The internal Education Department report, which focuses on pupil attendance and absence for children aged between four and 16 during the 2014/2015 academic year, shows that the rate of overall attendance was 96.1 per cent – the highest figure since 2008/2009.
It also showed that the unauthorised absence rate fell slightly from the previous year, while the authorised rate remained the same.
Jersey’s overall absence rate was marginally better than England’s and its unauthorised absence rate of 0.2 per cent was also lower than for schools across the Channel (0.9%), however, for the second year running Jersey had a higher percentage of absences for authorised family holiday – 0.7 per cent for primaries and 0.4 per cent for secondaries, compared to 0.1 per cent and zero respectively in England. Those figures were similar to last year, when family holidays accounted for 0.8 per cent absence in Island primary schools and 0.3 per cent in secondaries.
