Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Charlotte Leslie (Conservative) on Wednesday, 13 October 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 October 2010. It was answered by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Tuesday, 2 November 2010 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Pupils: Absenteeism

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of pupils recorded as having days of unauthorised absence in secondary schools with (a) fewer than 800 pupils, (b) 800 to 1,000 pupils and (c) more than 1,000 pupils in each year since 2000.
Answer

The requested information for 2005/06 and 2008/09 is shown in the table.Pupil absence has been collected at school level in secondary schools since 2005/06. Information relating to the number of pupils with unauthorised absence is not available prior to this date.To provide data for further years would incur disproportionate cost.

State-funded secondary schools¹, ²: Number and proportion of enrolments³ with unauthorised absence by size of school4. In 2005/06 and 2008/09. In England
Schools with fewer than 800 pupils4 Schools with 800 to 1,000 pupils4 Schools with over 1,000 pupils4
Number of enrolments with unauthorised absence Number of enrolments Percentage of enrolments with unauthorised absence Number of enrolments with unauthorised absence Number of enrolments Percentage of enrolments with unauthorised absence Number of enrolments with unauthorised absence Number of enrolments Percentage of enrolments with unauthorised absence
2005/06 196,310 626,330 31.34 198,450 618,020 32.11 589,500 1,811,590 32.54
2008/09 222,340 646,730 34.38 219,890 610,080 36.04 578,270 1,697,520 34.07
¹ Includes middle schools as deemed.
² Includes city technology colleges and academies.
³ Number of pupil enrolments in schools. Includes pupils on the school roll for at least one session who are aged between 5 and 15, excluding boarders. Some pupils may be counted more than once (if they moved schools during the school year or are registered in more than one school).
4 Headcount of solely registered pupils taken from the January census. Schools which were not open at the January census have been excluded from the analysis.
Note:
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
School Census

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
17891; 517 c731-4W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Absenteeism Pupils Truancy
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk