麻豆淫院

School attendance is regarded as a key driver of children’s academic success (Morrissey et al., 2014). Missing school is consistently associated with lower attainment, weaker student engagement and negative longer-term outcomes (Cattan et al., 2023). Since the Covid-19 pandemic, schools across the UK have reported . While much attention has focused on how much school pupils miss, an equally important question has received far less scrutiny: When do absences matter most for academic achievement?

Our recent evaluates how the timing of school absences across compulsory education is associated with pupils’ academic achievement at the end of secondary school. To achieve our aim of providing new insights into when absences are most harmful and what this means for policy and practice, we used data from England alongside comparative evidence from Wales.

Why the timing of absences matters

The impact of school absences on educational outcomes may differ depending on when absences occur during schooling. In general, there are three competing arguments. First, early absences may hinder the development of foundational skills, which are important for learning more advanced skills. Second, absences in later years may have a stronger impact because they occur closer to exams, when directly assessed material is being covered. Finally, absences at transitions between educational stages, such as moving from primary to secondary school, may be detrimental to pupils’ ability to adapt to new curricula, teachers and peer groups.

Data and approach

To address our research questions, we used data from the , linked to the (N = 8,139). This includes pupils’ authorised and unauthorised absences from year 1 to year 11. Educational outcomes were measured at key stage 4.

We estimated associations between absences in each school year and GCSE outcomes, accounting for a rich set of covariates including prior cognitive ability, behaviour and other student and family characteristics. Although these estimates are based on observational data, robustness checks indicate that the results are unlikely to be driven by unobserved confounding and may be interpreted as plausibly causal. Additionally, we tested the consistency of these findings using comparable administrative data from Wales.

What we found

Our findings show that absences at any point in compulsory schooling are associated with lower academic achievement. In England, a 10-percentage-point increase in absences (that is, being persistently absent) in a given year reduces the likelihood of achieving five or more GCSEs on average by 4.6 percentage points. Absences are also linked to lower Attainment 8, maths and English scores across all years.

‘Absences in years 6 and 7, when pupils transition from primary to secondary school, are particularly detrimental to later achievement.’

However, there is substantial variation in the effect of absences across years. Absences in later years (years 6 to 11) are, on average, 1.6 to 2 times more harmful than absences in earlier primary years. In particular, absences in years 6 and 7, when pupils transition from primary to secondary school, are detrimental to later achievement. This challenges the notion that only the final years of schooling are critical.

Contrary to common assumptions, we found no systematic differences between authorised and unauthorised absences in their association with achievement at any school stage. This pattern is consistent with the idea that missed learning time, rather than the reason for the absence, matters most. While the negative association with absence is somewhat stronger in Wales, the timing effects and the lack of differences by absence reason are consistent with the findings for England.

Implications for policy and practice

Our findings have clear implications for policy and practice. They highlight the importance of addressing absences throughout schooling. However, school transitions are critical points for attendance and achievement, particularly the transition from primary to secondary school. Absences during these stages have a disproportionately negative impact on learning. This suggests that targeted attendance support during transitions may have the greatest impact on later achievement. If schools prioritise interventions at the transition to secondary school and ensure that students can catch up on missed learning from primary school, they can reduce the longer-term impact of absences, improve pupils’ engagement, and set them on a stronger trajectory for academic success.

‘Targeted attendance support during transitions may have the greatest impact on later achievement.’

Further, sharing attendance data between primary and secondary schools can help identify pupils at risk of absenteeism early, enabling secondary schools to provide timely support.

The project has been funded by the [grant number FR-000023241], but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation.

References

Cattan S., Kamhöfer D., Karlsson M., & Nilsson T. (2023). The long-term effects of student absence: Evidence from Sweden. The Economic Journal, 133(650), 888–903.

Morrissey T. W., Hutchison L., & Winsler A. (2014). Family income, school attendance, and academic achievement in elementary school. Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 741–753.