{"id":226547,"date":"2025-03-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=226547"},"modified":"2025-03-07T12:51:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T12:51:51","slug":"term-time-holidays-small-part-of-attendance-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/term-time-holidays-small-part-of-attendance-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Term-time holidays a \u2018small part\u2019 of attendance woes – minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Children taking term-time holidays represent \u201ca very small percentage of the attendance problem\u201d, with the government focused on those missing \u201csignificant amounts of school on a very regular basis\u201d, the schools minister has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a Department for Education attendance conference near Newcastle this week, Catherine McKinnell MP, the Minister of State for School Standards, praised school leaders for \u201cyour leadership, your perseverance, your determination and your commitment, in the face of what is a big challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The north east has higher absence rates than any other English region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During breakout sessions, leaders revealed their efforts to bring absences down, including one approach that involved attendance officers starting at 7.30am to listen through voicemails of parents excusing their child, collating data into postcodes and heading out at 8am to visit homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other ideas included asking children to bring in work they were \u201cproud of\u201d on Fridays and running a \u201cwheel of fortune\u201d competition with prizes that included a voucher for a bakery chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.6 million ‘persistently absent’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Much of the national debate about tackling absence has focused on unauthorised term-time holidays<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKinnell told Schools Week <\/em>that although it was a \u201csignificant issue \u2026 it’s a very small percentage of the attendance problem\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year to date, unauthorised holidays make up 0.4 percentage points of an overall absence rate nationally of 6.7 per cent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister said the \u201cbig focus\u201d is on children who regularly miss significant amounts of school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pointed to the 1.6 million \u201cpersistently\u201d absent pupils who missed at least a day a fortnight, and the 150,000 \u201cseverely\u201d absent \u2013 those who missed more school than they attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said there was no doubt absence was the \u201ceducation challenge of our generation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Re-engage communities’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

She urged leaders \u201cto take away what you’ve heard today from the speakers, insights, from the conversations, from the anecdotes over coffee, from the support network that you\u2019ve built amongst yourselves, to turn that into tangible, transformative action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo build that inclusion, to re-engage with your communities and restore attendance, not just so that we meet targets, but to unlock every child’s opportunity to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DfE officials were asked whether its network of attendance hubs would be extended, and how it would integrate with new regional improvement teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Blake, the DfE\u2019s regional director for attendance<\/a>, said: “We love the hub model.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see a load of value in investing further in the networks that we’ve got. Watch this space, though. There’s no announcement yet, but we’re certainly thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine McKinnell says she’s focused on children who regularly miss ‘significant amounts of school’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314924,"featured_media":208394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[1536,1826,1576,28,520],"post-theme":[2524],"class_list":["post-226547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-absence-fines","tag-absences","tag-attendance","tag-dfe","tag-term-time-holidays","post-theme-attendance"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t