Schools in Wales face a matter of ‘national concern’ and some say parents aren’t helping
Schools in Wales face a stubborn issue likely to take more than 10 years to tackle – and some parents aren’t helping.
Low school attendance in Wales is now “an important national concern”, the education inspectorate has warned. School leaders in a number of areas are frustrated that their local authorities won’t fine parents who don’t send their children in. They say this is “restricting their ability to challenge families to improve pupils’ attendance”.
On average secondary age pupils miss around one day of school a fortnight and now miss 11 days of school more each year than before the pandemic, a new Estyn report warns.
The percentage of secondary school-aged pupils persistently absent tripled to 16.3% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. This rises to a massive 35.6% of secondary-age pupils eligible for free school meals persistently absent in 2022-23 compared with 11.2% of their better-off peers not eligible for free meals. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
More than one in 10 secondary school sessions – counted as half a school day – are now being missed on average in high schools across Wales. There is ongoing concern about absent pupils in the key GCSE year 11.
At the current rate of improvement it would take more than a decade for overall attendance rates to recover to pre-pandemic levels, the inspectorate estimated.
Absences are counted in school sessions and persistent absence is defined as missing 10% of those school sessions. The percentage of pupils who are persistently absent varies enormously from 2.7% to 42.6% of pupils in secondary schools across Wales, the report notes.
The number of children missing school
- The percentage of half-day sessions missed by secondary school-aged pupils doubled to 12.5% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. This means, on average, that a pupil misses around one day a fortnight.
- Secondary school-aged pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) missed 20.6% of half-day sessions in 2022-23 while secondary school-aged pupils who are not eligible for free school meals missed 10.2% of half-day sessions. Both of these figures were approximately double the rates of absences during 2018-19.
- 15.5% of half-day sessions were missed by Year 11 pupils.
- The percentage of secondary school-aged pupils that were persistently absent has tripled to 16.3% between 2018-19 and 2022-23 with 35.6% of secondary-age pupils eligible for free school meals persistently absent in 2022-23 compared with 11.2% of secondary school-age not eligible for FSM.
- 22.4% of Year 11 pupils were persistently absent, compared with 10.2% of Year Seven pupils, in 2022-23.
- Overall attendance in Wales fell by 6.3% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. But there is substantial variation among secondary schools. In one the attendance rate only fell by 1.3 percentage points while in the school that saw the biggest fall attendance plunged by nearly 18 percentage points.
Secondary school children from low-income backgrounds and living within the three-mile radius, who do not qualify for free school transport, face “significant barriers to regular attendance”, the watchdog added. Attendance of secondary-aged pupils who are eligible for free school meals remains “concerningly low”.
School absence across Wales is such an ingrained issue that schools cannot tackle it alone. Improving attendance requires a “multi-agency and cross service approach alongside support from the Welsh Government”, chief inspector Owen Evans said.
In 2023-24 there was an Estyn recommendation to improve attendance in around half of secondary schools inspected. That rose to around three-quarters this academic year so far.
Research shows absence is “linked to poor academic attainment across all stages as well as anti-social characteristics, delinquent activity, and negative behavioural outcomes,” Estyn said. This research, along with national data on attendance, indicates a concerning picture and highlights an urgent need to rapidly improve secondary school-age attendance across Wales, Estyn warned.
Recent “unverified national data from Welsh Government” highlights that more than one in 10 half-day school sessions in secondary schools are now being missed. And while overall attendance for secondary schools, counted in half-day sessions, has increased by 1.1% to 89% – a slight improvement – that’s still considered too low and considerably lower than pre-pandemic levels. Mr Evans stressed the “limited data” available from Welsh Government doesn’t help solve matters.
Launching his report, titled Improving attendance in secondary schools – an update on progress, Mr Evans said: “Despite early signs of improvement progress in tackling attendance issues is still too slow in a minority of schools. Support remains inconsistent across Wales and limited data continues to hinder schools’ ability to evaluate impact and target action effectively.”
The report adds: “Whilst local authorities have continued to prioritise improving attendance, in a minority of instances, this work has not had a sufficient impact.
“The support and challenge for improving attendance remains too variable across Wales. A few school leaders also noted a challenge where some local authorities will not issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and this is restricting their ability to challenge families to improve pupils’ attendance.
“The data Welsh Government publishes around attendance does not provide sufficient detail for schools to make important comparisons, for example between groups of pupils and year groups. The absence of a more detailed analysis continues to limit schools’ ability to fully evaluate the impact of their work, make comparisons, and to identify important weaknesses in performance.”
The findings are based on work with 41 schools, all 22 local authorities, and evidence from Estyn secondary inspection and follow-up findings since February 2022. It also includes analysis of recently-published national attendance data.
“Across Wales attendance in secondary schools has declined since the return to school and has been slow to improve. The attendance of those pupils who are eligible for free school meals is notably lower than that of those pupils who are not eligible for free school meals. Attendance rates across Wales remain a concern and the rates of persistent absenteeism have increased substantially,” the paper adds.
“School leaders reported a substantial increase in the number of pupils not attending school due to mental health and anxiety challenges.”
Schools that are less effective at tackling absentees “did not create a culture of high expectations for attendance, were not proactive enough in responding to early signs of poor attendance, and did not use data regularly or rigorously enough to evaluate the impact of their work,” Estyn said.
There has been “a notable decrease” in the rate of persistent absence at the 10% threshold – that is those pupils who are absent for at least 10% of sessions.
Attendance of secondary pupils eligible for free school meals has increased from 80.2% to 81.1% “although this is concerningly low and is substantially below pre-pandemic levels and these pupils are still missing too much of their education”.
Estyn said schools could not tackle this alone. It said “overall” local authority support for improving attendance has had limited impact over the past two years. School improvement officers did not challenge or support school leaders well enough to improve matters and when pupils were referred to local authority services officers “did not build well enough on the work”.
The report uses case studies from schools working well to get children back in and raise attendance. These include Pontarddulais Comprehensive School which has a team to identify pupils with emerging or persistent attendance concerns. Immediate support, including mentoring, parental engagement, and home visits, is then offered. Cefn Hengoed Community School has introduced a reduced-price bus service for pupils living within the three-mile radius and not getting free transport. The tickets, reduced from £4 return to £1 each way, helps pupils whose attendance was affected when they faced walking up to three miles in bad weather or during dark mornings and evenings.
Estyn said the Welsh Government should work with local authorities to ensure clear targets for improving attendance are set and agreed with schools and local authorities. A national campaign should be planned to promote the importance of good attendance and work should be done with local authorities to look at how to mitigate the impact of exams on school attendance rates.
Responding to the report a Welsh Government spokesman said: “Raising school attendance is a key commitment. We welcome this updated report from Estyn and will be considering their new and revised recommendations.
“School attendance has increased by 0.5% this year and we continue to invest in family engagement officers and community-focused schools to respond to the needs of learners and build strong partnerships with families and the wider community.”
