Many mainstream schools in England were given attendance targets specific to their school in a widespread trial last year, but on Thursday the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed that every school would be getting their own target and that it would be monitored for the first time.
The BBC understands there will be no immediate penalties for schools who miss their attendance targets, but that the DfE will get in touch with schools that are off-track to make sure they are aware and taking action.
Schools could then be pointed towards best practice guidance, or encouraged to join with other schools in a local behaviour and attendance hub.
The regulator Ofsted already considers a schools’ overall attendance rates in their inspections.
In an opinion piece published in The Independent newspaper on Thursday, newly-appointed education minister Paul Waugh said the latest attendance stats showed “progress has slowed over the past year”, and that the government’s response needed to be “broader, smarter and more ambitious”.
Schools have been promised access to more data tools in the coming year to help them analyse individual pupils’ attendance records, Waugh said, so they can identify concerns earlier and be “intervening more quickly when pupils begin to drift away from regular attendance”.
Fridays are “becoming a particular weak spot for attendance”, he added, and said he would be investigating why pupil illness absences are regularly significantly higher at the end of each week.
He called on schools to put on interesting clubs and enrichment sessions on Fridays “so every child stays engaged right through to the end of the week”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of schools leaders’ union NAHT, said Thursday’s attendance data showed “just how hard it is to drive absence rates back down to pre-pandemic levels”.
“Schools already go above and beyond in encouraging attendance, but it isn’t a problem that they can solve alone or that government targets will fix,” he said.
“The issue often has roots beyond the classroom, from illness and mental health challenges to poverty and unmet special educational needs.”
He said it highlighted the importance of the government’s upcoming reforms to the SEND system in England.
The data released on Thursday also showed that nearly 12% of pupils missed school in the week beginning Monday 22 June, when an exceptional heatwave was affecting parts of England, leading to the highest absence rate of the year.
