Unauthorised school absence widening ‘disadvantage gap' in England

The Guardian

17-03-2025

Unauthorised school absence is a leading cause of the widening performance gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in England, according to analysis from a respected thinktank.
The research by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found that all of the increase in the 'disadvantage gap' among 16-year-olds since 2019 can be explained by students on free school meals (FSM) missing more time off school than other pupils, putting them several months behind in terms of their results.
'It is unauthorised absence that is of key concern, particularly at secondary school. Compared with authorised absence, it contributes more to the GCSE gap, and its contribution has grown faster since 2019,' the report stated.
Poor attendance has also widened the attainment gap at all ages. The EPI calculated that if disadvantaged pupils had the same attendance record as other pupils, the attainment gap at age 11 would be almost 10% smaller, and the gap at age 16 would be 20% lower.
Emily Hunt, the EPI's associate director of social mobility, said: 'For the first time, we have shown that high and increasing levels of absence among disadvantaged pupils are the primary reason why the disadvantage gap has grown since 2019 and that the government won't tackle the gap unless it gets to grips with the complex root causes of absence.'
School leaders endorsed the EPI's analysis. Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: 'Too often, the burden of ensuring children attend school falls entirely on teachers and leaders, who are then held accountable for absences beyond their control.
'Without a broader system of support, it is extremely difficult for schools to drive meaningful change in attendance rates.'
Di'Iasio said that 'for some families, school seems to have become – at least in part – optional', and said fines for taking unauthorised termtime holidays were failing to halt that trend.
'Far from solving the problem, fines often deepen tensions between schools and parents. Schools, simply enforcing the rules, are left looking like the villains,' Di'Iasio told the ASCL's annual conference on Saturday.
The Department for Education's data showed one in 50 pupils at state schools in England missed at least half of their lessons in 2022-23, with pupils on free school meals twice as likely to be absent than others. The DfE will this week publish its updated school attendance figures for 2023-24.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told the ASCL conference that 'green shoots are appearing, especially in our secondary schools' on attendance.
Phillipson added: 'If we keep this up, we'll achieve one of the biggest annual increases in recent memory.'
The EPI found that children whose special educational needs and disabilities (Send) were not identified early in their time at school were likely to fall behind. Hunt said the results were 'confirmation that the youngest children with Send have been some of the worst impacted, post-pandemic.'
The research also found that girls 'are increasingly making less progress during secondary school than boys since the pandemic. We therefore reiterate our call for more research to understand the declining attainment of girls and any links with the widening of the gender mental health gap in recent years.'
Attainment gaps continued to grow among all age groups, according to the EPI. By age seven, nearly 60% of the gap at age 11 had already developed.
The thinktank is calling on the government to tackle the disadvantage gap by increasing the early years pupil premium – paid to education providers for disadvantaged children aged from nine months – to match the pupil premium in later years.
A DfE spokesperson said: 'This government inherited a system with a number of baked-in inequalities, and this report is further evidence that the absence epidemic is having a detrimental impact on children's learning and their future success. Getting more pupils attending school regularly is a top priority for the government.'