: Why improving school attendance is ​‘everyone’s business’. What school leaders should know about improving attendance.

This blog has been co-written by Nicola Williams and Helen Bellinger who both currently facilitate across a range of NPQ leadership programmes and have delivered CPD to school leaders on improving attendance.

The DfE’s statutory guidance on managing school attendance which came into effect at the start of the new academic year, states ​‘improving attendance is everyone’s business’, although it acknowledges that ​‘the barriers to accessing education are wide and complex.’ (DfE. (2024). Available from: Working together to improve school attendance). National attendance data for the 2023/24 academic year illustrates the extent of the problem, with just 92.8% attendance across all state-funded schools in England and a persistent absence rate of 20.7%. When broken down further, the gap widens for disadvantaged pupils with absence rates at 11.1% for pupils eligible for free school meals compared to 5.8% for those who are not.

As facilitators, we often hear school leaders voice their concerns and frustrations relating to school attendance. However, it is acknowledged that there is no ​“one size fits all” solution. At its most basic level, achieving good attendance is an integral part of a school’s culture, so that school is a place where pupils want to be.

What can school leaders do to improve attendance?
Schools that are making the best progress in improving attendance take an analytical and diagnostic approach. They also have high expectations and regard attendance as ​‘everyone’s business’, so that it becomes embedded in the school’s overall ethos and culture, and daily interactions with pupils. School leaders who are successful at raising attendance:

• know their context, because identifying specific factors will inform strategic planning.
• are data-driven and evidence-informed, because this helps them to be more objective, using a range of research to implement targeted intervention and ​‘best bets’.
• engage parents and carers, because positive home-school relationships are a big driver towards improving attendance.
  
• build belonging, because they want children to feel that school is a place they fit in well.
• develop, communicate and implement a clear strategy, because this provides a coherent and integrated approach which incorporates all the above points.

As a school leader, where do I begin when implementing a whole school attendance strategy?
A good place to start would be to gather key information as outlined in the first two points above relating to school context and utilising evidence.

Identifying school-specific contextual factors
In March 2023, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) published their wide-ranging ​‘Lost and Not Found’ report which explored the school absence crisis. They identified a list of key factors affecting attendance, as follows:

• Anxiety and mental health
  
• SEND: undiagnosed or unmet needs
  
• Disengagement with the curriculum
  
• Low income and social disadvantage
  
• Disrupted home environments
  
• A culture shift following the pandemic

This list provides useful points for further consideration. School leaders then need to explore each of these in more detail by gathering objective data to identify their own context-specific issues prior to developing a whole-school strategy.

Exploring the evidence and considering ​‘best bets’
Whilst the evidence base for attendance is not yet robust, we can look to the EEF’s rapid evidence review of the existing international research on the wide variety of strategies that schools adopt to improve attendance and identify several overarching principles. In April 2024, it published a suite of resources structured around six evidence-informed themes as highlighted below:

In addition, the ​‘Supporting School Attendance – Reflection and Planning Tool’ (EEF 2024) is intended to assist school leaders when considering alternative approaches, providing a potential scaffold for discussions within leadership and attendance teams.

Ofsted has also published a report ​‘Securing Good Attendance and Tackling Persistent Absence’ (Feb 2022) which also serves as a useful reference point by looking at examples of best practice.

Summary
As attendance is an issue which is so closely linked to attainment, safeguarding and behaviour, all stakeholders have a responsibility to support the drive to reduce pupil absence. From a leadership perspective, promoting and enabling good attendance should be embedded within the whole school culture and ethos as outlined above. However, this should also extend into the local community and involve parents, carers, employers and other key stakeholders, all of whom have a vested interest.

Good attendance really is ​“everyone’s business”.

References and Further Reading:
Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance__applies_from_19_August_2024_.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Toolkit for schools: communicating with families to support attendance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

CSJ-Lost_and_Not_Found.pdf (centreforsocialjustice.org.uk)

CSJ-Persistent_and_Severe_Absence‑1.pdf (centreforsocialjustice.org.uk)

Supporting attendance | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)