Attendance of pupils in maintained schools: 1 to 25 September 2026
Management information provided by schools in Wales on attendance of pupils in maintained schools from 1 to 25 September 2026.
In this page
Introduction
Information on the attendance and absence of pupils in schools during the current academic year (September 2026 to July 2027). Includes data back to the 2018 to 2019 academic year for comparison (the last full academic year before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic).
Data is presented as the percentage of half day school sessions for pupils aged 5 to 15. All dates and date ranges refer to the academic year.
Main points
Attendance in 2026 to 2027 compared with the same period in the 2025 to 2026 academic year
Overall attendance is:
- 92.4% compared with 92.2% for all pupils
- 87.5% compared with 87.3% for pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM)
- 93.9% compared with 93.7% for pupils not eligible for FSM
- 92.4% compared with 92.4% for male pupils
- 92.3% compared with 92.1% for female pupils
- known to fall as pupils get older
- 88.8% for pupils in year 11 for both academic years
- 95.3% compared with 94.8% for pupils in year 7, the highest attendance rate of all year groups
Year 11 has the lowest attendance rate of all year groups and year 7 has the highest.
Persistent absence
We will publish data on persistent absence following the autumn half-term break.
Comparison between 2024 to 2025 (the latest year of accredited official statistics) and 2018 to 2019
Overall attendance:
- was 91.1% compared with 94.3% for all pupils
- was 85.4% compared with 91.2% for pupils eligible for FSM
- was slightly higher for males than for females (reversing the typical trend in 2019 and earlier years where attendance for females was higher)
- fell by at least 3 percentage points for both males and females
- was lowest amongst pupils in year 11 at 86.8%
- was highest amongst pupils in year 3 at 93.0%
Illness accounted for 3.8% of all school sessions, up from 3.0%.
Persistent absence
The 10% persistent absence threshold was reached by:
- 27.0% of pupils compared with 14.7% for all pupils
- 50.7% compared with 30.4% for pupils eligible for FSM
Data coverage
Most tables in this release present data for academic years 2018 to 2019 and 2022 to 2023 onwards. These are the years for which comparable data are available.
See the notes and quality information for information about data availability and comparability for academic years between 2020 and 2022 which were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data for full academic years and academic year to date
All tables include data for the full academic years:
- 2018 to 2019
- 2022 to 2023
- 2023 to 2024
- 2024 to 2025
- 2025 to 2026
This data is provided so that users can see longer term trends in attendance and absence.
All tables also include data for the 2026 to 2027 academic year to date and the equivalent period in the 2025 to 2026 academic year. This is provided so that users can assess how attendance and absence has changed within an academic year.
To enable robust comparison of trends, we advise users to:
- compare the latest year to date data with the same period in the previous year
- not compare the latest year to date data with any historical data for a full year
Quality information
These statistics are not classed as official statistics. However, we have applied the principles of the Code of Practice as far as possible during development.
Sources of attendance data
There are 2 sources of attendance data for maintained schools in Wales:
- accredited official statistics on attendance and absence in schools (from statutory data collections which are captured at the end of each academic year)
- management information extracted weekly from school management information systems (MIS)
Data are consistent at the Wales level.
| Data | Source | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall attendance | Annual data | 89.9 | 90.5 | 91.1 |
| Overall attendance | Weekly managemment information | 89.5 | 90.0 | 90.9 |
| Overall attendance | Difference | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Persistent absence | Annual data | [z] | [z] | 27.0 |
| Persistent absence | Weekly managemment information | [x] | [x] | 26.9 |
| Persistent absence | Difference | [z] | [z] | 0.1 |
[x] = not available
[z] = not applicable
Data availability
No data is available for 2019 to 2020 due to the collections being suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Attendance data for academic year ending 2021 and 2022 has been published separately. It is not included in this release because the definitions of absence during this period were not consistent with data for the other years presented. The definitions were different so that we could capture information that was useful as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statement of voluntary application of the Code of Practice for Statistics
These statistics are not classed as official statistics. However, we have applied the principles of the Code of Practice as far as possible during development.
For further information on quality please see the accompanying quality report.
Contact details
School Statistics
Email: school.stats@gov.wales
Media: 0300 025 8099