Chronic absenteeism can unsurprisingly have quite an impact on a young person’s education.
The 2024/25 school year’s summer exam season is now in session. But just how well secondary school pupils do in their GCSEs can be influenced by their attendance, a recent Department for Education report shows.
It found that pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 11 were almost twice as likely to achieve a Grade 5 in their core English and Maths GCSEs, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This means that missing just 10 days of school reduced the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
The Government’s full absence and attendance figures for the 2023/24 school year are out now. Despite showing a small improvement on the year before, the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. One in five pupils were also labelled ‘persistently absent’, meaning they are losing out on at least 10% of these half-day sessions.
We’ve taken a closer look at all of the state-funded secondary schools across the Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County council areas - excluding private and special schools - to see how they measure up when it comes to their overall absences. Local families may also notice that many were also amongst the county’s highest performers when it comes to GCSEs.
Here are the 12 Nottinghamshire schools with the lowest absence rates:
1. The West Bridgford School
At the top of the list is this high-performing secondary academy and sixth form in West Bridgford. In the last academic year, it boasted a strong GCSEs-based Progress 8 score in the ‘well above average’ band - the highest available. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an extremely low overall absence rate of just 5.47%. | Google
2. Bluecoat Wollaton Academy
Bluecoat Wollaton is an Anglican secondary academy in the Wollaton Park area, Nottingham. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 5.51%. | Google
3. The Trinity Catholic School
The Trinity is a Catholic secondary academy and sixth form in Aspley, Nottingham. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 5.68%. | Google
4. Nottingham Girls' Academy
Another Nottingham-based school, this is a girls’ secondary academy and sixth form, with a fairly high Progress 8 score. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of about 6.1%. | Google