Attendance Matters

11th September 2026

I hope that the rhythms and routines are starting to bed in. The early weeks of September are often something of a shock to the system. It’s not just the return to the daily routines of school and college, it’s the changing weather, it’s the marginally darker mornings, it’s the football season, it’s just all those things and more. Thank you all for your positivity and thank you all for your attendance.

Last week I made mention of the successes the children, young people, the schools and the college had over the summer, as evidenced through the very impressive examination results and grades. Our successes are built upon many foundations; not least the high-quality teaching and learning experience; the inclusive approach to our curricula; the outstanding pastoral care we offer. Having acknowledged and celebrated that academic success I thought it timely to remind ourselves of the successes we’ve had in improving attendance across our pupil and student body.

We know that if children and young people are in, and in every day, they are significantly more likely to achieve academically. Before we get onto that, if we’re not careful we can miss the point that schools and colleges have a social and economic role too.

We provide child-care, allowing our firefighters, nurses, doctors, police officers etc to be out on the front line. We do need to be honest about the role that we play in keeping our society, community and economy running efficiently.

And that leans into another role we play: safeguarding children and young people. The overwhelming members of our communities are safe and well-cared for but we do know that there is a significant minority of our children, young people and (sometimes) adults who are safe solely because we have ‘eyes on them’.

And that leans into socialisation. In these increasingly fractious times, in these days of social isolation (as a consequence of the world as it is now, including social media and device use) or with the necessary understanding that we all should be part of a community, we need, more than ever, to allow our children and young people the freedom to build relationships, learn how interact with others, which includes those who they like and those with whom they have a weaker relationship. Our communities allow children and young people to learn about others, to understand and celebrate difference and to find happiness in the presence of others.

The COVID era seemed to persuade some that attending school and college, being present in class, didn’t matter and had only a marginal impact upon performance. As we know, all evidence suggests that this is utter nonsense. There will be parents, carers and students who would want to suggest that ‘working from home’ is beneficial and allows for a more successful outcome. Nonsense! Being in class, listening to outstanding teachers and trainers, with years of experience, share their knowledge, understanding and skills, is the foundation of academic success. Being in school or college, learning how to interact with others, being cared for, being listened to by caring adults and building friendships is the foundation of social and personal harmony.

And that’s why we all ‘bang on’ about attendance. That’s why we celebrate the attendance of the individual and the collective. To take it right back to successes and recognition, it’s wonderful to report that, yet again, the end-of-year attendance figures for each of our institutions are up again. The schools all hit and exceeded their DfE targets. The college doesn’t have a target set by the DfE – that said the college achieved an end of year attendance percentage that was significantly above local, regional and national averages for post-16 institutions.

I celebrate those results. I want to put on record my thanks to every one of you who supports children and young people in getting them all into school and college, each and every day. I want to express very direct and particular thanks to our attendance teams, the front line of our ongoing battles to get children and young people in school, in college. Thank you all.

‘You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.’ Michelle Obama

Onwards and upwards. Rest up and prepare yourselves to be in full attendance next week.