All of Portsmouth's 11 state secondary schools ranked by attendance - and why it matters

There are many different factors that can drive a school to have a high absence rate, from illness, to unauthorised term-time holidays, to children going missing from education.

But it can all have a big impact on their attainment - including in the important secondary school qualifications that can help shape the rest of their lives.

The Government recently released its latest absence and attendance figures, covering the full 2023/24 school year. Despite showing a small improvement on the year before, the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. One in five pupils were also labelled ‘persistently absent’, meaning they are missing at least 10% of these half-day sessions.

Another new Department for Education report has highlighted just how much it could be impacting how these young people do at school. It found that pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 11 were almost twice as likely to achieve a Grade 5 in their English and Maths GCSEs, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This means that missing just 10 days of school reduced the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.

Included with the Government’s attendance figures was the absence data for each state-funded secondary school in England. We’ve taken a closer look at how those in the Portsmouth City Council area did - excluding private and special schools - when it came to pupils attending class. One all-through schools has also been included, but it is worth noting that its attendance rates may include primary pupils.

Here is how Portsmouth’s 11 local secondary schools fared - from those with the lowest absence rates, to those with the highest: