Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is to call on schools to use “old-fashioned graft” to help improve pupil attendance, in a speech at the Association of School and College Leaders conference.
In the speech in Liverpool on Friday morning, Phillipson will also say some schools are “not making enough progress” on absences and that she will not accept the “damage” caused by children missing school.
Some 3.6 million children missed 10 days or more of school last year, and 1.6 million - more than one in 10 - missed a day every fortnight, according to the DfE.
The department has published new research today which shows that children in Year 11 who miss 10 days of school are half as likely to achieve a grade 5 in English and maths.
‘Not enough progress’
In light of this data, Ms Phillipson will warn the 1,000 school and college leaders at the conference that while some schools are “doing really well” in tackling absence, others are “not making enough progress” - and that this has to change.
“I won’t accept the damage that does to those children,” she will say. “I expect schools to catch up - fast. And I know that’s what schools want too, what you are all working so hard to do.”
The education secretary will also acknowledge it is a “shared responsibility” between parents, schools and government to solve this issue - but said a large part of the focus has to be hard work by schools.
“The way we turn this around is through collaboration, partnership and, if we’re honest, old-fashioned graft.”
The DfE is currently holding a series of regional conferences aimed at transforming secondary attendance.
At an event in the North East last week, the department’s attendance ambassador Rob Tarn said schools struggling with their attendance rates can make a difference by focusing efforts on those pupils who nearly always attend.
Headteachers were told that in the average secondary school, “approaching half of absence can be attributed to pupils who miss 15 per cent or less of their sessions”.
