More than 3 in 10 secondary pupils ‘persistently’ absent

More than three in 10 pupils are absent from north and north-east secondary schools for the equivalent of one day or more a fortnight.

In Highland almost half – 43.7% – are persistently absent. This means they miss at least 10% of the time they should be in school.

Amid rising school absence across Scotland, we looked at attendance records for local authority secondary schools in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.

Westhill Academy, in Aberdeenshire, and Cults Academy, in Aberdeen, are among those with the best pupil attendance.

The highest absence rate locally was at Inverness High School. Not far behind were Alness Academy and Kinlochbervie High School, in Highland, and Northfield Academy, in Aberdeen.

School attendance was in decline before the pandemic hit in 2020. However, it has fallen more sharply since.

Almost half of absences in Scottish secondary schools last year were due to illness.

But more than a quarter were unexplained, including truancy.

According to Education Scotland, evidence shows that pupils’ progress, attainment and achievement is affected when their attendance falls below 90% – that is missing 19 days in a school year, equating to one day a fortnight.

More than 40% of secondary school children and young people are doing so – classed as persistently absent – according to new figures from the Scottish Government.

And if their attendance averages 90% annually a child will have missed an entire year of school by the time they reach S3.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth branded the number of pupils missing school as “not acceptable”.

She added: “There must be a renewed drive across all levels of governments and agencies to address this as a priority.”

Pupils in the poorest parts of Scotland had a lower attendance rate than those youngsters in the most affluent communities, with an attendance rate of 86.8% in the most deprived parts of Scotland compared with 93.5% in the least deprived areas.

Ms Gilruth said: “We know that absence is among the post-pandemic challenges facing schools internationally and Scotland is not immune from that.

“Education Scotland has already offered support to schools to improve attendance and reduce absence, following publication of the Improving Attendance report which I commissioned last year.”

She said as a “first priority” Holyrood was working with councils to “return attendance to pre-Covid levels and reduce persistent absence as far as possible”.