Attendance
The latest news and professional advice on school attendance, including analysis of attendance data and shared practice on tackling pupil absence and internal truancy
Thursday
20th Mar 2025
Severe absence reaches record high
Overall absence continues to fall, but figures for the most severely absent pupils have reached highest numbers since data collection began

More focus and fight: what Labour needs to do on education
Labour has allowed itself to get distracted by unnecessary squabbles – but the plan for a SEND White Paper could lay the foundation for important work on poverty and attendance, says Sam Freedman

Monday
17th Mar 2025
History shows freedom is key to academies’ success. Let’s keep it that way
The new director of the New Schools Network outlines why she hopes the government reverses course on the efforts to curtail academy freedoms

School absence a key driver of widening disadvantage gap, finds report
EPI research suggests that higher absence among disadvantaged 16-year-old students accounts for entire post-Covid increase in the gap
