Kids in Knowsley bunk off the most, can reveal.
Secondary schools in the Merseyside borough had an unauthorised absence rate of 7.2 per cent in the 2024/25 autumn term.
By comparison, that was more than double the national average (3 per cent), or three in 100 kids skiving every day.
Following Knowsley in the truancy table were Blackpool (5.8 per cent) and Newcastle (5.3 per cent).
Absences have rocketed in the wake of Covid, in a trend blamed on parents working from home adopting lax attitudes towards forcing their kids to attend lessons.
Addressing the deepending attendance crisis, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson earlier this month criticised parents who let their children bunk on Fridays.
Research shows unauthorised absences are about a fifth higher on Fridays.
Reminding parents of their ‘responsibility’, Ms Phillipson warned truancy affects ‘the education of all children’ in a class.
analysed Department for Education (DfE) attendance data for the entirety of the autumn 24/25 term.
Instead of breaking down the statistics for individual schools, results are collated for all 150-plus local authorities, who are able to fine parents up to £160 if their children misses five days of school for unapproved reasons.
Under the harshest penalties, parents of repeatedly truant children could be hit with a £2,500 fine or even a three-month prison sentence.
Current guidelines state children can only miss school if they’re too ill or if the school has granted special permission, for reasons such as family emergencies or religious observance.
Secondary schools in Trafford, Greater Manchester, logged the best attendance, with an unauthorised absence rate of 1.3 per cent during the 2024/25 autumn term.
It was followed by Wokingham (1.4 per cent) and Sutton (1.5 per cent)
It comes after a recent poll found nearly one in three children refused to go to school at least once in the past year.
Arguments about going to school were a weekly occurrence for a third of parents, the survey by education charity Parentkind showed.
Not enjoying school was the biggest cause of absence, cited by 15 per cent of parents.
DfE data shows the unauthorised absence rate among pupils in 2022/23 was nearly double the rate it was before the pandemic.
Around 1.6million pupils in England were ‘persistently absent’ during 2022/23. This means they missed at least a day a fortnight and equated to around 21.2 per cent of the student population.
There were also more than 150,000 pupils who were ‘severely absent’, which means they missed more than half of their lessons.
Although overall persistent absence rates fell last year compared with 2022-23, they still remain high at 19.2 per cent, or around 1.4million pupils.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told that improvements are being made thanks to ‘tireless’ effort from schools.
He said: ‘It has been particularly difficult given the lack of sufficient resources to address some of the key drivers of persistent absence – such as school anxiety and unmet special educational needs.
‘We need to see government action on both these fronts.
‘We understand that parents take these holidays because of the exorbitant cost of holidays in school holiday periods, but we would appeal to them to keep their children in school as every day counts, and we would like to see action to curb the sky-high prices charged by the travel industry in school holiday periods.’
Holidays are not typically considered an exceptional circumstance, yet more parents are doing it than in recent years.
During the last full school year, 443,000 fines were issued to parents who took their children out of school mid-term to go away.
This is up over 50 per cent compared to pre-Covid times.
It also amounts to nearly £24million, enough to pay the annual salary of 735 NHS nurses.
A report last year by the ImpactEd Group, a team of researchers and ex-teachers, suggested punishing absence is less effective than building relationships with pupils.
Schools should steer away from a ‘punitive approach’ towards truancy and teachers should drop sarcasm when welcoming pupils back to lessons, experts have said.