School attendance is generally considered to be a good barometer of a school's health and reflective of the environment in which it is based.

With the numbers now in from the last school year, it’s time to sit back and have a look at how our schools are faring – not only against each other, but when compared to those in different socioeconomic and geographical groupings.

To put the whole statistics in perspective, the attendance range from the best schools in the secondary sector are from around 95 per cent down to 77 per cent.

In the primary sector, it’s much wider, ranging from 98 per cent to just over 71 per cent.

We need a big dollop of common sense when looking at these figures.

A flu virus in a small primary could see it plummet in the attendance ‘league tables’ and with that goes the caveat that the smaller the school, the more vulnerable it is to what a Department of Education senior executive described to me as “mad results”.

The number of free school meals, the socioeconomic placement of a school, and many other environmental factors can impact attendance also, but not as much as you might imagine.

Some of the schools in the most socially deprived areas send out a visitor from the school on the second day of missed attendance, offering work, school laptops, support and a range of other strategies designed to keep the children where they should be: in front of their desks in school.

I can think of one such girls’ school in west Belfast where, on face value, you would quite happily reach for fourth gear and speed past the place.

Not so – it’s one of the most child-centred schools in the province, and I would quite happily send a daughter of mine there.

So, what is ‘good’ attendance? Well, a 90 per cent attendance rate, for example, means that on average, every child has missed one day per fortnight, ie one day in ten.

Some 80 per cent means is one day per of week absenteeism, while on the other hand, 95 per cent means one day off per month.

The stats may seem high, but they of course take into account end-of-term tail-offs, a few serial offenders, and days which are not quite ‘snow days’, but affect a lot of the children.

The other major point about this attendance data release is that it contains both authorised and unauthorised absences.

In other words, from kids on the approved sporting activity down to the no-shows in the morning.

In Fermanagh and the local hinterland, the best-performing post-primary school was St’ Kevin’s College in Lisnaskea, coming in at just one per cent lower than the top-placed school in Northern Ireland – Friends’ School in Lisburn.

Not only that, but it is one of only two non-selective secondary schools in the top 25, and the highest-ranked non-selective outside Belfast.

Our hearty congratulations to them, on achieving a difficult enough stat to attain.

Coming in at 32nd with 92.8 per cent, and second in our local area, is Mount Lourdes Grammar school, followed in 69th place by Enniskillen Royal Grammar School with 90.6 per cent.

Special credit must go to 70th-placed St. Aidan’s in Derrylin, which had 90.3 per cent – one of the best in the small, non-selective, schools category.

Meanwhile, St. Michael’s College (at 89.6 per cent) and Fivemiletown College (at 88.6 per cent), were tucked in behind these schools, while Devenish College and Castlederg High School had 87.8 per cent and 87.6 per cent respectively, occupying 113th and 116th positions.

Finally, Erne Integrated College in 172nd, and St. Mary’s College, Irvinestown at 180th position, had 83.8 per cent and 82.5 per cent attendance respectively.

The lowest-ranked school in Northern Ireland, in this sector, is Malone Integrated College, with 77.5 per cent, leaving it in last place, at 193rd position.

In some ways, it’s unfair to judge primary schools on the same criteria, but they too have to answer questions when attendance is low, so let’s have a look.

Of the 795 primaries in the province, gold stars must go to the second-ranked school in NI.

With a staggering 97.8 per cent is Killyhommon PS, in Boho, as well as fourth-placed Aghadrumsee PS in Roslea, who enjoyed 96.7 per cent.

This, along with tenth-placed Tattygar PS in Lisbellaw (96.2 per cent) is a staggering achievement, and a testament to the caring staff who follow up on missed attendance by liaising with parents, probably well outside their contracted hours.

With just around 1 per cent less attendance – really, that’s nothing in the grand scale of things – are three other local primary schools: the Moat PS in Lisnaskea; St. Mary’s, Killesher; and St. Joseph’s, Ederney.

These three had per cent attendances pf 95.2, 95.2 and 95.1 respectively, leaving them ranked at 31st, 36th and 39th in Northern Ireland.

The Moat PS had a higher amount of its absences authorised, which is why it is a couple of places above St. Mary’s, despite having exactly the same percentage attendance. (Goal difference, and all that.)

Another group of local schools occupy the positions in the sub-hundredths. St. Lawrence O’Toole PS in Belleek, along with Queen Elizabeth II, Kilskeery and St. Macartan’s, Clogher, all had 94.8 per cent to 94.6 per cent, while Kesh PS, Tummery PS and Carntall PS, Clogher were just a few points of percentages lower, all at 95.5 per cent.

Coming in at just 0.1 per cent lower – which in a small school could be one additional person just absent for one day – St. Columban’s PS in Belleek, and Derrygonnelly PS, were in 93rd and 94th position, while just outside the top 100 was Tempo PS, with 94.3 per cent.

With almost 800 primary schools, to be placed anywhere in the top 100 is a fantastic achievement, matched by the fact that only one school in our local area was in the sub-90 per cent attendance, St. Mary’s PS in Fivemiletown, which had 88.2 per cent.

Had this school been a secondary school, then it would have been in the same group as some very well-established schools, so again, once more, these figures need a pinch of salt.

In the special schools' sector, Willowbridge finished a very commendable 21st out of 40 such schools, having 84.4 per cent.

With many of its children having complex medical and logistical needs, this is a most encouraging finding.

So, congratulations to all our schools – in a post-Covid environment, it's really encouraging to see school attendance back to normal levels.