Relationship between school absences and attainment
About 2 mins
Key points
- Pupils who were persistently absent from their classes were less than half as likely to reach the expected level at key stage 2 reading, writing and maths, or achieve grades 9–4 in key stage 4 English and maths, than pupils with no absences.
Education plays an important role in shaping people’s health by influencing factors such as income and employment. In turn, these provide the resources people need to maintain good health, such as access to nutritious food and safe housing. It can also support better health literacy, making it easier for people to understand health information and allow more informed health choices as a result.
Schools can also affect health more directly through provision of physical activities, breakfast clubs and school meals, social opportunities and health interventions such as vaccination programmes. Absences from school can reduce academic performance and reduce exposure to health promoting activities. Reasons for absence, such as long-term illness or stressful home environments, can also affect children’s ability to perform well in school.
This chart shows the relationship between school absences and attainment at key stages 2 and 4.
- 40.2% of key stage 2 students who were persistently absent met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, compared with 83.9% of students who had no absences.
- Only 2.5% of key stage 2 children who were persistently absent reached the higher standard in reading, writing and maths, compared with 21.8% of students with no absences.
- 83.7% of key stage 4 students with no absences achieve a grade 9–4 in English and maths GCSEs, compared with 35.6% of students who were persistently absent.
- Persistent absences rate is the percentage of pupils that miss 10% or more of their classes.
- Absence rates are calculated for compulsory school age pupils (5 to 15-year-olds).
- Attainment refers to the level of attainment reached at the end of each key stage and absences record all the absences made across all years of the key stage as reported by schools.
- Key stage 2 is taught over four years and is assessed at the end of year 6. It is assessed through national tests in English reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling, and teacher assessments in English writing and science.
- Pupils achieve the expected standard if they achieve a scaled score of 100 or more in reading and maths and are assessed as ‘working at the expected standard’ in teacher assessments of writing. They achieve a higher standard if their scaled score in reading and maths is over 110 and their writing is teacher-assessed as ‘working at greater depth’. In this chart, the two categories are mutually exclusive.
- Key stage 4 is taught over two years and is assessed at the end of year 11. Most children take GCSEs or other national qualifications.
- GCSE grade 9 is the highest possible grade. Grade 4 is a standard pass and grade 5 a strong pass.
Source: Department for Education, The link between absence and attainment at KS2 and KS4, England, 2022
