TACKLING the ATTENDANCE CRISIS
In the coming days and weeks families across Blackpool South will be staying up late to back England in the World Cup.
Children will be desperate to see every minute and parents will face a dilemma. Do I let them stay up? And if they're tired the next morning, does one day off school really matter?
These are moments that make great memories, so if parents want to let their kids watch the match, of course they should, but it is really important that children are in school the next day.
"Just one day off" feels harmless – a birthday here, skipping the last day of term because "they won't do much anyway".
But new analysis suggests those seemingly small decisions have a big impact. Days here and there add up, and the impact delays learning for the whole class.
Children who attend school regularly are far more likely to succeed, while persistently absent pupils are much more likely to leave education without the qualifications they need.
Attendance is about more than grades, though. School is about joining sports teams, performing in school plays, taking part in music and creating shared memories that stay with our kids long after they’ve left the classroom.
It’s a place where children come together every day, build real relationships and develop social skills that will shape the rest of their lives. It keeps learning, friendships and opportunity at the centre of a child's world.
That’s why attendance matters and why building it back is a major priority for Labour.
Persistent absence reached record levels under the Conservatives – a generation went missing from Blackpool’s schools. Data from the Department for Education shows that one in 34 children in Blackpool miss at least half of their lessons. 2.9% pupils locally were severely absent in the spring term last year – up significantly from 1.1% in 2018-19.
Work has already begun to tackle this crisis in Blackpool. Last Autumn, the government committed £15 million to expand the investment and reach of attendance mentoring and reach 10,000 more children in 10 areas with some of the worst attendance rates across the country, including Blackpool.
Measures like this are paying off. Last year our children spent over 5 million more days in schools and 140,000 fewer pupils were persistently absent – the biggest improvement in over a decade.
We now have some of the most detailed and state of the art attendance data in the world, giving schools a clearer picture than ever before of when and why pupils are missing school.
Schools in Blackpool can now access new attendance heat maps to turn this intelligence into action, based on real-time information to help spot absence patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. They will get advice to better connect with families to get children back into school and keep them there.
We’re also introducing new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs spreading best practice, harnessing data and AI to build individualised roadmaps to make gains and introducing toolkits with proven strategies to build up attendance.
Because attendance isn't built through data alone. It's built through relationships, routines and school cultures where children feel they belong.
Through our Plan for Change, we will break down the barriers to opportunity so where you’re from doesn’t determine what you can go onto achieve and if you work hard, you can get on in life.
By working with our schools to give our children the best possible start in life, we are building a better Blackpool.
