A new interactive gadget has exposed London's schools with the worst truancy records, allowing parents to check how their child's institution compares. State-funded secondary pupils across the capital missed approximately one in every 36 days due to unauthorised absences during the 2024/25 academic year, a rate of 2.8% of missed school sessions. This figure fell below the England-wide average of 3.2%.
National Trends
The national rate of unauthorised absences dropped from 3.5% in 2023/24 and 3.4% in 2022/23. However, it remains nearly double the pre-pandemic level of 1.8%. Truancy rates vary dramatically between individual schools, according to Department for Education statistics that have disclosed the unauthorised absence rate for every state-funded secondary across England.
London's Worst Offenders
City of London Academy Islington recorded London's highest rate, with 10.6% of school sessions lost to unauthorised absences—almost one in nine. This placed the institution 25th nationwide. Kemnal Technology College in Bromley posted the capital's next highest rate at 9.5%, followed by Shirley High School Performing Arts College in Croydon and Islip Manor High School in Ealing, both at 8.9%.
Other London schools with high rates include Haverstock School in Camden (8.4%), City of London Academy Highbury Grove (8%), Beacon High (7.8%), Arts and Media School Islington (7.8%), Ark Acton Academy in Ealing (7.5%), and Plumstead Manor School in Greenwich (7.4%).
England's Most Truant School
Fir Vale Academy in Sheffield topped the national list with a staggering 17.1% unauthorised absence rate—pupils missed equivalent to one in every six sessions. The Co-op Academy in Leeds recorded 13.3%, followed by Saint Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic Academy in Knowsley (13.1%), The Basildon Upper Academy in Essex (12.8%), Alsop High School in Liverpool (12.7%), Leeds East Academy (12.5%), and Aylesbury UTC in Buckinghamshire (12.3%).
The interactive table enables users to discover the unauthorised absence rate for every state-funded secondary school across England.
