School Absence Data Added to Our School Pages, With Analysis

How often pupils miss school in Gloucestershire and at each state school in the Cheltenham area, from the Department for Education.

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Every state school page on the site now shows how often its pupils miss school, from the Department for Education’s official figures, beside the Gloucestershire average. Our new Cheltenham school absence page brings the 60 state schools in the GL50–GL54 area together, compares Gloucestershire with the South West and England for every school year since 2012/13, and breaks the latest year down by primary, secondary and special schools.

What the Figures Show

• In 2024/25, pupils at Gloucestershire’s state schools missed 6.7% of their sessions, slightly below England (6.8%) and the South West (7.1%).
• 14,036 pupil enrolments in the county (17.2%) were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten. That’s down from 17,046 (21.4%) in 2021/22, but still well above the 7,824 (10.2%) of 2018/19, before the pandemic.
• 1,923 (2.4%) were severely absent, missing at least half of their time in school: more than three times the 590 (0.8%) of 2018/19, and still rising.
• The early figures for the autumn and spring terms of 2025/26 show 2.3% severely absent, up from 2.2% in the same terms a year earlier, while persistent absence was little changed at 16.6%.
• In Cheltenham, absence follows deprivation. Our analysis of primary school absence by ward found pupils at primaries in the five most deprived wards were four times as likely to be persistently absent as those in the least deprived, while Ofsted grades showed no such split.

FAQs

Where Do the Figures Come From?

• The Department for Education’s Pupil absence in schools in England statistics, which are built from the attendance registers every state school keeps.

What Counts as Persistent or Severe Absence?

• A pupil is persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of their morning and afternoon sessions, and severely absent if they miss 50% or more. Both authorised absence, such as illness, and unauthorised absence count.

Can I See My Child’s School?

• Yes. Each school’s own page shows its figures, and the table of schools lists every state primary, secondary and special school in GL50–GL54 with its figures for 2024/25 and for the autumn and spring terms of 2025/26.

How Often Is It Updated?

• The Department for Education publishes the full school year each March and the autumn and spring terms each October. The page picks up each new release by itself.