Understanding Attendance: School Attendance Planning for 2025/26 – Last Call for Insight this year

Last Call for Summer 2025 Participation

The final opportunity to participate in our summer data collection for the Understanding Attendance national research project is on the w/c 12th of May. Our final census window of the year begins on 2nd June 2025. Schools and trusts wishing to explore benchmarked data on factors influencing their pupils’ attendance should enquire by the w/c 12th May to take part this year to inform strategy planning for next year.

Participating schools and trusts will be supported to dive into their project data providing crucial insight to:

• Inform strategic planning for 2025/26

• Target their resources and support for September

• Benchmark their pupils’ reflections against other schools across the research cohort

Targeted research approach to improve pupil attendance: from Insight to Action

Our methodology features the following:

• Actionable data: Co-developed with schools and an academic research team, use our pupil and parent online surveys to get insights into actionable areas influencing pupils’ attendance. The core question set includes exploring home and school environments, and adult and peer relationships – all factors our research has identified as strongly linked to attendance

• Contextual benchmarking: Our research revealed the profound importance of age and stage on attendance. The project’s approach to benchmarking by year group, attendance distribution and other pupil groups will help schools identify where to target support and receive a reporting package that speaks to different roles in your school or Trust to further contextualise the data and take action

• Community of practice with support from a partnership manager, regular census windows and half-termly network events sharing practical insights from leaders successfully improving attendance

We have surveyed over 70,000 pupils, to understand the complex drivers of pupil absence, we remain committed to providing both localised insights and national perspectives on this persistent challenge.

"ImpactEd Group's work shows the value of schools using data to understand the challenges children are facing and to scaffold necessary support. I welcome today's report which highlights some of the barriers which may prevent children from attending. This year, I am calling on everyone to make attendance their top priority."

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner for England on the launch of Understanding Attendance

To register or learn more about the Understanding Attendance project, speak to our team.

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