Background notes

Sources and timing

The information in this publication is derived from two sources: the annual attendance collection and the biennial exclusions collection. The attendance, absence and exclusions statistics shown here relate to the 2024/25 school year.

The information for the attendance and exclusions collections, were collected electronically - through local authorities - from all publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools, as part of the ScotXed programme. The information collected is largely sourced from school management information systems, thus reducing the burden on data provider.

Attendance

Timing and scope

The attendance collection will take place annually for the foreseeable future. The statistics published in this bulletin refer to the 2024/25 school year.

The 2020/21 school year was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. When comparing statistics from that year with other years the ‘attendance or absence – schools open’ should be used. Further details on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on attendance statistics can be found in the background notes to the 2020/21 attendance statistics publication.

The attendance and absence collection covers all publicly funded local authority schools in Scotland and Jordanhill, the grant-aided mainstream school. It does not cover grant-aided special schools, independent schools or early learning and childcare establishments.

Attendance and absence information is collected and published for pupils with pupil census status 01 (“pupil on roll of this school (except for those attending full time Further Education courses outside this school)”), status 04 (“pupil on roll of this school attending full time Further Education course outside of this school”) or status 05 (“pupil on roll of this school attending full time course other than Further Education outside of this school”).

Any school that was open and had pupils with one of the above statuses on its roll during the collection year is included in the statistics, regardless of the length of time it was open for. Schools that opened or closed during the year will still be captured.

S6 pupils are included in all figures in this publication.

Further information on what is collected in the attendance and absence collection may be found in the collection specification.

Data sources

The statistics used in this publication are derived from attendance records derived from schools’ management information systems.

Rates of attendance and absence relate to the total number of possible half day attendances. This number will differ for each pupil enrolment as it accounts for on the length of time the pupil is on the roll of the school, the number of half day openings the school operates, and whether the pupil has any ‘extended leave with parental consent’ recorded (openings recorded as extended leave with parental consent are not considered to be possible attendances).

Most schools operate 380 half-day sessions during the school year. However, some schools operate 342 longer half-day sessions in the school year. Schools doing so include:

• All schools in the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian and the Scottish Borders
• All secondary schools in Angus
• Four secondary schools in Fife
• All secondary schools, 54 primary schools and one special school in Highland
• Crathie Primary School, Aberdeenshire
• Kinross High School, Perth and Kinross

There has been an increase in the number of schools operating 342 half-day sessions in recent years meaning the number of possible openings for Scotland is lower than previously. However, figures remain comparable.

Attendance and absence codes

Attendance and absence is reported to the Scottish Government using the categories below. These categories are based on more detailed categories used by schools for their own operational recording of attendance and absence.

Category	Grouping
Attendance	Attendance
Late 1: Arrives before 50% of opening	Attendance
Work experience	Attendance
Sickness with educational provision	Attendance
Sickness with no educational provision	Authorised absence
Late 2: Arrives after 50% of opening	Authorised absence
Family holidays authorised by school	Authorised absence
Exceptional domestic circumstances (authorised)	Authorised absence
Other authorised absence	Authorised absence
Part-time timetable (exclusion related)	Authorised absence
Part-time timetable (health related)	Authorised absence
Family holidays not authorised by school	Unauthorised absence
Truancy, including unexplained absence	Unauthorised absence
Exceptional domestic circumstances (unauthorised)	Unauthorised absence
Other unauthorised absence	Unauthorised absence
Temporary exclusion	Temporary exclusion
Extended leave with parental consent	[Excluded from attendance and absence calculations]

The Scottish Government has published guidance on the management and recording of attendance and absence.

Pupil characteristics and linkage to the pupil census

Information on pupils’ sex, ethnicity, national identity and school stage are collected alongside the attendance and absence data. However, information on all other pupil characteristics is obtained by linking the attendance and absence data to the pupil census conducted in the school year the data pertains to. The 2024/25 attendance and absence data was linked to the 2024 pupil census data.

This linkage is done using combinations of identifiers and characteristics of the pupils in the attendance and absence data. These include school attended, Scottish Candidate Number, sex and ethnicity. Pupils who move between local authority schools after the pupil census was conducted (September of the school year) will be matched to their census records even if their school differs. However, any pupils who were not attending any local authority school in Scotland on census day will not be matched to the census data. This is likely to occur when a pupil has, for example, moved to Scotland or from an independent school to a local authority funded school during the school year.

For the 2024/25 attendance and absence collection 98.3% of pupil enrolments were matched to the pupil census. This is in line with the rate for previous years.

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Data

The information on the deprivation of pupils, as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2020, was obtained using the postcode information linked to their pupil census records. Pupils who were unable to be linked to the pupil census therefore have no SIMD data available. An additional 0.1% of pupil enrolments had no SIMD data available as their postcode information from the pupil census could not be matched to the SIMD. Reasons for this include the postcode being missing or invalid. This rate is consistent with that for previous attendance and absence collections.

Notes on the interpretation of the data

Two new absence codes – part-time timetable (health related) and part-time timetable (exclusion related) – were available for schools to use from the 2018/19 school year. Variation in their use and incorrect applications of them was identified during the quality assurance of the 2018/19 attendance and absence data. There is evidence that this is still happening, although to a lesser extent.

As a result all absences recorded using these part-time timetable codes have been recoded as ‘other authorised absence’ for the purposes of the 2018/19 statistics onwards. The number of absences reported using these codes was very small (less than 0.1% of possible attendances) so the inclusion of them as ‘other authorised absence’ does not have a large impact on the size or quality of this category.

Comparisons to the exclusions collection

Status 05 pupils (“pupil on roll of this school attending full time course other than Further Education outside of this school”) and pupils attending the mainstream grant-aided school, Jordanhill, are included in the attendance and absence collection but not the exclusions collection. As a result, any exclusions of these pupils will be recorded in one but not the other, making the total number of half days pupils were temporarily excluded for higher in the attendance collection than the exclusions collection. This issue occurs at all levels. However, the cases of exclusion for these pupils and the number of half days these pupils were excluded for are very low. Therefore, that it is not considered to have an impact on the figures from either collection or the use of them together.

Exclusions

The exclusion statistics relate to temporary exclusions and number of pupils removed from the register (previously known as ‘permanent’ exclusions). An exclusion is temporary when a pupil is excluded from a school but remains on the register of that school because they are expected to return when the exclusion period is completed. The term ‘removed from the register’ refers to a pupil who is excluded and their name removed from the school register. Such a pupil would then be educated at another school or via some other form of provision.

Guidance on exclusions from school was published in 2017.

Timing and scope

Information on exclusions is collected biennially. The figures published in this bulletin refer to the 2024/25 school year. It is next scheduled to be collected for the 2026/27 school year.

The collection covers all publicly funded local authority schools in Scotland. It does not cover grant-aided schools (including Jordanhill School) and independent schools.

Prior to the 2018/19 collection, exclusions information was collected for the grant-aided mainstream school, Jordanhill. This information ceased to be collected from the 2018/19 collection as the cases of exclusions and number of pupils excluded at this school were consistently low in previous collections. Publishing this information therefore risked the identification of the pupils and/or incidents concerned without disclosure control being applied. This disclosure control would also reduce the information available on exclusions in other schools and local authorities to the detriment of the interpretation the figures. It was therefore decided to stop the collection of exclusions figures for Jordanhill. The small number of exclusions concerned means that this change is not considered to impact the comparability of figures from the 2018/19 collection onwards with those from previous collections.

Exclusions information is only collected and published for pupils with status 01 (“pupil on roll of this school (except for those attending full time Further Education courses outside this school)”) or status 04 (“pupil on roll of this school attending full time Further Education course outside of this school”).

Further information on what is collected in the exclusions collection may be found in the collection specification.

Pupil characteristics and linkage to the pupil census

Information on pupils’ sex, ethnicity, national identity and school stage are collected alongside the exclusions data. However, information on all other pupil characteristics is obtained by linking the exclusions data to the pupil census conducted in the school year the data pertains to. The 2024/25 exclusions data was linked to the 2024 pupil census data.

This linkage is done using combinations of identifiers and characteristics of the pupils in the exclusions data, including school attended, Scottish Candidate Number, sex and ethnicity. Pupils who move between local authority schools after the date the pupil census was conducted (September of the school year) will still be matched to their census records even if their school differs. However, any pupils who were not attending any local authority school in Scotland on census day will be unable to be matched to the census data. This is likely to occur when a pupil has, for example, moved to Scotland or from an independent school to a local authority funded school during the school year.

For the 2024/25 exclusions collection 99.6% of pupil enrolments with an exclusion recorded were matched to the pupil census. These enrolments accounted for 99.7% of the recorded cases of exclusion.

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Data

The information on the deprivation of pupils, as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2020, was obtained using the postcode information linked to their pupil census records. Pupils who were unable to be linked to the Pupil census therefore have no SIMD data available. A further 0.1% the total pupil enrolments with an exclusion recorded (accounting for 0.1% of the total cases of exclusion) had no SIMD data available as their postcode information from the 2024 Pupil census could not be matched to the SIMD data. Reasons for this include the postcode being missing or invalid.

Free school meals data

Information on free school meal registrations is collected in the Pupil census. A pupil is considered registered for FSM for the Pupil census regardless of whether their eligibility is under the national eligibility criteria or local initiatives.  Please see the Pupil census background notes for more information of these criteria and local initiatives captured in the 2024 census figures. They may be found in the Pupil census supplementary tables: https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/

Notes on the interpretation of the data

Status 05 pupils and pupils attending the mainstream grant-aided school, Jordanhill, are included in the attendance and absence collection but not the exclusions collection. As a result, any exclusions of these pupils will be recorded in one but not the other, making the total number of half days pupils were temporarily excluded for higher in the attendance collection than the exclusions collection. This issue occurs at all levels. However, the cases of exclusion for these pupils and the number of half days these pupils were excluded for are very low. Therefore, that it is not considered to have an impact on the figures from either collection or the use of them together.

COVID-19 impact on 2020/21 exclusions collection

The school year covered by the 2020/21 exclusions statistics was substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Significantly, most schools in Scotland were shut in early 2021 and many had shorter local closures throughout the rest of the year (see the attendance and absence background notes above for more detail on these school closures). Additionally, many pupils were absent for periods of time when they had tested positive for COVID-19 or were required to self-isolate.

It can therefore be said that some of the decrease in exclusions between 2018/19 and 2020/21 was due to the pandemic limiting the time pupils were in school. So long as one considers the different context of education in 2020/21 versus previous years, figures are comparable at national and local authority level.

Corrections

The total exclusions figure and the ‘temporary exclusions” figure for 2020/21 and 2022/23 were revised in December 2025 following the identification of a coding error which led to some exclusions being duplicated. The minor correction has led to a reduction in the number of temporary exclusions (and total exclusions) by 4 cases in 2020/21 and 3 cases in 2022/23. This has not impacted the overall messaging or trends over time.

The affected 2020/21 and 2022/23 statistics have been corrected within this bulletin and the associated 2024/25 tables where applicable. The historic 2020/21 and 2022/23 exclusion tables will be updated in due course. The statistics in the latest published edition of the bulletin therefore supersede all previously published statistics.

Rounding and symbols

All differences and totals are calculated from unrounded data and therefore may not match the difference or total calculable from the rounded data shown.

The following symbols are used:

x = not available

low = a figure close to, but not a real, zero

z = not applicable

c = value suppressed to protect against the risk of disclosure of personal information