Written question WQ94655

This data is in the table below and covers pupils of statutory age in all maintained schools in Wales.

Table 1: Number and percentage of half day school sessions missed due to unauthorised absence and all absence, 2018/19 - 2023/24 [note 1]

2018/19 [note 2]

2020/21 [note 3]

2021/22 [note 3]

2022/23 [note 2]

2023/24 [note 4]

Number of half day sessions missed due to unauthorised absence

1,986,417

2,522,622

3,762,878

4,029,178

4,298,506

% of half day sessions missed due to unauthorised absence

1.5

2.8

3.2

3.1

3.4

% of half day sessions missed due to all absences

5.7

9.4

10.2

10.1

9.8

[note 1] Due to the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the closure of schools in March 2020 no attendance data was collected for 2019/20. [note 2] Source: Annual official attendance statistics. [note 3] Source: Weekly attendance administrative data. Attendance codes were amended during the pandemic to reflect the circumstances and the data are not strictly comparable with the data for all other years in the table. [note 4] Source: Weekly attendance administrative data. This data is comparable to data for 20128/19 and 2022/23.