By Michael Gooch, School Improvement Consultant and Attendance Specialist
In March 2023, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) published Lost and Not Found: How severe absence became endemic in England’s schools. Having investigated the issues surrounding school absence, the paper sets out the current scale of the challenge around attendance nationally, together with a plan to support disengaged children back into school.
It examines some of the reasons for school absence and identifies the children most likely to be absent from school. The paper also makes seven key recommendations to the government in order to support an ambitious strategy for reform. This article explores some of the findings from this report (including a look at the recommendations) and considers some next steps for trust leaders.
Good attendance at school is the single most important factor in ensuring that children and young people have the maximum life chances. Attendance is strongly linked to educational achievement:
- When a child attends school[1] on a regular basis, they take an important step towards being successful, and are given the greatest opportunity to learn new things and develop their skills.
- Children who miss school frequently fall behind with their work and do less well in exams.
- The more time a child spends around other children, whether in the classroom or as part of a school team or club, the more chance they have of making friends and feeling included, boosting social skills, confidence and self esteem.
In light of this, an effective attendance strategy needs to be high up on any trust board’s agenda. Securing good attendance levels, for all the reasons above, and given the challenging context for attendance that many of us are operating in, must be one of the key success criteria of all trusts and schools up and down the country. Indeed, even in those trusts where challenges don’t currently exist, ensuring the trust’s approach to attendance and engagement is regularly discussed and considered, is just as important given it sits at the heart of all we are here to do and achieve in education.