Improving School Attendance & Persistent Absence

Attendance has become one of the defining challenges for schools since the pandemic. Overall absence is falling, but slowly, and the number of children missing a significant part of their education remains far higher than it was before 2020. For school leaders, attendance now sits at the centre of inspection, statutory guidance and local authority support.

This guide sets out what the latest data shows, what the statutory guidance expects of schools, and why children’s wellbeing is one of the most important levers schools have for improving attendance, especially for pupils who are persistently absent.

The attendance picture in 2026

The latest full-year national statistics, for 2024/25, show some improvement. The overall absence rate across state-funded schools was 6.78%, and the persistent absence rate, meaning pupils who miss 10% or more of possible sessions, was 18.14%. Persistent absence fell from 19.95% the year before, but it remains far above the pre-pandemic rate of 10.86% in 2018/19.

Illness remains the most common recorded reason for absence. But behind the code, schools increasingly describe a mix of anxiety, low mood, unmet special educational needs and difficulties at home. A child with a mental health problem is seven times more likely to miss 15 or more days of school.

What the statutory guidance expects

Working together to improve school attendance became statutory guidance from 19 August 2024 and was last updated in July 2026. It sets out the responsibilities of schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities, and its central message is that attendance is everyone’s business and support should come first.

For schools, the guidance expects:

a clear attendance policy, shared with staff, pupils and families, and reviewed regularly
a senior attendance champion, a member of the senior leadership team with overall responsibility for championing and improving attendance
regular monitoring of attendance data, at individual, cohort and whole-school level, so that patterns are spotted early
early help for pupils at risk of persistent absence, working with families to understand and remove barriers, rather than waiting for absence to become entrenched
joined-up support with the local authority and other services where barriers sit beyond the school gate

The guidance is explicit that the barriers behind absence can be complex and that support should be offered, particularly where absence is becoming persistent or severe. Legal intervention is a last resort, not a first response.

Attendance in the Ofsted framework

Attendance is now part of the attendance and behaviour evaluation area on every school’s report card. Inspectors consider how leaders analyse attendance data, how well the school understands the reasons behind absence, and how effectively it supports pupils whose emotional or mental health needs affect their attendance.

At the strong standard, pupils learn how to manage their own emotions and resolve conflict. That language matters. It recognises that good attendance and good behaviour both depend on children having the skills to cope with difficult feelings, rather than simply on rules and consequences.

RISE attendance and behaviour hubs

The DfE’s RISE attendance and behaviour hubs programme brings together the former attendance hubs and behaviour hubs into a single, school-led support programme. Lead schools with strong practice support partner schools through two routes:

regional support, for schools that want lighter-touch help, including a structured attendance and behaviour CPD offer, visits to lead schools and opportunities to share practice
enhanced support, for schools that want and need more concerted help, including a self-assessment, pupil and staff surveys to establish a baseline, and an action plan developed with the lead school

If your school is looking for peer support, it is worth checking which lead schools operate in your region and registering your interest.

Why wellbeing sits behind attendance

Attendance strategies often focus on systems: first-day calls, letters home, attendance rewards and meetings with families. These matter. But for many persistently absent pupils, the barrier is not that they or their families do not understand the importance of school. It is that school feels hard to face.

Emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) describes children who experience such strong anxiety or distress about school that they struggle to attend. It rarely appears suddenly. It often begins with small signs: stomach aches on Monday mornings, reluctance at the classroom door, difficulty separating from a parent, or a child who is quiet and withdrawn in class.

Schools are well placed to spot those early signs and respond before a pattern sets in. Three things make the biggest difference.

Children who can name and manage their feelings. A child who can say “I feel worried” and knows a strategy to calm down is far more likely to manage a difficult morning than one who only experiences a wave of panic they cannot explain. Teaching children how their brain responds to stress, and practising simple regulation strategies, gives them tools they can use at the school gate as well as in the classroom.
A sense of belonging. Children attend more readily when they feel noticed, valued and connected to the adults and children around them. Recognising each child’s strengths, building positive relationships and creating calm, predictable routines all strengthen that sense of belonging.
Families who share the same language. Many anxious mornings happen at home. When parents and carers understand the same strategies their child is learning in school, they can use them on the way to school, at bedtime and during the conversations that matter most.

What the evidence shows

Independent analyses of local authority data in two areas have looked at whether schools delivering myHappymind improved attendance at a different rate to similar schools that do not. Both found consistent patterns, with the largest differences in the schools facing the greatest challenges.

Bury. Analysis of four years of attendance data for 64 primary schools found that attendance rose in myHappymind schools while it fell in comparison schools. In schools where 20% or more of pupils have special educational needs, persistent absence fell by 2.44 percentage points in myHappymind schools, compared with 0.33 points in similar schools: 7.4 times the rate of improvement. That is equivalent to roughly 24 fewer persistently absent children for every 1,000 pupils. In schools serving the most deprived communities, persistent absence fell 3.4 times faster.

Sefton. Analysis of three years of data for 74 primary schools found that attendance in myHappymind schools rose by 1.26 percentage points, from 93.14% to 94.40%, compared with a rise of 0.60 points in schools that have never delivered the programme.

Portsmouth. An evaluation of three years of attendance data by Portsmouth City Council found that severe persistent absence rose by 33% in primary schools using myHappymind between 2022 and 2025, compared with 66% in schools not using it. At a time when absence rose almost everywhere, the rise was half as large.

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These are real-world comparisons, not controlled trials, so they show consistent associations rather than proof of cause. But the pattern across three areas is the same, and it is strongest where need is greatest.

A practical plan for your school

If you are reviewing your attendance strategy this year, these steps combine the expectations of the statutory guidance with what we see working in schools.

Know your data and look beneath it. Look at attendance by cohort, by pupil group and by term. Identify pupils whose attendance is starting to slip, not only those already persistently absent. For each, ask what sits behind the absence: illness, anxiety, unmet need, difficulties at home, or a combination.

Name a senior attendance champion and give them time. The guidance expects a senior leader to own attendance. That role works best when it is connected to the school’s wellbeing, SEND and pastoral leads, because the same children often appear on all their lists.

Build wellbeing into the universal offer. A whole-school wellbeing curriculum, taught to every class, gives all children the language and strategies to cope with difficult feelings before those feelings become a reason not to come to school. It also means that when a child does begin to struggle, adults and children already share the same words.

Have a clear response to early signs of EBSA. Agree how staff will respond to a child who is anxious about coming in: who greets them, where they go, which strategies they use, and how families are involved. Consistency matters more than any single technique.

Work with families early. Contact families as soon as a pattern appears, with curiosity rather than blame. Share the strategies your school uses so that families can use them at home. The DfE’s toolkit for communicating with families offers example letters and messages.

Use targeted support for children who need more. Some children will need more than the universal offer: a key adult, an adjusted start to the day, or a structured intervention. Targeted support works best when it builds on the same language children learn in class.

Review regularly. Track whether the actions you take are changing attendance for the pupils you are most worried about, and adjust. Attendance improves through steady, consistent work over time.

Questions for governors and trust leaders

Governors have a clear role in the statutory guidance: holding leaders to account for attendance and making sure the school’s approach is supportive as well as robust. These questions can help structure that conversation:

Which groups of pupils have the highest persistent and severe absence, and how has this changed since last year?
What do we know about the reasons behind absence for those pupils, beyond the attendance code?
How do we identify early signs of emotionally based school avoidance, and what happens next?
How does our wellbeing curriculum help children manage the feelings that can make school hard to face?
How are families involved, and do they understand the strategies we use in school?
How are pupils with SEND supported to attend, and is their attendance improving at the same rate as their peers?
How will we know whether our actions are working?

Asking these questions regularly keeps the focus on understanding and support, which is where the statutory guidance places it, and helps leaders show the impact of their approach at inspection.

Where myHappymind fits

myHappymind is a whole-school wellbeing curriculum, built on neuroscience and positive psychology, that helps children understand how their brain works and what to do when things feel hard. Five science-based modules, Meet Your Brain, Celebrate, Appreciate, Relate and Engage, are taught across the whole school and revisited each year.

Several parts of the programme speak directly to attendance:

Meet Your Brain teaches children how their brain responds to stress and gives them practical regulation strategies such as Happy Breathing. At the start of the programme, 9% of teachers said more than half of their children had a method to self-regulate during times of stress and worry. After the module, 95% said Happy Breathing had benefited their class.
Celebrate and Relate build self-esteem, belonging and positive relationships. 91% of teachers have seen children’s self-esteem and confidence improve, and 96% say children now understand the importance of positive relationships.
Targeted support includes a toolkit for emotionally based school avoidance, alongside toolkits for separation anxiety, sleep and grief, so staff have a structured response for children who need more.
The Parent App shares the same language and strategies with families of primary-age children, so support continues at home.

At Elton Primary School, pupils now recognise emotions earlier and use strategies before situations escalate. As Deputy Headteacher Leah Davies puts it: “The biggest impact has been preventative.”

Next steps

Attendance will remain a priority for schools, local authorities and inspectors for years to come. Systems and data will always matter, but the schools making the most progress are those that also tackle the reasons children find school hard to face.

If you would like to see how myHappymind supports attendance in schools like yours, book a short live tour with our team.

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Improving school attendance and reducing persistent absence