School Attendance Data

​​​​​​​Request 857541575 

I am writing to request attendance and absence data for all state secondary schools in Jersey. 

Please provide the following data for each of the five academic years: 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25.

Where possible, please break down the figures by National Curriculum Year Group (Years 7 to 13). 

1. Specific Absence & Attendance Codes

The total number of unique pupils recorded under the following categories at any point during the school year:

Code B (Educated off-site / approved educational activity) Code C (Other authorised circumstances)

Part-time timetables (The number of pupils placed on a reduced or part-time timetable) 

2. Absences Exceeding 5 Days (Medical & Anxiety)

The number of unique pupils who missed more than 5 school days (either consecutively or cumulatively in a single academic year) for the following reasons:

Medical/Illness (recorded under Code I or Code M)

Mental Health / Anxiety (including Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA), or where anxiety/mental health was flagged as the primary reason for absence) 

3. Unexplained Absences Exceeding 5 Days

The number of unique pupils who missed more than 5 school days (consecutively or cumulatively) where the absence was: 

Unexplained or Unauthorised (recorded under Code N or Code O) 

Response

1. The table in Attachment 1 provides the total number of unique pupils recorded under the following categories at any point during the school years requested for all Government of

Jersey provided Secondary Schools:

Code B (Educated off-site / approved educational activity) Code C (Other authorised circumstances)

It should be noted that compulsory school age only applies up to Year 11, although data for Year 12 and 13 has also been provided.

FOI 857541575 Attachment 1.pdf​

The table in Attachment 2 provides the total number of unique pupils recorded under part-time timetable for all Government of Jersey provided Secondary Schools in 2023/2024 and 2024/2025. Where numbers are fewer than 5, disclosure control is applied to avoid identification of individuals, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied

The Part-Time Timetable (PTT) policy and application process were introduced in the 2023/2024 academic year. Prior to this, pupils on a part-time timetable were recorded under attendance code C, alongside other authorised circumstances, and therefore cannot be separately identified. The data presented here is taken from the PTT applications dataset which covers compulsory school age only (up to Year 11).

Information in relation to academic years previous to 2023/2024 and reduced timetables are not held, therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 is applied. 

FOI 857541575 Attachment 2.pdf​

2. The table below provides the number of unique pupils who missed more than 5 school days (either consecutively or cumulatively in a single academic year, equivalent to 11 sessions), for all Government of Jersey provided Secondary Schools, for the following reasons: 

• ​Medical/Illness (recorded under Code I or Code M) 
• New sub-codes introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic (I01 and I02) have been aggregated under attendance code I and are included within the figures presented.

There is no specific attendance code for Mental Health / Anxiety, including Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA), or cases where anxiety or mental health has been identified as the primary reason for absence. As a result, this information cannot be reported separately. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 is applied. 

3. The table below provides the number of unique pupils who missed more than 5 school days (consecutively or cumulatively, equivalent to 11 sessions) where the absence was Unexplained or Unauthorised (recorded under Code N or Code O), for all Government of Jersey provided Secondary Schools. 

Articles Applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018​ would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.​​​