Curriculum has been a key focus in my trust for several years now. We have worked hard on ensuring that there is clarity about what we teach and when - and every school has a beautifully sequenced plan to show exactly what this looks like.

In theory, as long as this is coupled with strong teaching, all pupils should be making clear progress along this logical curriculum journey, right?

Well, not quite. Like trusts up and down the country, we’re grappling with challenges around persistent absence. It doesn’t matter how fabulously crafted our curriculum is if there is a group of pupils who are simply not there to engage with it.

The interaction between attendance and curriculum is an issue that I don’t think receives enough attention - particularly when the national and international picture on attendance is so worrying.

Since September 2024 I have been working closely with alternative provisions and special schools in my trust. Many pupils in these settings have experienced significant periods of absence, sometimes coupled with following several different curriculum models if they have moved from school to school. Gaps in their learning are inevitable.

These settings offer a model for how to “absence-proof” the curriculum for pupils in any setting, who may have similar gaps.

Taking the lead from our APs and specialist provision, we are drawing on some of their strongest practices to ensure that the curriculum works for all.

Curriculum planning for attendance gaps

Identify your subject essentials

If we don’t know the essentials of what pupils need to know and do, we will struggle to really understand what their gaps look like and what we need to prioritise.

Even though pupils might have had different curriculum journeys, the key building blocks of a subject remain the same. In English, for example, pupils need to know about how rhetoric works, both in writing and spoken language, so all our curriculum builds in opportunities for this. They also need to secure the mechanics of grammar and learn how writers’ decisions can inform meaning.

We take the time to really establish what these key concepts are for each subject, and identify multiple opportunities for pupils to explicitly build their skills in these areas.

Lean on formative assessment

In order to identify gaps in learning, effective formative assessment and diagnostic practices are critical. That doesn’t mean getting a pupil who has been absent to do a test on their first day back, or carrying out excessive baselining. However, we do need to ascertain what pupils’ starting points are.

This begins with good knowledge of what is included in the key stage 1 and KS2 national curriculum. This is then referenced as we build our curriculum thinking. Carefully overlaying, but not repeating content, means there are opportunities to revisit and check for gaps and misconceptions during lessons, while adding new concepts or deepening others.

Don’t be afraid to sacrifice breadth

Where significant gaps exist, you can’t just roll back the curriculum, especially when you have pupils with very different experiences and starting points in the same room.

This means we sometimes need to make tough decisions about what to cover - and the curriculum needs to be flexible enough to allow for this.

There should be a distinction between what is imperative for all to know in depth and where there is scope to adjust the depth, building in opportunities for some pupils to practise to fluency while others are able to move through more quickly.

Where children have considerable gaps that present barriers to their success - in literacy or numeracy, for example - we may need to hit the pause button entirely on some of the other aspects of the curriculum, to give them a chance to advance in core learning.

We only have so many hours at our disposal and if some pupils need additional support to read or write well, we shouldn’t scrimp on that in the name of breadth.

Getting the right balance is not easy, but the bottom line is that sometimes we just have to prioritise the basics.

Align curriculum work with pastoral care

All of this consideration of curriculum is, of course, framed by the need for exceptional pastoral care. It’s important to engage pupils and their families in discussion about any issues they might be facing, working to build trust and confidence.

There should be a focus on identifying barriers that pupils have to regular attendance, and putting measures in place to help them overcome these. When pupils have got off the curriculum bus, they need targeted support to get back on.

In our AP and specialist settings, I have seen how warmly staff welcome pupils back to the classroom after a period of time away. They acknowledge their contribution to the school community and let them know they will get the support they need.

These pupils are not treated as a burden. It is a privilege to work with them, and staff communicate this message on a daily basis.

Zoe Enser is the school improvement lead for a trust in the North West of England

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