More than 100,000 more children missed lessons last year because of unauthorised family holidays, new figures show.

It comes as the Supreme Court considers a landmark case about whether a father who took his daughter on an unauthorised holiday should be fined, despite her having an otherwise good attendance record.

Last May, the High Court cleared Jon Platt, of the Isle of Wight, of failing to ensure his daughter attended school regularly. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its judgement in the coming weeks.

The case caused a surge in term-time bookings all over England.

In 2015-16, 801,980 children missed at least one session - defined as half a school day - due to an unauthorised holiday, up from 691,910 the year before.

That meant the percentage of pupils missing at least one session for this reason rose from 10.4 per cent to 11.9 per cent.

Today’s figures also show:

The overall absence rate is stable

The absence rate across all state-funded schools remained stable at 4.6 per cent last year. This represents a fall from the 6.5 per cent recorded in 2006-07.

Special schools had the highest absence rate, at 9.1 per cent, although this represented a 0.3 percentage point fall from the year before. In secondary schools, the rate fell marginally, to 5.2 per cent, while in primary schools it remained at 4 per cent.

Because of the growing school population, the total number of days missed through absence rose from 54.5 million to 54.8 million last year.

Fewer children absent because of illness

There was a slight fall in the proportion of school absences caused by illness - down from 2.8 per cent in 2014-15 to 2.6 per cent in 2015-16.

Illness remains the most common reason for children being absent from school, accounting for 57.3 per cent of all absences last year.

One in 10 pupils were persistently absent last year

Last year, more than a quarter of children in special schools (26.9 per cent) were classed as persistently absent - defined as missing at least 10 per cent of possible sessions.

The overall figure across all types of state schools was 10.5 per cent, a slight fall from 11 per cent the year before.

Last year’s figure was 13.1 per cent for secondary schools, and 8.2 per cent for primary schools.

Persistent absences are also declining as a proportion of all absences - from 43.3 per cent in 2011-12, to 36.6 per cent in 2015-16.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Today’s figures show overall absence rates remain at historic lows, and thanks to the hard work of schools and local authorities the proportion of pupils who persistently miss school has fallen by more than a third since 2010-11.

“The rules are clear - children should not be taken out of school without good reason.  Evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances.  A child who is absent also impacts teachers, whose lesson plans are disrupted by children missing large portions of teaching.

“That is why we have tightened the rules to put teachers firmly back in charge of their classrooms, and we are supporting schools and local authorities to use their powers to tackle unauthorised absence.”