Five Sheffield schools among worst in country for truancy, new figures reveal
School truancy figures have been revealed
A Sheffield school has the second worst rates for truancy in the whole of England.
Shocking new figures from the Department for Education have revealed the ‘unauthorised absence’ rates for all school in the country during 2024/25.
It shows which schools are struggling with children not coming to class without permission, which research shows is one of the biggest factors in outcomes for exam results and outcomes in life.
It shows that Sheffield’s Fir Vale Academy, in Owler Lane, is the second worst school in England for unauthorised absences, with children losing thousands of hours of learning time to playing hooky, being kept home by parents, being taken on term-time holidays, or refusing to come to class.
What does 'unauthorised absence rate' mean?
The figures work by looking at all of the occasions all of the children in a school could have been in class during a year, which is referred to as a ‘session’.
For example, a school that holds classes in the morning and afternoon holds two sessions a day. If it is open for the 190 days out of the year (the standard for schools in England), then it holds 380 sessions per child.
Then, the data asks, across all of those morning and afternoon sessions, how many children were absent from class for unauthorised reasons, and ranks schools by the results.
Fir Vale Academy’s unauthorised absence rate is 13.27 per cent. With around 1,000 children on its roll, it adds up to approximately 15,000 hours of lost learning time for children.
It comes after Fir Vale was also rated the worst performing secondary school in Sheffield in 2024-25, with just one in five pupils earned a grade 5 in English and Maths.
However, Fir Vale received one of its warmest Ofsted reports in years in February 2025 - even though inspectors had choice comments about attendance.
“Attendance remains too low for some pupils,” wrote the watchdog.
“A small proportion of pupils do not attend school regularly, which causes them to have gaps in their learning.
“Attendance is improving for most pupils who have previously been absent too often.
“However, attendance remains low for a proportion of pupils, which includes some pupils with SEND.
“Leaders know that this absence from school interrupts learning and hinders social development for these pupils.
“The school is working with families and pupils in a number of different ways to remove barriers to attending. Some of these initiatives are new.
“The large pastoral and attendance teams in school are reviewing trends and themes to help them understand how best they can improve the support available for pupils and families. “
Meanwhile, out of the bottom 100 schools for children not coming to school in England, five of them are in Sheffield, and three of them are operated by the same academic trust.
| Sheffield School | Academic trust | National rank for ‘schools with worst unauthorised absence rates’ | Unauthorised absence rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fir Vale Academy | UNITED Learning Trust | #2 | 13.27 |
| Sheffield Springs Academy | UNITED Learning Trust | #33 | 10.01 |
| Sheffield Park Academy | UNITED Learning Trust | #49 | 9.24 |
| Yewlands Academy | Brigantia Learning Trust | #55 | 8.99 |
| The Birley Academy | L.E.A.D Academy Trust | #97 | 8.02 |
UNITED, Brigantia and L.E.A.D were all contacted for a comment.
However, Ofsted remarked all five schools were working to reduce persistent absences in their most recent inspections.
What causes absence from schools?
There are many factors that contribute to persistent absence outside of “children playing hooky” that are not broken down the in the data.
An enormous increase in SEND diagnoses and EHCP plans in recent years, as well parents keeping their children home because they feel schools don’t meet their needs, could be a factor.
There is also the increase in parents taking children on term time holidays - in Sheffield, a record breaking 7,359 fines were issued in 2024/25, up from 5,610 in 2023/24.
Of course, a significant concern is that children skipping school are vulnerable to exploitation by gangs and criminals. The Centre for Social Justice claims pupils who skip school are three times more likely to commit an offence.
Local authorities have fought for years to drive down absence rates, which spiralled during the pandemic as children and parents became disconnected from schools.
However, across the country, unauthorised absences from school fell for the second time in a row last year.
A DfE spokesperson said: "Every child deserves to be in school, learning and thriving. We have made real progress - absence is down and persistent absence has plummeted with over 225,000 more children attending school almost every day.
"But we know there's more to do, particularly for children with SEND. We have launched the biggest reform to the SEND system in a generation with work already underway, ensuring children get the right support earlier, in a school near them.”
Several newspapers, including The Daily Express and Yorkshire Live, reported on April 21 that Fir Vale School was the No.1 worst rated school for unauthorised absences, with a quoted rate of 17.1 per cent. This would make it far and away the worst rated in the country.
However, this was because of a miscalculation. The data from the DfE has two entries for Fir Vale - one as ‘Fir Vale School’, and one as ‘Fir Vale Academy’. This is because midway through the 2024/25 academic year, the school was adopted by UNITED Academy Learning Trust.
The single entry for ‘Fir Vale Academy’ does work out to an unauthorised absence rate of 17.1 per cent. However, when the figures for ‘Fir Vale School’ are added to the total, the unauthorised absence rate drops to 13.27 per cent.
This is slightly below the actual worst rated school for unauthorised absences in England - Co-Op Academy Leeds, with a rate of 13.31 per cent.
However, serious questions remain over how Sheffield has the second worst attended school in England, and why five of the bottom 100 schools overall are from Sheffield.
How does Sheffield compare to other cities?
Having five schools in the bottom 100 for truancy is an unenviable look for Sheffield, but how do other cities fare?
| City/Local Authority | Number of schools in bottom 100 for unauthorised absences | Highest ranked school in list |
| Sheffield | 5 | #2, Fir Vale Academy |
| Leeds | 5 | #1, Co-Op Academy Leeds |
| Liverpool | 6 | #5, Alsop High School |
| Bradford | 7 | #12, Hanson Academy |
| Newcastle Upon Tyne | 6 | #13, Kenton School |
| Nottingham | 3 | #31, Bluecoat Beechdale Academy |
| Birmingham | 2 | #10, Waverley Studio College |