South Tyneside's 8 state secondary schools ranked by attendance - from lowest to highest absences

Going to school regularly allows young people to make the most of all kinds of opportunities - and may even be tied to better exam outcomes.

The Government’s latest absence figures - for the full 2023/24 school year - suggest that across the country, attendance rates could be better. The overall absence rate - or the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels. One in five pupils were also labelled ‘persistently absent’ from class, meaning they missed at least 10% of these half-day sessions.

With this year’s secondary school GCSE and A Level exam season now in full swing, the important of regular attendance is drawn into sharp focus. A recent Department for Education report 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, it found, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This means that missing just 10 days of school cuts the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.

Absences add up, so we’ve taken a look at how state-funded secondary schools - excluding private and special schools - in the South Tyneside Council area compare when it comes to pupils missing class for any reason. Here is how the area’s 8 local schools fared, from those with the lowest overall absence rates, to the highest: