Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of school days missed in the 2021-22 academic year by (a) year 6, (b) year 11 and (c) year 13 students.

The requested data is not yet available.

The first data relating to the number of school days missed due to absence in the 2021-22 academic year is currently being collected in the termly school census. It will be published in May 2022 and relate to the autumn term only. It will be available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term.

Data on absence in the full academic year 2021-22 is expected to be published in March 2023 in the National Statistics release “Pupil absence in schools in England” and will be available here:https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.

The school census collects absence data for pupils of compulsory school age, covering those aged 5 to 15 at the start of the academic year, plus some less detailed information on 4-year-olds. It does not collect data on year 13 students.