Lesson attendance in secondary schools - who is falling through the cracks?
New research from The Key Group has analysed data from Arbor, our management information system used by over half of schools in England, on lesson attendance.
We wanted to understand how big an issue it is that some pupils show up on the morning and afternoon registers, but then skip one or more lessons throughout the day. Who is missing out on learning, and perhaps, slipping through the net.
The full report is here: Lesson Attendance in Secondary Schools: Who is Falling Through the Cracks? We have looked at how this changes as year groups increase, as well as how this looks through the lenses of SEND status, free school meals (FSM) eligibility, sex, English as an additional language (EAL) status, income deprivation and Ofsted grade.
Whether it’s called internal truancy or, more thoughtfully, pupils missing lessons because, for whatever reason, they don’t feel able to access the learning or the classroom experience - a percentage of pupils have always missed out. We have never known, at a national level, what that percentage is.
Some data-savvy schools may know their own data, using their MIS to calculate the percentage of pupils who are not registered at every lesson. But all schools will very likely know, at a human level, who those pupils are, and why they’re on the school grounds, and yet not in maths, PE or whichever subject or environment they find too challenging to cope with. Leaders will know, because they will be picking them up, in corridors, behind the science block, or in the toilets. They will be shepherding them back to lessons, or to pastoral leaders and nurture rooms, and trying to get to the bottom of every individual circumstance for every single pupil.
We had picked up on discussion in the sector on the scale of this issue as a hidden part of the attendance challenge facing schools.
So, we used Arbor to get to the anonymised, aggregated data, building a robust sample of 225 secondary schools across the country, with 201,431 pupils represented. We picked a day earlier in the academic year - October 2nd 2025 - to study, because it was a pupil census day, and we rationalised that schools would be particularly cognisant of needing accurate data that day.
What does the data show? Data-wise, these are the headlines:
Overall, one in 50 pupils missed lessons while being physically at school
In Year 11, this rises to one in 30 pupils
We see spikes in Year 8 and Year 11
Pupils eligible for FSM who have special needs are more than three times as likely as their peers to miss lessons while at school
Across Years 7 to 11, almost four in every 100 pupils with SEND miss lessons despite being on the premises - more than double the rate of their peers without SEND. As we move forward with SEND reform, to bring more inclusive practice and serve a more inclusive pupil population in mainstream schools, this should give us cause to think about how we may need to be looking at additional metrics, in order to judge how well we’re serving those pupils.
Similarly, the data on pupils eligible for FSM shows that the proportion missing lessons is just over three in every 100 pupils - almost double that of their peers who aren’t FSM-eligible. With a focus from both government and Ofsted on how schools are supporting more disadvantaged pupils, this is a metric that schools will absolutely be monitoring, and working tirelessly to improve.
The proportion missing lessons overall doubles from year 7 to year 8. It may be a particularly dramatic increase because the data was collected relatively early into the new year 7s’ journey through secondary - perhaps the gap would be narrower if we’d looked at a date in the summer term for example. But it echoes what we’ve seen elsewhere about challenges ticking up in year 8, whether that’s overall attendance or engagement. Schools that are investing in a longer transition period from primary to secondary than just the first half term of year 7, may well have something to teach us here.
And finally, the spike in year 11 (especially when looking at year 11s with SEND and eligible for FSM - where it's the equivalent of roughly 2 pupils in every class) might come as no shock, but is deeply problematic. These pupils are in arguably the most stressful year of their academic lives to date, and the stakes are high. Missing lessons, missing learning, will have a material effect on their outcomes at 16. Year 11 is tough no matter what your individual circumstances are, but for these pupils, it is especially hard, and this is borne out in the data.
“We had to understand why pupils were avoiding lessons…our staff worked together to identify barriers, support families, adapt lessons and make sure pupils’ needs were being met”
Andy Nightingale, Headteacher
The last word here should go to a school leader - the people who care deeply about ensuring that pupils turn up to lessons, access the learning, and thrive.
We spoke to Andy Nightingale, Headteacher of St. Matthew's Roman Catholic High School in Manchester, who said his school had “wiped out lesson truancy by tackling it consistently and as a whole-school issue”. He told us how they had done that:
“For a sustained period, any staff who were not teaching were highly visible on corridors, with senior leaders and pastoral staff patrolling throughout the day until expectations changed and being in lessons became the cultural norm.
“But the key point is that this was never just about corridor presence. We also had to understand why pupils were avoiding lessons. Our pastoral team, SLT and teaching staff worked together to identify barriers, support families, adapt lessons and make sure pupils’ needs were being met.
“We now still have a strong presence around school, but our biggest impact has come through improving teaching and learning, strengthening SEND and pastoral support, and ensuring pupils feel known, supported and able to succeed in the classroom.”
In summary - a complex problem, with a multi-faceted approach to solving it, but when it works, everyone succeeds.
