Insights Update: Understanding Attendance

These latest insights from Understanding Attendance reinforce that pupil attendance is shaped by complex interactions between some of these wider factors related to attendance and pupils’ demographic factors. The Family and Home Environment consistently emerged as the most impactful factor, particularly for older pupils and those from more deprived areas, underlining the importance of routine, sleep, and attitudes toward attendance and mild illness. Meanwhile, adult relationships at school are strongly linked to improved attendance, especially when tailored by for different pupil groups.

The Family & Home Environment focuses on Attendance Decisions, Getting Ready for School, and Sleep. Overall, this domain was consistently the most impactful on attendance across all regression models, with a 1-point increase in survey response was associated with a 1.65% increase in attendance

Pupil Premium was consistently the single most impactful factor across all the regression models. Students eligible for Pupil Premium had a lower attendance whereas for pupils with EAL it resulted in a higher attendance. This means that students who were both Pupil Premium eligible and EAL only has 0.1% less attendance compared to their peers, which means EAL is acting as a protective factor for attendance.