In the 2022-23 academic year, 22.3% of all pupils were persistently absent. ImpactEd Evaluation launched Understanding Attendance, a national project helping schools and trusts to identify the underlying drivers of pupil absence, and the first report from this project “Understanding Attendance: Findings on the drivers of pupil absence from over 30,000 young people in England” is now available. The report describes their four key findings:
- Sense of school belonging is a key driver of attendance across all contexts. This may be particularly important for females and is closely linked with feeling safe at school.
- There is an emerging challenge of a ‘second transition’ from Year 7 to Year 8 that deserves greater attention.
- Attendance drivers are intersectional. School leaders should avoid considering demographic factors in isolation. Female pupils who are eligible for Pupil Premium and have a special educational need are particularly likely to be low attending.
- Awareness of sanctions and consequences isn’t strongly linked to improved attendance. Understanding of the importance of school and relationships with peers and teachers were more strongly associated with attendance.
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