We all know that children need a good education in order to have a chance of fulling their potential for learning, life and work. For most children, the best way of achieving that good education is by attending school. While there will always be some for whom alternative provision is more appropriate, including home education, for the rest, actually being present in school is key.
It is a concern, therefore, that school attendance is struggling. Absence in school has risen more than 50% since 2019, and persistent absence (when pupils miss more than 10% or more of sessions) has more than doubled.
A coalition of education charities commissioned Public First to carry out an investigation into the root causes of “the crisis in attendance in England’s schools.” It reported in Autumn 2023 stating that “There has been a profound breakdown in parental attitudes to the idea of full-time school attendance in the years since the Coronavirus pandemic.” It found that, “Parents in the focus groups were clear that school closures during the pandemic had shifted this attitude in an unprecedented way.”
Public First found that there were other factors driving the drop in attendance, including:
- “The increased willingness among parents to take children on holiday during termtime
- The rise in mental health problems among young people
- The cost of living crisis”
Schools have always grappled with effective ways to keep attendance rates as high as possible. Rewarding good genes has long been criticized for its lack of fairness as a lever for encouraging attendance at school. Children get ill. Some children are coping with underlying conditions that may on occasion necessitate time off. We all know that a stich in time saves nine, and it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that a child who is unwell attends school just to keep attendance figures as high as possible.
Sanctions have also been used to try to encourage attendance but these have failed to get parents on board. According to Public First, they are seen as “both irrelevant and antagonistic across all parent groups.”
So, we are in strange, and yet, perhaps, highly predictable waters. The response to the Covid 19 pandemic has led to a real shift in parental attitudes to school attendance, which Public First says will take a “monumental, multi-service effort to change,” within a model of schooling that requires every day attendance.
It is clear from the Public First report, with its 8 key recommendations, that schools alone cannot solve this issue. One blindingly obvious point is that better funded schools will be in a position to better meet the needs of the children they serve and therefore attendance is likely to improve. But there are other interlinked factors too.
The Understanding Attendance Project, run by the ImpactEd Group, seeks to gain greater understanding of the drivers behind school absence. Director, Owen Carter, explained, “We designed the Understanding Attendance Project in response to feedback from our partner schools on how to get beneath the surface of the absence challenge.
“Our initial findings cast light on the approaches schools might consider which include:
- Developing a culture of belonging for all young people
- Paying particular attention to the Year 7 to Year 8 transition as being particularly important for attendance
- Focusing on positive culture and inclusion over sanctions and reward”
While it is possible for such research studies to gain valuable insights into the current state of school attendance and the ways in which we might improve it, Carter makes a key point about the path ahead. He said, “Crucially, however, our data also highlights the importance of schools analysing the drivers of attendance in their own setting. While there are some clear themes, there is no one size fits all solution to this complex issue. To this end we'd encourage schools to get in touch to participate in the project, to build their own understanding and contribute to the emerging national evidence base.”
There are opportunities for schools to get involved in ImpactEd’s work on school attendance. This will help you to analyse attendance drivers in your setting. This is the link: https://www.evaluation.impactedgroup.uk/research-and-resources/understanding-attendance#report
When school attendance is discussed, it feels as though we are on the brink of a complete rethink of what it means to attend school. Will we develop more hybrid models of school and home learning that better suit some children? Or will attendance in school each and every day remain the goal? Does it actually matter that parents are changing their views on schooling and the need for great attendance? Should we be flexible in our response to that?
One thing is certain, old models do not work for today’s conundrums. If children cannot attend school due to mental health issues, beating them with the stick of full attendance cannot possibly work without a significant boost to funding for mental health care, and even then, managing a condition in a healthy way may require days off school. If a child’s medical needs mean that full attendance is impossible, rewarding those children with no medical issues for full attendance is bizarre, and if the cost of living crisis means that the only chance a family has of any time away is a holiday during term time, then not addressing the crushing economic circumstances of that is beyond understanding.
These useful research studies offer a solid basis for understanding the true picture of attendance in your school. Getting beneath attendance data to the reasons for missing school is essential for creating realistic and supportive expectations around school attendance.
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About the author
Elizabeth Holmes
After graduating with a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading, Elizabeth Holmes completed her PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London. She then taught humanities and social sciences in schools in London, Oxfordshire and West Sussex, where she ran the history department in a challenging comprehensive. Elizabeth specialises in education but also writes on many other issues and themes. As well as her regular blogs for Eteach and FEjobs, her books have been published by a variety of publishers and translated around the world. Elizabeth has also taught on education courses in HE and presented at national and international conferences.