Report links poverty levels and absences

A report from FFT Education DataLab has found that absence rates among secondary school year groups in key stage 3 were higher last term compared to the year before. 

The analysis, conducted as part of a Nuffield Foundation funded study, revealed that the absence rates for disadvantaged secondary school students were markedly higher as they moved up a year.

It also found that all secondary year groups had higher absence in autumn 2023 than in autumn 2022, with the biggest increases among the lower key stages. 

For example, those moving from Year 7 into Year 8 saw an increase of almost 2 per cent in the number of sessions missed, from 6.1 per cent in autumn 2022 to 8 per cent.

For students moving from Year 10 into Year 11, the absence rate rose from 9.5 per cent to 9.8 per cent. 

FFT used data from its Attendance Tracker tool to compare absence rates among year groups, as these students moved up a year from the autumn term of 2022 to the autumn of last year.

FFT found that at every transition point in secondary school absence figures for students from disadvantaged background increased more than for their peers.

The study looked at the rates of absence in children who were eligible for free schools meals in the past six years and compared their statistics to their peers'.

These students saw an increase of 3.7 percentage points between Year 7 and Year 8, from 9 per cent to 12.7 per cent of sessions missed, while their peers in the same year group saw an increase of 1.2 percentage points.

Also, the study explored the connections between gender and absences. 

While there was seemingly no connection between these factors in primary school, absence for girls increased by more than for boys at every transition point at secondary school. 

The biggest disparity between girls and boys was among students moving from Year 8 into 9, where absence for boys increased by 0.6 percentage points compared with 1.5 percentage points for girls.