Attendance

The latest news and professional advice on school attendance, including analysis of attendance data and shared practice on tackling pupil absence and internal truancy

Thursday

1st Oct 2026

Most students say school staff not aware of bullying
Major DfE survey of Year 8s also reveals that girls and students with SEND are less likely to feel like they belong in school
Schools aware of bullying for just a third of affected pupils

Friday

25th Sep 2026

School funding for knife crime prevention drops by a third
Government told to ‘get a grip’ after Tes reveals ‘appalling’ reductions to schemes helping pupils at risk of serious violence
DfE funding for schemes linked to knife crime down 30%
Exclusive

Tuesday

22nd Sep 2026

How parental engagement helped us boost behaviour and cut absence
Cornwall Council has developed its own Parental Engagement Framework. Here, improvement adviser Nicky Hepworth explains its impact
Parents volunteering in classroom

Friday

18th Sep 2026

Tom Bennett on SEND, exclusions and why his behaviour model works
Tom Bennett has advised on behaviour policy in England for a decade – he sits down with Kyle Tormey to explain why the latest iteration of his behaviour support will deliver safer and calmer classrooms 
Tom Bennett
Exclusive

Wednesday

16th Sep 2026

Suspensions climb fastest in Years 2-4, data shows
Overall suspension rate is dropping but still climbing in primaries and remaining high among disadvantaged pupils, FFT analysis shows
Suspensions and exclusions has risen slightly in primary schools despite overall fall.

Monday

14th Sep 2026

How some schools turn parent power into an unfair advantage
The real differentiator between top-performing state schools and the rest is something policymakers won’t speak about – the ability to curate an engaged parent cohort, says this headteacher
Cherry picking from bowl

Tuesday

8th Sep 2026

Where will Mission Coastal go next?
Tes looks at which coastal areas could follow Hastings and Scarborough in the government’s school improvement scheme
A person pressing a red pin into a map
Exclusive

Monday

7th Sep 2026

Community cohesion takes years - not terms
A MAT CEO explains how its schools took part in a four-year project to bring pupils together across settings, with real impact
Children running in field

Wednesday

26th Aug 2026

Why attendance policies aren’t working for students with long-term health conditions
A research project is attempting to understand the difficulties children with conditions such as diabetes, asthma and epilepsy experience at school. Dr Simon Pini details its findings so far
Teenage boy with asthma inhaler

Friday

21st Aug 2026

How a short-term behaviour intervention can bring long-term benefits
Interventions don’t need to be long to deliver results, explains Clare Dash, whose doctoral research is exploring how a one-week residential is improving pupil behaviour and wellbeing
Dominos being interupted

Wednesday

12th Aug 2026

A new approach to tackling emotionally based school avoidance
One local authority is pioneering a new form of alternative provision that uses heritage buildings and the arts to re-engage children with education
Romeo and juliet

Friday

7th Aug 2026

Supporting pupils and having high expectations ‘not in conflict’
Students’ sense of belonging in school is strongest where teachers both support them and challenge them to ‘think hard and learn more’, according to new research
Teenagers sat in a classroom