Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the levels of student absenteeism in secondary schools in England for each week in the current academic year.

The department publishes official absence figures on a termly basis. There is no equivalent available on a weekly basis. However, data is published on pupil on-site attendance in schools and COVID-19-related absences split by phase of education. Data since the start of the academic year can be found on the ‘Explore education statistics’ GOV.UK page here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/explore-education-statistics.

In the attached file, overall on-site attendance and COVID-19-related absence for secondary schools is provided. Figures are given for the Thursday of each week (excluding holiday dates) since the start of the academic year in line with figures published in the fortnightly publication, ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic’, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.