Best Practice

School absence and parental engagement: Seven approaches

Attendance Pastoral issues Pupil wellbeing Parental engagement
No matter what strategies we adopt to reduce absenteeism, it will involve a focus on parental engagement. Paul Jenkins offers ideas and advice for schools looking to boost student attendance
Missing: In the autumn term 2024, 22.7% of secondary school students were categorised as persistently absent, meaning they are missing 10% of their schooling - Adobe Stock

Persistent and severe absence is a growing problem for many secondary schools

Recent data on severe absence (students who miss at least 50% of school sessions) shows that 2.1% of students are severely absent, equating to 158,000 young people. This figure is up from 0.8% in 2018/19. At secondary level, 3.5% of students are severely absent, an increase from 1.2% in 2018/19 (DfE, 2024).

And figures on persistent absence (students who miss at least 10%) show that in the autumn term 2024, 22.7% of secondary students were categorised as such – this being a marginal improvement on autumn 2023 but still very concerning (DfE, 2025).

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