The Attendance Challenge

This article was published in the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Magazine (Issue 133) on Monday 12 October 2026.

Improving school attendance starts with understanding what lies behind absence says Senior Research Manager at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Dr Emma Moore. Here, she highlights the latest findings.

School attendance remains one of the biggest challenges facing education. Despite the considerable efforts schools and the government have made since the pandemic, attendance has not returned to where it was before Covid-19. In secondary schools, absence averaged 8.57% in 2025/26, compared with 5.5% in 2018/19. Every missed day has the potential to affect a young person’s learning, wellbeing and future opportunities.

This is why the NFER has recently undertaken two pieces of research into attendance:

• Understanding the Relationship between Attendance, Wellbeing and Sense of Belonging and
• Pupil Wellbeing and Persistent Absence: Understanding the views of pupils, parents and carers, and school staff.

We wanted to better understand what is driving increased absences, how schools are trying to improve attendance, and what barriers they face.

Interconnected factors

One message came through consistently across both studies: attendance is influenced by a combination of interconnected factors. Family circumstances, children’s mental health, poverty, and access to wider services all shape whether young people are able to attend school.

Some of these factors are within schools’ influence, while others require action and support from families, public services and the government.
 
Lasting improvements therefore depend not simply on what happens within schools, but on schools being supported by a wider system that can address the factors contributing to absence. This is especially true given that schools are simultaneously managing limited budgets, staff capacity and curriculum timetables, alongside high levels of demand and increasingly complex pupil needs.

Life satisfaction and belonging

Our research, Understanding the Relationship between Attendance, Wellbeing and Sense of Belonging, explores the relationships between life satisfaction, school belonging, and absence among 15 year-olds in England. It shows that better life satisfaction is associated with fewer absences, and that this relationship is stronger for girls and for pupils with the highest absence rates. 

The research also found that pupils with a stronger sense of school belonging tend to have lower absences. However, once life satisfaction was taken into account, there was no longer a clear association between belonging and absence. This suggests that school belonging can contribute to attendance indirectly through its influence on pupils’ overall life satisfaction.

Creating a stronger sense of belonging is valuable, but it is unlikely to be a single solution for reducing absence. The factors affecting absence are broader and may include pupils’ wellbeing and mental health, family circumstances, disadvantage, and access to support beyond school.

Considerable pressures

Across the schools involved in our Pupil Wellbeing and Persistent Absence: Understanding the views of pupils, parents and carers, and school staff report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, leaders described a wide range of approaches to addressing attendance issues, from personalised pastoral support and curriculum flexibility to tailored reintegration plans for pupils returning after prolonged absence.

The study, which examines the role of pupil wellbeing in persistent absence and explores effective strategies for supporting pupils’ return to school, shows leaders are doing this in the face of considerable pressures.

Relationships matter

One of the clearest findings across the reports is the importance of relationships. Parents, carers and pupils consistently highlight the value of trusted adults, empathetic communication and personalised support. There is no single programme that will solve attendance. Instead, sustained improvements are built on strong relationships between schools, pupils and families, alongside a culture in which young people feel understood, supported and able to engage with learning. 

This is an area in which schools can make a real difference – ensuring pupils have trusted adults they can turn to, creating opportunities for pupils to build positive relationships and connections with their peers, and fostering a culture where pupils feel known, valued and that they belong. 

Wider influences

At the same time, the findings reflect a reality that many school leaders will recognise. The reports reveal that some of the biggest influences on attendance lie beyond schools’ direct control. Recognising these wider influences is not about lowering expectations of schools.

Rather, it is about providing important context for why attendance remains such a complex challenge while highlighting where schools can have the greatest impact, through trusted relationships, personalised support, early intervention, and close partnership with families. 

Both pieces of research remind us that getting pupils back into school is only part of the picture. Returning after a prolonged absence often means rebuilding confidence, reconnecting with friends and re-engaging with learning. Successful reintegration is therefore about much more than improving attendance statistics; it is about helping pupils reconnect with school and feel that they belong once they are back. 

Shared responsibility

Perhaps the most important message from our research is that improving attendance is a shared responsibility. Schools have a vital role to play and continue to demonstrate remarkable commitment in the face of significant pressures. These include the demands of coordinating support across different services, balancing individual circumstances with the importance of regular attendance, and sustaining consistent engagement with pupils and families. 

Every missed day has the potential to affect a young person's learning, wellbeing and future opportunities.

However, lasting improvements will only be achieved when schools’ efforts are matched by responsive mental health services, effective family support, and strong partnerships across education and wider public services. For leaders, this should be an encouraging message.

The evidence suggests that many of the approaches that matter most are already embedded in school practice: investing in pastoral care, building positive relationships, supporting wellbeing, and working closely with families. 

The challenge is not simply asking schools to do more, but ensuring they are supported to continue doing what the evidence shows makes the greatest difference. 

Ultimately, tackling persistent absence is about more than getting pupils through the school gates. It is about ensuring every young person feels safe, welcome and supported to learn.

Schools cannot remove every barrier to attendance, but they can have a profound influence on the factors that encourage children and young people to attend, engage and thrive. By combining schools’ expertise with stronger support from the wider system, we stand the best chance of ensuring every child benefits from being in school every day.