Across Leicestershire, some of the highest performing schools in last year’s GCSE exam season also excelled in another important measure.
Regular attendance is important, and as it turns out, it can have a big impact on pupil attainment. A recent Department for Education report has found that pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 11 were almost twice as likely to achieve a Grade 5 in their English and Maths GCSEs as those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. In other words, missing just 10 days of school cuts the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
But according to the Government’s latest absence and attendance figures for the most recent 2023/24 school year, England’s overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. The amount of ‘persistently absent’ pupils missing at least 10% of these half-day sessions also remains high - affecting 1 in 5 children.
We’ve looked into how schools across the Leicester City and Leicestershire County Council areas have done when it comes to pupils missing class for any reason, to create a list of those doing especially well in this regard. Only schools with absence rates of 7% or lower have been included - excluding private and special schools - many of which were also amongst Leicestershire’s top performers.
Here were the 14 schools that made the grade:
13. St Paul's Catholic School
St Paul's is a Catholic secondary academy and sixth form in Leicester, yet another ‘above average’ performer. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 6.91%. | Google
14. Bosworth Academy
Rounding out the list as the last Leicestershire school with an absence rate below 7% is Bosworth Academy, a secondary academy and sixth form in Desford. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 6.95%. | Google