According to government data published today, the overall absence rate for the autumn and spring terms fell from 5.3 per cent in 2012/13 to 4.4 per cent in 2013/14 – their lowest level since data was first collected in 2006/07, when the rate was 6.4 per cent.
The figures also show that the proportion of persistent absentees, who missed more than 38 sessions during the autumn and spring terms, fell from 4.9 per cent in 2012/13 to 4.1 per cent in 2013/14.
According to the report, the Department for Education credits a fall in illness for the drop in overall absences, with just 2.7 per cent of all possible sessions being missed as a result of sickness in 2013/14 compared with 3.3 per cent of sessions the previous year.
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