Attendance

The new Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson has made attendance one of her key priorities.

The national figures for academic year 2023/24 had an overall absence rate of 7.2% and a Persistent absence rate of 20.7%, a slight improvement on 2022/23 but schools need to get closer to pre-pandemic 2018/19 figures when the overall absence rate was 4.7% and the persistent absence rate was 19.1%.

2023/24 breaks down absence by school phase/type as follows:

• 5.5% in state-funded primary schools (3.9% authorised and 1.6% unauthorised)
• 9.1% in state-funded secondary schools (5.5% authorised and 3.6% unauthorised)
• 13.0% in state-funded special schools (9.7% authorised and 3.3% unauthorised).

Working together to improve school attendance came into effect at the start of this term and has a useful summary table for governors and trustees on what their responsibilities are, this guidance includes:

• Emphasis on working in partnership with families to improve attendance
• New absence thresholds where schools will have to consider a penalty notice
• considerations for pupils absent due to mental or physical ill health or their special educational needs and/or disabilities
• Clarified expectations for Senior Attendance Champions
• Requirement for schools to share daily attendance data.

To support our members we have created a new DAG Busy Governance Guide to Attendance to explain this key area of responsibility.