New research suggests strong links between attendance and attainment, and many of the East Midlands’ highest performing secondary schools seem to be a testament to this.
Last week, the Government released absence and attendance figures for the full 2023/24 school year. Despite showing a small improvement on last year, the 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 incredibly high - affecting 1 in 5 children.
But another new Department for Education report has highlighted just how much these young people stand to lose. It 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, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This means that missing just 10 days of school reduced the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
Included with the Government’s attendance figures was the absence data for each state-funded secondary school in England. This meant we were able to see which schools had the country’s lowest overall absence rates.
We’ve taken a closer look at how schools across the East Midlands did, to create a league table of those with the lowest rates of pupils missing class for any reason. It will likely come as no surprise to parents that many were also featured among the region’s top schools for GCSE performance in the last school year.
Here were the 15 local secondary schools with the best attendance:
1. Northampton School
At the top of the list is this fairly new secondary school in Moulton, Northampton. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an extremely low absence rate of about 3.9%. | Google
2. The King's School, Grantham
This is a selective boys’ secondary school and sixth form in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Like many of the secondary schools with very low absence rates, it boasted exceptional academic results, with a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score last year - the highest band available. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 4.42%. | Google
3. Lincoln UTC
This is a university technical college in Lincoln, which takes pupils from the age of 14. It has ties to the University of Lincoln. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had an absence rate of about 4.42%. | Google
4. Northampton School for Boys
This is a high-performing boys’ secondary school and sixth form in Northampton, which also had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score after last year’s GCSE exam season. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 4.52%. | Google