Children across England are returning to school in record numbers, with over 5 million more days in classrooms this year – signalling the biggest year-on-year improvement in attendance for a decade.
New figures show more than 140,000 fewer pupils are persistently absent compared to last year, as the government’s relentless focus on tackling the inherited school attendance crisis begins to pay dividends.
Of those, 45,000 are young people from deprived backgrounds, reflecting particular improvement among disadvantaged children.
The dramatic improvement means teachers have saved over 10,000 days that would have been spent helping absent pupils catch up, freeing them to focus on delivering excellent education to whole classes.
Spending more time in school boosts learning outcomes for children, but it’s also about making friends and having new experiences, helping them to achieve and thrive. It also has a huge impact on children’s future chances in life. With a single day out of school costing an estimated £750 in lost earnings across the course of a career for a typical student, this year’s progress alone will protect over £2bn in pupils’ future earnings and building the skilled workforce needed to drive economic growth.
The attendance breakthrough demonstrates the start of a fundamental shift in classrooms across the country, with attendance improving in all regions, as more children get back into the habit of attending every day.
The department is already making progress through our Plan for Change and this year has delivered major upgrades to school and LA-level data. This puts AI-powered reports into the hands of schools so they can benchmark their attendance against schools in similar circumstances to tackle attendance issues head on, alongside significantly expanding our pilot mentors scheme to directly target young people who need more support.
This builds on the government’s wider approach to tackle the root causes of absence, including rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school, expanding access to mental health support in schools, and ensuring earlier intervention for pupils with special educational needs.
Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said:
The record improvement in school attendance shows we are turning the tide on a crisis that saw a generation go missing from England’s schools.
Getting children back in classrooms, where they belong, is non-negotiable if we are to break the unfair link between background and success so we can build a fairer country – a cornerstone of our Plan for Change.
When we tackle attendance head-on, everyone benefits – pupils get the consistent education they deserve, teachers can focus on driving up standards, and we build the stronger workforce our economy needs.
With fewer children missing crucial learning, pupils are more likely to develop the consistent study habits, knowledge and social skills that will serve them whether they progress to apprenticeships, colleges or universities.
The attendance gains sit alongside for the government’s mission to ensure 75% of five-year-olds reach key development milestones by 2028, recognising that regular school attendance from the earliest years creates the foundation for lifelong success.
To go further, new attendance and behaviour hubs will work nationwide to support more than 5,000 schools a year in tackling absence, while specialist attendance mentors are working directly with 10,000 of the most vulnerable children over the next three years to remove barriers to attending school.
