Plymouth schools - key facts and figures

Plymouth Local Authority has 97 maintained educational establishments(source: May 2010 school census) which can be divided into the following main types of school:

Type of school	Number of schools	Number on roll (May 2010)
Nursery schools	2	194
Primary phase schools	68	18,702
Secondary schools	16	17,982
Special schools	8	607
Pupil referral units	3	159
Totals	97	37,644

Please note that the numbers of primary schools include four infant and three junior schools. Dual registered pupils are counted in main schools only. Special schools include the hospital school as well.

Annual school absence

Plymouth school absence is recorded as either authorised or unauthorised absence. These figures are taken from the school census which is collected by the Department for Education (DfE). Please note that a school day is split into two sessions (morning and afternoon). The following figures show the percentage of absence sessions missed due to authorised or unauthorised reasons in schools.

Primary school absence (percentage of sessions missed)

Year	Authorised absence	Unauthorised absence	Overall
2008/2009	5.07	0.37 per cent	5.44 per cent
2007/2008	5.2 per cent	0.3 per cent	5.50 per cent
2006/2007	5.1 per cent	0.3 per cent	5.39 per cent
2005/2006	5.7 per cent	0.3 per cent	5.95 per cent
2004/2005	5.3 per cent	0.3 per cent	5.60 per cent

Secondary school absence (percentage of sessions missed)

Year	Authorised absence	Unauthorised absence	Overall
2008/2009	6.18 per cent	1.05 per cent	7.24 per cent
2007/2008	6.3 per cent	0.9 per cent	7.26 per cent
2006/2007	6.9 per cent	1.1 per cent	8.05 per cent
2005/2006	7.1 per cent	0.9 per cent	8.48 per cent
2004/2005	7.1 per cent	0.9 per cent	8.0 per cent

Primary and secondary combined school absence (percentage of sessions missed)

Year	Authorised absence	Unauthorised absence	Overall
2008/2009	5.62 per cent	0.7 per cent	6.32 per cent
2007/2008	5.73 per cent	0.64 per cent	6.37 per cent
2006/2007	5.99 per cent	0.72 per cent	6.71 per cent