Attendance of pupils in maintained schools: quality report

The data in this release is part of a series that began in September 2020 to provide near real time information on the attendance of pupils in maintained schools during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This data is extracted directly from school management information systems (MIS). The data is collected from all maintained nursery, primary, middle, secondary and special schools and any pupil referral units that have such MIS and routinely record their information electronically. 

Further information on what we collect and what we do with it is contained in this privacy notice.

There are 2 sources of attendance data for maintained schools in Wales:

• accredited official statistics on attendance and absence from 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) and published either fortnightly (at the beginning of the academic year) or monthly (towards the end of the academic year)

All data in this release come from school MIS.

Data from both sources are coherent at the Wales level (see table 1 below) but substantial differences will be seen if the data are used at a local authority or school level.

[x] = not available
[z] = not applicable

Users can have confidence that the weekly management information produces reliable results at the Wales level but we advise against seeking to use the data at any other lower level geography for example Senedd constituencies, local authorities or schools.

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 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 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 (see section on data comparability). The definitions were different so that we could capture information that was useful as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This release is published either every fortnight (at the start of the academic year) or monthly (towards the end of the academic year where data becomes more stable and trends are more evident). Publication is always on a Tuesday and at 09:30am.

For every edition, data is published 7 working days after the end of the period to which it refers. For example, data published for the week ending 25 September 2026 was published on Tuesday 6 October 2026.

The data is collected once a week at the weekend and extracts the information recorded in school management information systems at that time. We do not ask schools to update their registers specifically for this collection and therefore the data extracted at the weekend may be incomplete or provisional for some schools and on some days (typically those days closest to the date we extracted the data). To account for this, we collect the data for every week of the academic year in extracts containing four consecutive weeks of data. This allows school registers to be updated as normal by schools and for the published information to be updated at a later date with more accurate and complete data.

This means that in any release the latest three weeks of data is provisional and will be updated in subsequent releases. Older data is not treated as provisional and is not updated.

This data collection is designed specifically to place no additional burdens on schools. Schools can continue their usual working practices in recording attendance electronically and we will collect whatever data is available in their MIS every Sunday. This can lead to errors and gaps in the data which we do not investigate and do not expect schools to fix. Our approach to mitigating the impact of such data issues is to collect data for any individual week multiple times as described in the previous section. This approach does deliver robust and coherent data at the Wales level but will raise issues at any other lower level of geography.

All 4 UK nations publish regular data on attendance in school. We advise users not to compare results between any nations and from either annual or weekly collections because of differences in:

• data collection methods
• presentation and definitions of absence 
• data coverage including over the academic year and over school year groups
• quality assurance processes 

Attendance data for schools in England is published by the Department for Education.

Attendance data for schools in Scotland is published by the Scottish Government.

Attendance data for schools in Northern Ireland is published by the Department for Education.

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.

These statistics have been developed at pace and published the earliest possible opportunity to assist users in understanding the patterns of attendance and absence in real time and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

We have voluntarily applied the Code of Practice for Statistics as follows:

Trustworthiness

We publish and regularly update guidance for schools on attendance and absence. This will include detailed guidance on valid attendance codes and definitions and recording such information in MIS. This ensures a consistent nationwide approach to recording and returning this information.

The data have been extracted from operational systems and analysed by statisticians who work under the supervision of the Welsh Government Chief Statistician to ensure that the statistics, data and explanatory material is presented impartially and objectively.

All personal data underlying these statistics are processed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018. We have put in place a thorough governance process with the contractor to ensure that the data are securely managed and reviewed before release.  

These statistics are pre-announced on the Statistics and Research area of the Welsh Government website. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).

Quality

The data in this release all originate from school management information systems. These data sources are of sufficient quality to support this analysis and to provide users with timely information on attendance and absence trends. There is further information on the known limitations of this data earlier in this quality report.

All stages in the collection, validation and production of these statistics are led by professional statisticians from the Government Statistical Group.

All statistics are quality-assured prior to publication. 

Value

Our accredited official statistics on attendance and absence in schools show that attendance has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. These statistics continue to be published at pace to assist users in understanding attendance and absence and the potential ongoing impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The statistics will be updated regularly throughout the year to allow users to monitor longer term attendance trends in real time as the academic year progresses. 

This release is accompanied by an Open Document Spreadsheet which can be shared and reused widely and which complies with the Government Analysis Function guidance on Releasing statistics in spreadsheets. 

Data are clearly presented in each table, with the spreadsheet also including a cover sheet listing each table. The commentary and notes in the release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to the widest range of users.

This release will be published fortnightly until Christmas when national trends could be subject to significant change. After that, when national trends are more stable, we will publish monthly.

Local authority maintained schools: schools maintained by the local authorities. The authorities meet their expenditure partly from council tax and partly from general grants made by the Welsh Government.

Primary schools: aged 3 or 4 to 11

Middle schools: ages 3 or 4 to 16 or 18.

Secondary schools: ages 11 to 16 or 18.

Special schools: special schools, both day and boarding, provide education for children with additional learning needs who cannot be educated satisfactorily in mainstream schools.

Free School Meals

Pupils are eligible for free school meals if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments. The figures in this release are based only on those pupils who are eligible through these means tested criteria. Pupils who receive a free school meal through either the transitional protection arrangements or through the Universal Primary Free School Meals policy are not included.

Statistical meaning of attendance register codes

Each valid statutory attendance code in Wales is mapped to one of 5 statistical meanings:

• present - the pupil is present in school during school registration
• approved educational activity (marked as present) - the pupil is not physically present at the school but is off-site with the approval of the school, for example, to attend a different educational establishment, for online learning or for a sporting activity
• authorised absence - the pupil is absent with permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes instances of absence for which a satisfactory explanation has been provided (for example illness, family bereavement or religious observance).
• unauthorised absence - the pupil is absent without permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school.  This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences.
• not required to attend - the pupil is not required to attend, for example because the school is fully or partially closed.

More information on attendance codes can be found in our online school attendance guidance.