What is persistent absence?

A pupil is persistently absent when their overall absence, both authorised and unauthorised, reaches 10% or more of the sessions they could have attended. A session is a morning or an afternoon, so a full school year contains a large number of sessions and small gaps add up quickly. The absence does not need to be in one block to count.

The Department for Education’s statutory guidance, Working together to improve school attendance, expects schools and local authorities to work together to put targeted support in place once a pupil reaches this level. The guidance stresses understanding the reasons behind absence rather than reaching straight for punishment.

England and Wales

In England, the 10% threshold is set out in the statutory attendance guidance. Wales historically used a 20% threshold, but the Welsh Government has changed its official statistics to use 10%, in line with England. Each nation has its own attendance guidance and codes.

Why it matters for your setting

• Many pupils referred to alternative provision already have a history of persistent absence, so improving attendance is often a key goal of a placement.
• Schools and commissioners will want to know early if attendance is falling.
• Spotting patterns, such as regular Monday absences, helps you act before absence becomes entrenched.

How PupilDB helps

PupilDB reports attendance percentages by month from September to August and attendance against each pupil’s entitled hours, so you can see quickly whose attendance is slipping. It does not use statutory attendance codes yet.