Evidence, Impact and Actions for Consideration 2024-26 report: What does the national data tell us?

National attendance and absence data is collected annually and published in December for the previous academic year as Accredited Official Statistics. In addition, the Scottish Government collects and publishes fortnightly management information (MI) on school absences throughout the academic year. Changes introduced in January 2025 allowed MI data to be presented as cumulative, both across the fortnight and since the start of the school year. This fortnightly data and analysis enables the Scottish Government and Education Scotland to continue to monitor school pupil attendance in a timely manner to inform future action in this area of work. The fortnightly MI is shared back with all local authorities to support their work on improving attendance.

This section of the report focusses on key trends from both these sources of published attendance and absence data over the last two years.

Overall attendance

The annual school attendance and absence statistics show 90.3% attendance in session 2023/24, an improvement of 0.1 percentage points (pp) from the previous year. For session 2024/25, attendance rates were 91%, an improvement of 0.7pp from the previous year. This remains below the pre-Covid-19 level of 93% in session 2018/19.

Attendance and absence patterns

Authorised absences in 2024/25 were 5.3%, a decrease compared to 5.9% in 2023/24, but higher than the pre-Covid-19 (2018/19) level of 4.4%. Unauthorised absence in 2024/25 was 3.7%, a slight decrease compared to 3.8% in 2023/24, but higher than the pre-Covid-19 (2018/19) level of 2.6%. Sickness (without education provision) continues to be the largest reason for absence, although the rate decreased from the previous year, from 4.8% of all possible openings in 2023/24, to 4.4% in 2024/25.

Attendance rates increased for both learners with and without an additional support need (ASN) compared to 2023/24. However, it increased more for learners with no ASN, therefore the gap has widened to 4.7pp compared to a gap of 4.6pp in 2023/24.

Attendance rates increased for both learners living in the 20% most deprived areas and for those in the 20% least deprived areas compared to 2023/24. However, attendance rates increased more for learners living in the 20% most deprived areas therefore the gap has narrowed to 6.5pp compared to a gap of 6.7pp in 2023/24.

Overall attendance data by sex indicates patterns are broadly stable. Boys in secondary schools recorded slightly higher attendance than girls (88.9% compared to 87.9% respectively). This trend is reversed in primary schools, where girls had slightly higher attendance, signalling that differences vary by sector rather than reflecting a single consistent pattern. However, when examining the data by stage, there are larger patterns of lower attendance for girls in S3, a gap of 1.6pp when comparing to the attendance of S3 boys. When broken down into ‘reasons for absence’, girls at S3 have higher absences for all reason categories except for temporary exclusion.

The largest differences were in the sickness without provision, unexplained absence, including truancy, and other authorised absences reason categories. Moving forward, further consideration needs to be given to the reasons behind this and possible solutions. Local authorities and schools, who have access to more detailed attendance data, should ensure that they have sufficiently sophisticated systems in place to analyse their data and identify trends to inform improvement.

Over the last two years, primary schools had the highest attendance rates, followed by secondary schools and then special schools. It should be noted that all three sectors increased their rates of attendance in session 2024/25, with the largest increase being recorded in secondary schools (0.8pp).

There are consistent patterns from both session 2023/24 and 2024/25, where attendance in primary one is the highest, then remains relatively stable until primary five. It subsequently starts to decline year on year until S3, which has the lowest attendance of all year groups. Attendance increases again, year on year, from S4 to S6.

In session 2023/24, 21 local authorities (LAs) had improved rates of attendance, ranging from 0.01pp to 0.83pp compared to 2022/23. Notably, in session 2024/25 all except one local authority had improved rates of attendance, ranging from 0.1pp to 2pp compared to 2023/24, demonstrating year on year improvements building progressively over time.

Whilst improvement was evident in 2023/24, the attendance rate for learners who were looked after within the last year had decreased from 84.4% in 2022/23 to 83.7% in 2023/24. Those who were looked after at home during 2023/24 had the lowest attendance rates across all accommodation types for looked after children. Moving forward, support to improve the attendance of these learners should be a priority.

The rate of persistent absence (percentage of learners who were absent 10% or more of all half day sessions), has decreased over the last two years, from 31.4% in 2023/24 to 28.5% in 2024/25. Persistent absences vary greatly across all stages of schooling, with the highest rates being in S3 in 2024/25 (bespoke analysis drawn from Accredited Official Statistics). Throughout all stages of primary school, boys have higher rates of persistent absence than girls. However, in secondary school, girls have higher rates of persistent absence across all stages. From S2 to S6, these are large differences ranging from 3.6pp to 4.8pp. More work is needed nationally, locally and at establishment level to understand the reasons for this.

A significant poverty-related persistent absence gap also remains, with 26.5pp between those living in quintile one versus those living in quintile five. Similarly, there is a significant additional support need (ASN)-related persistent absence gap, with 16pp between those with ASN versus those with no ASN.

In a few local authorities, there are individual schools who have significantly (up to 10pp or more difference) lower attendance than their local authority average. Strategic resources and support should focus on these establishments.

Lower attendance rates for particular groups would suggest that there should be a continued focus on targeted improvement at national, local and establishment levels. These groups include, but are not limited to, learners with ASN, those who are living in quintile one and those who have experienced care.

While variability in overall attendance is apparent across Scotland, a range of factors, including rates of deprivation and the numbers of learners with additional support needs, continues to have an impact on individual local authority results. Local authority comparisons require careful and cautious interpretation. Variations in context, especially where there are large numbers of learners living in quintile one, mean that relative positions across Scotland may not fully capture the significant improvements achieved by some authorities. It is important to ensure a continued focus on improvement, informed by local data.

Following the national data summarised above, three additional questions were explored more fully to consider the potential impact upon attendance and to prompt further consideration.

Do holiday patterns have an impact on attendance?

Assumptions are often made about the impact of holiday patterns on attendance. This section looks at the data for the February half-term holiday, due to the variation in patterns across Scotland. This data is taken from the fortnightly MI.

February half term

Evidence taken from published fortnightly absence MI data (2024/25) suggests that attendance rates fluctuate in the period around the half term break in February.

Absence rates are higher in authorities that schedule only part of the week as the break or split the break across a weekend. In contrast, when authorities take a full week (or longer), absence rates show less fluctuation compared with the preceding and following fortnights. This suggests that authorities with a full‑week February half term experience less disruption to attendance.

What trends can be seen in authorised and unauthorised family holidays?

The purpose of this analysis was to identify any patterns or trends across the 32 local authorities in relation to the rate of authorised and unauthorised family holidays. This analysis also helped to understand the extent to which family holidays might impact on overall attendance rates at local authority level.

Although the overall unauthorised absence rate has decreased since 2023/24, the rate of unauthorised holidays has increased slightly, from 1.0% of all openings in 2023/24 to 1.1% in 2024/25. This is the highest since the start of the time series in 2009/10.

Unauthorised family holidays

In 2024/25, rates of unauthorised family holidays across the 32 local authorities ranged from 0.7% to 1.5%. Three neighbouring local authorities accounted for the highest rates. Almost all local authorities showed an increase in unauthorised family holidays from 2023/24 to 2024/25. The increases ranged from less than 0.01% to 0.18%.

In 2024/25, the rate of unauthorised family holidays ranged from 1.1% to 1.3% across the primary stages, with the highest rates in primary four and lowest rates in primary seven. Within secondary school stages, the rate ranged from 0.5% to 1.0%, with the highest rates in S2 and S3 and lowest in S6.

Authorised family holidays

In 2024/25, rates of authorised family holidays across the 32 local authorities ranged from 0.02% to 0.2%. A minority of local authorities showed an increase in authorised parental holidays from 2023/24 to 2024/25. The increases were small and ranged from less than 0.01% to 0.02%.

In 2024/25, the rate of authorised family holidays ranged from 0.08% to 0.09% across all primary stages. Within secondary schools, the rate ranged from 0.02% to 0.05% across stages, with the highest rates in S2 and lowest rates in S6.

Moving forward, schools and LAs could consider enhancing communication with families by targeting messaging around the impact of term‑time holidays for stages with consistently higher absence rates. It may also be helpful to utilise data to analyse patterns and underlying factors influencing term‑time holiday requests to understand local context.

Do Friday early school closures impact attendance?

Attendance data was considered to explore this question in greater depth, examine any potential impact on attendance and support further analysis. This data was drawn from locally collected management data provided by three authorities who assisted in the analysis of this area. It was shared as illustrative examples to inform consideration of the question, rather than as formally assured statistical evidence.

Across Scotland, some secondary schools close earlier on a Friday than other days as part of an asymmetric week, while others continue with a standard full‑day timetable. There is no single national pattern, and Friday hours vary between local areas and even between neighbouring schools in the same authority. To explore whether early closures make any difference to attendance, sample evidence was gathered from three local authorities implementing different Friday structures.

Local authority A includes schools that finish early on Fridays and others running a full day. This authority covers a large area that includes both towns and rural communities, and its schools serve learners from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Across all its secondary schools, Friday attendance is consistently lower than on Monday to Thursday. In term one of academic session 2024/25, Friday attendance was lower in schools with early closures; in the first term of 2025/26, the reverse occurred, and early‑closure schools recorded stronger Friday attendance than those operating full days. This happened despite no new authority‑wide approaches to attendance being introduced during that period. These year‑to‑year changes suggest that factors other than early closing are likely to be influencing attendance.

Local authority B operates a uniform model: all secondary schools finish at lunchtime on Fridays. Geographically, this is a compact authority, with schools situated close to each other and a growing population. Attendance data across several years shows a consistent pattern: Fridays record a small but steady dip in attendance compared with the rest of the week. The drop is not dramatic, but it is persistent and appears unrelated to changes in school structures or policy.

Local authority C takes a different approach: all its secondary schools run a full day on Fridays. This authority spans a large geographical area, including multiple islands. As a result, travel arrangements, weather conditions, ferry timetables and local community routines can all influence attendance. In most of the schools, Fridays have the highest absence levels of the week. In some schools, Friday absences rise sharply compared with other days, suggesting that local circumstances play a significant role.

Overall, across these three authorities, there is no clear evidence that early Friday closures either improve or worsen attendance. Patterns vary, and changes from year to year appear to be influenced more by local context, culture, behaviour and wider community factors than by the structure of the school day itself. It would be helpful, for analysis purposes, for more authorities to gather and compare similar data over time. Schools may also benefit from exploring the specific cultural or behavioural reasons why Fridays can be more challenging for some groups of learners, regardless of whether the school day ends early or not.