: you’ll see attendance for pupils who left while in year 7

To avoid confusion, use the ‘leavers’ filter and select ‘all current pupils’. This works best if your school provides accurate leaving dates.

We’re working on improving how this data is handled.

Attendance and absence codes

You can use the attendance code report to filter data by attendance and absence code. For example, you can select the code for ‘unauthorised holiday’ and see when it has been used at pupil level.

A list of the required DfE attendance and absence codes are available in chapter 8 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Absence bandings for schools 

Schools, academy trusts and local authorities can use the absence bandings report to review absence data. Use the absence bandings user guide to find out how to use it to target your resources to have the greatest impact.

Attendance and sickness returns

Local authorities can access a report showing pupils in the local authority with:

• 10 school days (calculated as 20 sessions) or more of continuous unauthorised absence
• 15 days (full or part) of sickness

They should use it to identify pupils who meet the criteria for attendance and sickness returns. Page 21 of the working together to improve attendance guidance has more information.

Schools can access a list of their pupils with 10 school days (calculated as 20 sessions) or more of continuous unauthorised absence. They should use it to help identify pupils who should be included in attendance returns.

Data is for the current academic year-to-date and is updated daily.

The report is not designed to show pupils who meet the national threshold for penalty notices. You should continue to follow the statutory guidance on penalty notices on page 56 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

10 days of continuous unauthorised absence

The report shows pupils with 20 or more consecutive sessions of unauthorised absence, based on absence codes G, N, O or U. It includes pupils who:

• are currently absent
• have returned from a period of absence

The first session in a period of unauthorised absence can be a morning or afternoon session.

Pupils may appear more than once if they have multiple periods of unauthorised absence.

Only possible attendance sessions are included. Sessions not considered possible attendance are excluded.

15 days of sickness

The report shows pupils with 15 or more sickness days in the academic year-to-date. A sickness day is recorded where a pupil was marked absent with illness for at least one possible attendance session.

Pupils will only appear in the report once, if they meet the 15-day threshold.

The report does not include session-level detail. You can identify which attendance and absence codes have been used for an individual pupil using the ‘Export absence and attendance codes’ report.

Data to include in your attendance returns

You can use the report to help you complete your attendance return to your local authority. You should check your local authority’s guidance for full requirements.

Your return should include:

• pupils of compulsory school age – use the filter on the right hand side of the report
• pupils with 10 days of unauthorised absence, including holidays or inset days – these are included in the report
• pupils who have not attended regularly but have not yet reached 10 days of unauthorised absence – these are not included in the report but must be included in your return

Year-to-date comparison reports

You can use the report to compare attendance and absence in the current academic year-to-date with the previous year. Data is shown by academic week to help you to identify attendance and absence patterns.

Schools, academy trusts and local authorities can get data for:

• the whole school, trust or local authority
• an individual pupil

Select a term from the drop-down menu to get data visualisations for:

• attendance
• absence
• unauthorised absence

Understanding academic weeks

Academic week numbers are for the same period of time in each academic year.

To calculate academic weeks, we have adapted the ISO 8601 week-numbering year to the academic year.

For the majority of schools in England, each academic year will run from 1 September to 31 August. However, a small number of schools start the academic year in August.

To ensure data is available in the report for all schools, we start the year in August.

The date on which academic week 1 starts depends on the day of the week that 1 August falls on.

Academic year	Day that 1 August is on	Academic week 1 starts
2023 to 2024	Tuesday	Tuesday 1 August 2023
2024 to 2025	Thursday	Thursday 1 August 2024
2025 to 2026	Friday	Monday 4 August 2025
2026 to 2027	Saturday	Monday 3 August 2026

If 1 August is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, then this is week 1.

If 1 August is on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, more than half of that week is in July, so it is the final week of the previous academic year. This means that week 1 starts on the following Monday.

Academic weeks start and end dates

You will see data in the report from the start of your academic year.

For the 2025 to 2026 academic year, you can check which academic week applies to your school based on the date your academic year starts.

If academic year starts between	Data will show in the report from
Monday 4 August to Sunday 10 August	Academic week 1
Monday 11 August to Sunday 17 August	Academic week 2
Monday 18 August to Sunday 24 August	Academic week 3
Monday 25 August to Sunday 31 August	Academic week 4
Monday 1 September to Sunday 7 September	Academic week 5
Monday 8 September to Sunday 14 September	Academic week 6

If your school starts the academic year in the first week of September, you will see year-to-date data in the report from week 5.

If your school starts the academic year in the last week of August, you will see year-to-date data in the report from week 4.

How we calculate academic weeks

To calculate academic weeks, we use the ISO 8601 standard, which is an Open Standard selected for use by the government.

We have used the ISO week-numbering year and adapted it to the academic year. This standard helps to make it easier to compare different dates.

ISO week-numbering year

An ISO year has 52 or 53 full weeks. This is 364 or 371 days instead of the usual 365 or 366 days.

53-week years occur when 1 January starts on a Thursday (and on leap years that start on Wednesday 1 January). Weeks start on Monday and end on Sunday.

The definition for week 1 is:

• the week containing 4 January
• the week containing the first Thursday in January
• the first week of the year containing at least 4 days within January

For example, 1 January falls in week 1 if it is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

If 1 January is a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, then more than half of that week is in December rather than January. It is considered to be the final week of the previous year, in week 52 or 53.

Where the data comes from

The data is from your school’s MIS and is refreshed every week.

The data:

• is for the current academic year-to-date and previous academic year
• includes attendance and absence codes for each pupil (as recorded in the school’s MIS)

How we calculate attendance and absence data

We only include possible attendance sessions in the report. Any sessions that are not considered possible attendance sessions are excluded.

Session data and the attendance and absence codes we use in the report are explained in our data definitions.

Check your leaver data report

Important information for schools on recording leaver data correctly

Some schools have previously recorded leaving dates incorrectly in their MIS. Making errors in recording pupil admission, deletion and attendance data has a significant impact on data in your school attendance reports.

Use DfE’s working together to improve school attendance guidance for details about keeping the admissions and attendance register up to date.

Review your leaver data

Use the check your leaver data report to get a list of pupils with session data recorded after their leaving date in your MIS. We exclude these sessions from data calculations in the tool, so you should check this data is accurate.

Data in the report is refreshed daily based on changes in your MIS. Results are for the current academic year-to-date and previous academic year.

To see all pupils with a leaving date, go to the ‘school’ report in the view your school attendance data dashboard and apply the ‘leavers’ filter.

Updating leaver data

Pupils are removed from results in the check your leaver data report when they no longer have sessions recorded after their leaving date. If you need to update leaver data in your MIS, you should do this with caution. Data must be updated and recorded in line with statutory guidance.

When to update a leaving date 

A leaving date should only be recorded in your MIS when a pupil has left the school and meets the grounds for deletion on page 64 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Leaving dates should not be used for any other reason. For example, when pupils move from one year group to another within the same school. 

You can remove a pupil’s leaving date if it has been wrongly used.

Changing incorrect session data

Session data should only be updated if the reason for absence was not known at the time it was recorded.

If a leaver has incorrect sessions recorded after their leaving date, make sure that, when updating your MIS, you follow the statutory guidance on maintaining the contents of the attendance register. You can find this in chapter 8 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Compare your school attendance tables

Schools can compare pupil attendance and absence data with other schools in the same phase of education. You can compare schools within your local authority and nationally.

Use the compare your school attendance tables to compare:

• overall absence
• overall attendance
• persistent absence (misses 10% or more of sessions)
• severe absence (misses 50% or more of sessions)
• authorised absence
• unauthorised absence

Use our data definitions to understand the terms we use in our school attendance tables.

You can compare attendance for all compulsory school age pupils and those who have:

• SEN support
• free school meals

Special schools cannot currently use the tool. Special schools exist to meet complex and varying needs. It is not appropriate to compare attendance outcomes of special schools with mainstream schools.

Where the data comes from

The data is from a subset of schools in England that are sharing daily attendance data with DfE. It is refreshed every 2 weeks.

The data we use to calculate your position:

• is for the current academic year-to-date
• includes attendance and absence codes for each pupil (as recorded in your MIS)

How we calculate your position

You get a local authority and a national position. This tells you how you are performing compared with other schools in the same phase of education (for example, primary or secondary). It is anonymous, so you will not see which schools you have been compared with.

Local authority position

Your local authority comparison is a numbered position out of the schools you have been compared with. If you are ranked as 1, this is the highest.

You are only compared with other schools in the same phase of education, in the same local authority.

The number of schools you are compared with depends on the number of schools in your local authority that are sharing daily attendance data with DfE.

National position

Your national position depends on how your attendance or absence compares with all other schools in the same phase in England sharing attendance data with DfE.

For each measure, we take the total number of schools and put them in order from top to bottom, based on their attendance for the academic year-to-date.

Schools are divided into 10 equal groups that each represent 10% of all schools.

We provide your national position as a decile.

This means that:

• 10% of schools are in the first decile – in the top 0 to 10% of schools
• 10% of schools are in the second decile – in the top 10 to 20% of schools
• 10% of schools are in the third decile – in the top 20 to 30% of all schools

The tenth decile represents the schools with the lowest 10% of attendance.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest decimal place, but the decile positions are calculated using unrounded data.

Each decile is equal and represents 10% of the schools you are being compared with. 

A decile may appear larger than others when there are a high number of schools with the same percentage of attendance.

The table shows:

• which decile your school is in
• the number of schools in your decile
• the highest and lowest attendance or absence percentage in the decile (this updates as attendance changes nationally)

Your decile position, along with the highest and lowest in your decile, gives you an understanding of your performance at a national level. This gives you an idea how far you may be from the next decile.

Take care when interpreting the data. The tool shows your position to others. There may be reasons why a school has a high- or low-performing position. When using your results to plan, you should consider the differences between your school and other schools.

Comparisons between pupil characteristic groups should be used with caution. Cohort sizes will vary between schools. You should maintain high aspirations for all pupils and put strategies in place to review any gaps in attendance for specific groups in line with schools’ responsibilities in chapter 2 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Example showing how we calculate your position

Out of 10,000 schools, you are in the first decile if you are in the top-performing 1,000 schools. 

You will be in the second decile if your school is between position 1,001 and 2,000.

You will be in the tenth decile (worst-performing) if you are between position 9,001 and 10,000.

Example showing how the highest and lowest decile works

You are told you are in the second decile (10 to 20%) of schools. Your attendance rate is 94.55%. 

You are also told that your decile limits range from 90.55% to 95.55%. This means that you will move to the first decile (top 10% of schools) if you can improve your attendance from 94.55% to greater than 95.55%, if the limits remain unchanged.

Data we include

Schools

Schools are grouped by education phase and compared with others in the same phase – for example, primary or secondary. This includes:

• middle-deemed primary schools – classed as primary schools
• middle-deemed secondary schools – classed as secondary schools
• all-through schools – classed as secondary schools

Sessions

We only include possible attendance sessions when calculating your ranking.

Any sessions that are not considered possible attendance sessions are excluded. This means that if you have used an attendance or absence code that is not considered a possible attendance – for example, code D for a pupil with dual registration who is not due at school, these sessions will not be included.

Session data and the attendance and absence codes we use to calculate your ranking are explained in our data definitions.

Pupils

Pupils who are not yet of compulsory school age are not included in your ranking, even if you are sharing daily attendance data for them. 

Severe absence

National comparison tables do not include data on severe absence for primary or secondary schools. This is not currently published at a national level from the daily attendance data that schools submit.

Attendance data downloads

Academy trusts

Academy trusts can download attendance data for each pupil on roll at one of their schools.

Local authorities

Local authorities can download 2 separate attendance data files:

• pupils who attend a school in their local authority
• pupils who live in their local authority but attend a school elsewhere in England (cross-border pupils)

We use the attendance data schools share with the DfE to identify a pupil’s:

• home local authority – where the pupil normally lives
• school local authority – where the pupil attends school

Both local authorities should work together to support pupils with school attendance.

You should review your responsibilities for working with cross-border pupils on page 40 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Home local authority data

We identify a pupil’s home local authority by:

• their home postcode as recorded in the school’s MIS
• the local authority boundary their postcode belongs to

If this data is not available, it may not appear in your download.

What is included in your file

Your download is a .csv file which has aggregate attendance and absence data for each pupil per term, for the academic year-to-date. It is up to date to the latest Friday and updated every Monday.

For each pupil, it includes:

• academic term
• UPN
• date of birth (dd/mm/yyyy)
• sex
• ethnicity
• compulsory school age (yes / no)
• SEN support (yes / no / unknown)
• free school meals (yes / no / unknown)
• education health and care plan (yes / no / unknown)
• primary SEN type
• secondary SEN type
• English as an additional language (yes / no / unknown)
• looked after child (yes / no / unknown)
• previously looked after child (yes / no / unknown)
• child in need (yes / no / unknown)
• child protection plan (yes / no / unknown)
• persistently absent (yes / no)
• severely absent (yes / no)
• school unique reference number (URN)
• year group
• learning provider UKPRN
• school name
• school phase
• pupil first name
• pupil surname
• admission date
• leaving date
• full days missed
• possible sessions
• absent sessions
• present sessions
• approved educational activity sessions
• unauthorised absent sessions
• authorised absent sessions

For each pupil in the local authority, it also has:

• school local authority UKPRN
• school local authority name
• home local authority UKPRN
• home local authority name

For each school in the academy trust, it also has:

• responsible body name
• responsible body UKPRN

We provide a termly summary of each attendance measure in your file. The summary does not include individual pupil details, as these are taken from the latest available record in the school’s MIS. 

If a data field is not collected or shared by the school, it will show as ‘unknown’.

Leavers not on roll elsewhere

Local authorities have access to a weekly download of compulsory school age pupils who have left a school in the local authority and not gone on to enrol at another school in England.

This data is based on pupil information records from schools in England sharing daily attendance data with DfE.

It includes pupils who:

• attended a school in your local authority
• have a leaving date in the current academic year
• have not since enrolled at another school in England (according to the data we collect from schools in England)
• are of compulsory school age

This data is not a list of children missing education (CME) but can be used to support your usual checks and reasonable enquiries to identify and locate suspected CME. You should cross-check it with information you already hold, such as records of children who are home educated or have left the country.

For details of your legal responsibilities, review Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities.

Things to consider

The data may be inaccurate if:

• information is missing or recorded incorrectly in a school’s MIS
• a pupil is registered with a temporary UPN

There may be valid reasons why a pupil has not joined another school. They may:

• have left the country
• be home educated
• be a dual registered pupil
• have started at an independent school

What is included in your file

For each pupil, your file includes:

• first name
• surname
• UPN
• date of birth
• sex
• ethnicity
• compulsory school age
• SEN support
• free school meals
• EHCP
• looked-after child
• previously looked-after child
• child in need
• child protection plan
• year group
• admission date
• leaving date

For the child’s previous school in the local authority, it contains:

• learning provider UKPRN
• unique reference number (URN)
• school name
• school phase

If a data field is not collected or shared by the school, it will show as ‘unknown’.

The data is up to date to the latest Friday and updated every Monday.

Pupil details are added or removed each week based on the latest leaving and admissions data we receive from schools.

For example, a pupil who left a school on the Friday will appear in the data. If they enrol at another school the following week, they will be removed from the file when we update it.

Export attendance and absence codes

Local authorities can use the dashboard to view and export session-level attendance and absence data.

The data:

• is for the current academic year-to-date
• is for all pupils attending a school in your local authority (where schools are sharing their attendance data with DfE)
• includes attendance and absence codes for each pupil as recorded in the school MIS
• is for all possible and not possible attendance sessions

It can help you understand:

• attendance and absence rates across schools in your local authority
• what is causing pupil absence

You can use it to help targeting support meetings with schools, as set out in chapter 4 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

What the dashboard includes

You can review attendance and absence codes for each:

• school
• trust
• pupil
• phase
• pupil characteristic
• attendance and absence code
• date range (during the current academic year-to-date)

You can apply filters to narrow down results before exporting the data.

Codes we include

We include all attendance and absence codes recorded in the school’s MIS. This includes possible and not possible attendance sessions.

Possible attendance sessions

These are sessions a pupil attended or was expected to attend. The valid codes for possible attendance sessions are: /, \, B, C, C1, C2, E, G, I, I01, J1, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, and W.

I01 remains an invalid code but we continue to treat it in the same way as the I code. 

Not possible attendance sessions

Any sessions that are not considered to be possible attendance sessions have the attendance and absence codes: D, Q, X, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6 and Y7.

Invalid codes

Invalid session codes include: F, H, J, and I02.

A list of the required DfE attendance and absence codes is available in chapter 8 of the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Attendance summary and similar schools comparison reports

Schools, local authorities and trusts can download termly and half-termly reports to compare pupil attendance and absence data in the same phase of education.

You can compare your data with:

• the national average using attendance summary reports
• 20 statistically similar schools using the similar schools reports

The data:

• is based on the daily attendance data that your school shares with DfE
• is from the start of the academic year until the end of each half or full term (each report shows the date range covered to calculate results)
• includes attendance and absence codes for each pupil (as recorded in the school’s MIS)

New files are added at the end of each half and full term.

Attendance summary reports

These reports summarise your attendance outcomes compared to the national average.

For schools

Each report includes:

• headline attendance
• weekly attendance, compared with the national average

• attendance for different groups of pupils, including pupils with free school meals and SEN support, compared with:

  • the national average
  • the previous academic year
• absence bandings by year group, including persistent and severe absence rates

You’ll receive one report per phase of education (for example, primary or secondary). Depending on your school type, you may receive up to 2 reports:

• middle-deemed primary schools – classed as primary
• middle-deemed secondary schools – classed as secondary
• all-through schools – both primary and secondary

Local authorities and multi-academy trusts

These reports include school-level breakdowns of:

• headline and weekly attendance compared with the national average
• schools with the highest and lowest attendance percentages
• schools with the highest and lowest persistent absence rates
• schools with the biggest change in attendance compared with the previous academic year
• attendance by pupil group (free school meals and SEN support)
• absence bandings by year group for the whole trust or local authority and their individual schools

Similar schools comparison report

These reports use artificial intelligence (AI) to compare your school’s attendance outcomes with 20 similar schools. It is anonymous so you will not see which schools you have been compared to.

Use it to compare:

• overall attendance
• persistent absence
• attendance for different groups of pupils, including those with SEN support and free school meals
• attendance in the current academic year to the same time last year

Files you can access

Local authorities

You may receive up to 4 reports, depending on the types of schools in your area:

• maintained primary schools
• maintained secondary schools
• academy primary schools
• academy secondary schools

Multi-academy trusts

You must have more than 2 schools in a phase of education to receive a report. You can receive up to 2 reports:

• primary schools’ summary report
• secondary schools’ summary report

Schools we include

You will receive separate reports by school phase (for example, primary or secondary).

A school is excluded if it:

• is not a mainstream school
• opened during the current academic year
• changed establishment details during the academic year (for example, due to academisation)

• shares attendance data for fewer than:

  • 20 pupils in primary (years 1 to 6) and less than 80% of pupils on roll
  • 50 pupils in secondary (years 7 to 11) and less than 80% of pupils on roll
• has not shared all required daily attendance data since the start of the academic year
• uses custom attendance or absence codes

Special schools are not included. These schools exist to meet complex and varying needs, so it is not appropriate to compare attendance outcomes.

Local authorities and multi-academy trusts must have at least 2 schools in either phase of education to receive a report. Any schools meeting the exclusion criteria will not appear in your reports.

Using your report to help improve attendance

Use both the national and similar schools comparisons to benchmark your attendance outcomes and identify areas for improvement.

Schools can share their reports with academy trusts, governing bodies or local authorities to review current attendance strategies and consider alternative approaches.

Local authorities and trusts can use the reports to identify variation between schools and provide targeted support or intervention.

Reporting a problem with your results

If you are having any issues with data in your attendance summary reports, you can report an issue on the DfE customer help portal.

Data definitions we use in attendance reports

Data definitions in the reports may change.

Absence

Number of absent sessions divided by number of possible attendance sessions.

Absent sessions

Number of sessions with the absence code C, C1, C2, E, G, I, J1, M, N, O, R, S, T and U.

Attendance %

Number of present sessions divided by number of possible attendance sessions.

Authorised %

Number of authorised absence sessions divided by number of possible attendance sessions.

Authorised sessions

Number of sessions with the absence code C, C1, C2, E, I, J1,M, R, S and T.

Compulsory school age

Compulsory school age is calculated based on each pupil’s date of birth. It includes pupils between the ages of 5 and 16. The compulsory school age starts at the beginning of the school term following the child’s fifth birthday.

A pupil is of compulsory school age if they are:

• at least 5 years old on 1 September in the current academic year
• at most 15 years old on 31 August in the current academic year

We include year 11 pupils as being of compulsory school age until the late May bank holiday, to cover the period of study leave.

Day(s) absent in part or in full

Number of unique dates with at least one absent session.

Days since last absence

Number of unique dates with at least one possible attendance session between the date of the last absent session and the date of the latest available record (see absent sessions).

English as an additional language (EAL)

This data item refers to pupils whose first language is not English.

Full days absent

Number of unique dates where morning and afternoon sessions are both absent sessions (see absent sessions).

Free school meals

Free school meals data is taken from the latest record available in the school’s MIS. 

We do not collect pupil-level data for pupil premium entitlement as part of the daily attendance data collection.

Leavers

Leavers are pupils in your MIS with a leaving date. We include their attendance in your results up to and including the day they left your school.

To get year-to-date results for current pupils, use the leavers filter. By selecting ‘all current pupils’, you can exclude leavers from your attendance reports.

Persistent absence

Pupil has an absence rate of 10% or more for at least 20 possible attendance sessions in the current academic year.

To calculate these statistics for persistent absence, a pupil must have at least 20 possible attendance sessions. This helps to:

• ensure there is an accurate display of absence at all times in the academic year, based on daily data calculations
• avoid a pupil becoming persistently absent during the first few weeks of the academic year when there are fewer sessions on which to calculate absence rates

Persistent absence rates at local authority, regional and national level are published termly on Explore Education Statistics.

DfE’s published statistics methodology can help to explain why the data may be different to that of school attendance reports.

Possible attendance sessions

A ‘possible attendance session’ is when a pupil attended or was expected to attend. 

We calculate them using the number of sessions with attendance and absence code /, \, B, C, C1, C2, E, G, I, J1, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, or W.

Any sessions that are not considered to be possible attendance sessions are excluded for the purpose of calculating these statistics. This includes sessions with the attendance and absence codes D, Q, X, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6 and Y7.

Present sessions

Number of sessions with attendance code /, \, B, K, L, P, V, or W.

Sessions

For the purposes of these statistics, a ‘session’ is each morning and each afternoon when the school is open.

When the school has more than one afternoon session and therefore the attendance register is taken more than once in the same afternoon, we will use the codes for the last afternoon session as the basis for this statistical attendance data.

Severely absent

Pupil has an absence rate of 50% or more for at least 20 possible attendance sessions in the current academic year.

To calculate these statistics for severely absent pupils, a pupil must have at least 20 possible sessions. This helps to:

• ensure there is an accurate display of absence at all times in the academic year, based on daily data calculations
• avoid a pupil becoming severely absent during the first few weeks of the academic year when there are fewer sessions on which to calculate absence rates

Special educational needs (SEN) support

SEN support does not include those with an EHCP. Sharing data for EHCP pupils is a separate data permission via Wonde when you share your attendance data.

SEN type

Shows the SEN type and rank (1st or 2nd) as recorded in the school’s MIS. The most significant or primary need is ranked as ‘1’, with any secondary need ranked ‘2’. Only 2 rankings are collected from your MIS.

Unauthorised %

Number of unauthorised absence sessions divided by number of possible attendance sessions.

Unauthorised sessions

Number of sessions with absence code G, N, O or U.