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The government has announced that every mainstream state school in England will receive a specific target aimed at improving pupil attendance. Alongside this, schools are being encouraged to offer more extracurricular clubs and activities on Fridays to help boost attendance towards the end of the week. This decision follows the release of official attendance figures indicating that absence rates remain higher than those seen before the pandemic, with nearly 20% of pupils missing at least 10% of school time during the 2025/26 academic year.
Education minister Paul Waugh emphasized that the new attendance targets will consider the unique challenges faced by each school’s local area, while stressing that “every school has a role to play to improve attendance.” Prior to the Covid pandemic, attendance rates in mainstream state schools across England consistently exceeded 95%, but these rates have since declined. Data published on Thursday showed an overall attendance rate of 93% for the 2025/26 school year, slightly lower than the previous year. This figure includes both authorised absences, such as those due to illness, and unauthorised absences when pupils miss school without permission or a valid reason. The proportion of pupils defined as persistently absent—missing 10% or more of school sessions—has doubled since before the pandemic, rising from around 10% in 2018/19 to 19% in 2025/26. Additionally, pupils eligible for free school meals and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) continue to have higher rates of absence than their peers.
Last year, a broad trial saw many schools in England assigned individual attendance targets, and the Department for Education (DfE) has now confirmed that every mainstream school will receive its own target, with progress to be formally monitored for the first time. Although no immediate sanctions will be applied to schools that do not meet their targets, the DfE plans to contact those falling behind to ensure they are aware and taking appropriate action. Schools may be guided toward best practice resources or encouraged to collaborate with others through local behaviour and attendance hubs. Furthermore, attendance rates are already a factor in Ofsted inspections.
In a recent opinion piece in The Independent, Paul Waugh noted that the pace of improvement in attendance has slowed over the past year, and described the government’s approach as needing to be “broader, smarter and more ambitious.” He highlighted that schools will soon have access to improved data tools to track individual pupils’ attendance more closely, enabling earlier identification of concerns and quicker interventions. Waugh also pointed to Fridays as a particular challenge for attendance, with illness-related absences notably higher at the end of the week. To address this, he called on schools to introduce engaging clubs and enrichment activities on Fridays to help keep pupils involved through the entire school week.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT schools leaders’ union, responded to the data by noting the difficulty of restoring attendance rates to pre-pandemic levels. He pointed out that schools “already go above and beyond in encouraging attendance,” but the problem cannot be solved by schools or government targets alone. Whiteman stressed that absenteeism often stems from issues outside the classroom, including illness, mental health struggles, poverty, and unmet special educational needs. He also underlined the importance of forthcoming reforms to the SEND system in England as part of addressing these challenges. The data further revealed that nearly 12% of pupils were absent during the week beginning 22 June, coinciding with an exceptional heatwave that contributed to the highest absence rate recorded in the year
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