Last year, in the 2025/26 autumn term, there were 76,983 male severe absentees in England who were missing 50% or more of their school sessions. In the autumn term of 2019/2020, there were 33,355 equivalent male absentees - less than half.

Female absentees have followed a similar increase, though remain smaller in raw numbers. In 2019/20, there were 26,847 female severe absentees, and in 2025/26, this had nearly tripled to 74,296. However, despite this increase, there remain fewer female severe absentees than male.

According to the Department for Education, children who miss just 10 days of school in year 11 decrease their chances of achieving a grade 5 at English and Maths GCSE by 50%. The increasing number of students severely absent from more than half their schooling is therefore massively troubling.

Overall absence rates are also a cause for concern. This year, the male student overall absence rate was 6.48%, and the female rate was 6.46%. Both were higher than the pre-pandemic rate - which for boys was 5.03% and for girls was 4.82%.

And, persistent absentees (students who miss more than 10% of their school sessions) have also soared. This year, there were 662,274 male persistent absentees, and 630,799 female absentees. That is more than 1.2 million children regularly missing their schooling. In 2019, the equivalent number of boys and girls regularly missing their education was roughly 921,000.

The vast number of boys and girls not regularly attending school is desperately concerning. School attendance is both vital for academic attainment and often student well-being, and warrants a drastic government effort - for example, via funding breakfast clubs to get children into school in the mornings, or widening access to after school clubs, to give students a reason to come to, and stay at, school. Better, more cohesive support is needed for severe absentees who are skipping the majority of their schooling - whether that be for mental health reasons, family issues or other factors. Policy efforts are vital to reduce the number of school absentees.

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