Why are Schools so obsessed with Childrens attendance?

[Darren2134]

Last Month, a parent told me something that really unsettled me: their child had received a letter branding him a “persistent absentee”. The kicker? If his attendance improved by 5%, he’d be invited to a party.
Let that sink in. A 5-year-old—just starting school life—is being incentivised to “try harder” to attend. But this isn’t really about motivating the child, is it? It’s a covert attempt to pressure the parent—using the child’s disappointment as leverage. The message is: Get them in, or they’ll be left out.
But who are these so-called “persistent absentees”? Often, they’re the kids who’ve been sick repeatedly—maybe with covid or other bugs. They’re the ones with unstable home lives, whose families might be struggling with poverty or mental health. Maybe the child is deeply anxious, overwhelmed by the transition to school, or dealing with SEN.
What good is a party to a child who is unwell, exhausted, or afraid? A glittery invitation doesn’t cure illness. It doesn’t magic up a bus fare. It doesn’t suddenly make school a place where a child feels safe.
This isn’t motivation—it’s manipulation. It weaponises disappointment. And it risks making vulnerable children feel ashamed, excluded, and “less than” for things utterly beyond their control.
The way we talk about attendance needs to change. Education should be accessible—but for some children, 100% attendance is simply not realistic. We should be asking why a child is struggling to attend, not punishing them for it.
We need to move away from blame and shame. Instead of pushing attendance as the end goal, how about asking how we can support children who are struggling? What would it look like if schools were funded and resourced to genuinely include all children, even those who can't always make it through the gates?
Curious what others think. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing?

Because low attendance has been shown to lead to low attainment, lower gcse results. That’s why.

“It would be really useful to be able to have a discussion about this - why it has happened and possible solutions without it being derailed.“

Not sure the thread has been ‘derailed’?

Anyway, yes a discussion is important and I can offer some reasons as to why I believe it has happened (as an ex teacher and now home educator).

1. since the pandemic the unwritten ‘contract’ between parents and schools was for many broken.
2. other lingering effects of the pandemic.
3. underfunded system which can’t meet needs of the sheer amount of children with mental health issues and/or SEND
4. increasing UK poverty which causes apathy and disengagement.
5. ever increasing draconian and rigid policies which alienate families and kids.
6. ever increasing problem with bullying.
7. an outdated, rigid, highly pressured very academic curriculum which has never moved with the times.

The solutions are complex and far from simple.
First would be for our levels of poverty to be addressed. We are the 6th largest world economy and we have over a third of families living in poverty. Cost of living crisis has a lot to answer for.
Education system to be funded properly and overhauled for the 21st century. Curriculum to be made meaningful for today’s kids to engage them and provide them with actual skills for a meaningful future, not just a set of academic achievements (which a third don’t get age 16 anyway - a third of all 16 year olds leave school without passes in core subjects despite 12 years of ‘education’).

Sadly families with SEN and/or ill children are being targeted by these policies.
Just because your school didn't get nasty with your family when your child was ill isn't proof that they only target those with children missing for fun or safeguarding reasons.
Spend anytime of SEN groups or not fine in school groups and you will see that school sare failing children and blaming families.
We have years of being targets, blamed and pressured by the school and LA for a child with medical needs and SEN. We have begged for the support and being told no. We were denied EOTAS when child was too ill to attend school (medical - consultant said they could not attend for extended periods) even through it was child legal right.
My child has been destroyed by the school and has so much trauma.
I carried an unwell and mentally unwell child into school because I was under so much pressure and told I had to just get child into school or else. I will never get over the shame I inflicted due to pressure from LA but which I did because I kept being told if we did X that would enable child to get the support they needed. And yet there goal post raised and support was denied.

I have been suicidal because I can not get what my child needs in place and feel like I have failed child. My health has deteriorated through years of stress.

I feel like I must be the only one but I know I am not. There are too many families being failed and blamed.

Do not tell us this isn't happening and the policy isn't aimed at us. We are the ones getting the letters, we are the ones dealing with the LA and the schools. We are the ones having to attend meetings. We are the ones being told we will be fines and taken to court (while I haven't been fined or taken to court I do know others have)

And things are likely to get far far worse for families with the new proposed bill and the removal of EHCP and tribunal.

You do realise that not every child can get an A right.
Even if every child attended school 100% some children will do better and some will do worse. Exams are on a curve and a % will get top grades, a % will get mid grades anda % will get low and shock a % will fail. That is how it works.

No child should be punished because they aren’t attending school, especially at primary school age when they aren’t able to make their own way there.

Even if a child doesn’t have a medical reason, what good does punishing them do? Especially if they have a chaotic home life through no fault of their own.

I haven’t said that the children should be punished.

just answering ops q about why schools care.

But surely you realise I was answering the OPs question and explaining why schools care so much about attendance. Right?

If they cared they'd care about every child and making sure they met the needs of every child not just the ones who make them look good

That’s fascinating but as previously explained, I was informing the OP about why they care about good attendance.

They only care in relation to how it makes them look as a school.

One of my children had pretty terrible attendance this year- most of it authorised. Fortunately I’ve not had anything from the school. Reasons for poor attendance:

• fractured arm (which she did at school) and associated hospital appointments
• sickness bug (caught from school)
• ballet exam
• music exams x 2
• 4 days plus 1 day of unauthorised absence for holiday
• private school tests and taster days

So yes she was out of school for some holidays but the other reasons for absence don’t scream this is child with uninvested parents.

By contrast, there was one kid in her class with poor attendance who was a genuine safeguarding concern. Child was barely ever in and has dropped out to be ‘home educated’. That child’s brother is also ‘home educated’ and works for the family business at 12. There is no way the girl is getting any form of education at all.

Also children get sick: some are incredibly poorly. Rewarding 100% attendance rewards the wrong things. From a health perspective, it’s much better if kids are at home not spreading infections. Schools are also busy overwhelming places where many pupils are putting up with all sorts of shit they they never would in the workplace. It’s not that much of a surprise that some children are made unwell (mentally or physically) by the school environment. Attendance can be used to spot kids in need of extra support or intervention but is too blunt an instrument to be the mechanism of performance management. It should be a diagnostic tool not a performance one.

I’m guessing that you had low attendance at school.

Why do you think child isn't getting an education. The brother clearly is

Why would you assume that?

As it happens I did miss a lot of school as a child due to medical reasons. But my schooling was a long time ago and school understood I couldn't be in class if I was in hospital or recovering. They didn't get nasty with me or my parents over things out of our control. And actually supported our family. I got additional support (I wouldn't say the support was great back then but it was far better than now).
I did ok in school. I was very successful in my career.
My child and us as parents have had a very negative experience. My attendance as a child is not a factor in how schools are treating ill and SEN children now

Schools really don't care about genuine illness , but many are school refused or have neglectful parents who cba getting children to school. Unfortunately the rules came in as a blanket not to stigmatise those neglected children.
Ofsted judge schools on absence so it became another stick to beat schools with

Not quite. Schools are indeed judged on attainment and attendance and they have to be SEEN to improve both. However, despite setting these targets , the government isn’t doing anything to actually tackle the causes of low attainment/attendance. It costs too much and there’s no actual will for it , so they come up with soundbites and campaigns and stats to beat both parents and schools with . Then they pat themselves on the back for a job well done. We’re tackling low attendance!! Are they fuck! You can’t tackle low attendance without actually dealing with the reasons for low attendance in the first place.

Feckless parents that CBA , are actually a very , very small number. If the government (any of them), actually gave a shit, they wouldn’t focus on that minority.

No, not buying that. One year when DS was nine he had a virus, off school for a week. Sent him back in and got a phone call to pick him up, another few days off and sent him back in. Happened twice more. End of term got a letter from attendance officer or whatever they are called, warning me about his poor attendance. I phoned her and said she should check what had happened as if anyone needed warning it was his teacher who kept sending him home. I was not happy.

In many cases, government approach filtered down to schools is “just attend” without looking at genuine barriers to attendance. Illness is the biggest cause - what is done to reduce illness in schools? Telling people to just not get ill when they’re in a setting high encourages viruses is nonsensical. Covid is an additional virus in high prevalence in recent years - how often is it mentioned as an obvious reason for increased illness? On what planet would illness go down?!
Parents jump through endless hoops to try to access help with increasing thresholds, fights and waiting lists to then read in the press (irrespective of whether the columnist or politician knows they’re spouting bollocks) about the ease of getting a diagnosis.
Lip service is often paid to bullying in schools.
Some group somewhere decided to suck so much joy out of learning and teaching by filling a curriculum, leaving no time for kids to ask questions on a topic of interest, but just to keep being retested on stuff like fronted adverbials.

Some countries focus on quality ingredients for children’s school lunches, half the country here is up in arms in case kids get a free slice of toast.

Schools are struggling along on absolute peanuts and drowning in admin.
For years the state has not provided sufficient resource for schools, yet state now massively overreaches on attendance. I’m pro-education and believe in attendance. One size does not fit all and to think there would be no problem with insisting it does is ridiculous. Just like some kids thrived academically in lockdown and some kids didn’t (that’s just one metric, but the only real one kids are ultimately judged on). Just as some people will screech “so you want another lockdown” as though there aren’t any alternatives to improving the school environment, others will screech “home educate then” as the only possible alternative to a child struggling with school. Those who can (but won’t) make positive structural changes must love these binary arguments - it allows them to keep deferring action. Personal responsibility and resilience is spouted a lot by those in positions where that is required - often what is meant is “we need you to be even more resilient as our structures aren’t and we need you to shoulder personal responsibility/not get ill even though your child is in a classroom with lots of ill people” etc.

Sometimes a bit of honesty is better than bullshit arguments. Rather than challenging a child that can already read, they’ll do phonics sounds over and over. They could be given a book to read, or their parents could be told it’s important to keep going over the phonics sounds that they’ve already mastered. If continual regurgitation was that important, why aren’t all kids left to re-regurgitate phonics sounds for a year or two after they can read?!
When that kid struggles in a school environment due to boredom or because it’s a couple of years since they’ve had to learn something they don’t find easy in a school environment, will those reasons ever be mentioned?

Oh yes to the phonics. Drove one of my kids mad, started school reading chapter books but after years of phonics all joy had gone out of reading.

My KS1 child had a week off (authorised) for a d and v bug that swept the school. Silly that his attendance is down as requires improvement. How can I improve genuine illness? They'd have sent him home if I brought him in vomiting and soiling himself

My son's attendance in his school report is down as ''cause for concern''. He had cancer.

I think it's just one of those automatic things once it hits below a certain percentage. My sons was below 50%.

Yes agreed, because the government are scapegoating parents (& schools to an extent) to cover up for their own incompetence and failures. It’s easier for them to blame the tiny minority of parents than to actually do what needs to be done ie fund education properly, overhaul the curriculum/system to make it relevant to the modern world and also accessible to ALL children.

See also the way they are scapegoating parents of SEND kids and also home educating families for their failures to protect children at risk of abuse at home (such as Sara Sharrif) in the so-called Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 🙄

I am seeing a lot of incorrect information on here that sounds like it is from the local authority training day handbook.

1. This assumption that low attendance means children come from chaotic homes , druggy parents etc is laughable. Those parents actually are the ones pushing their kids into schools to go get high as the child disrupts them ...not the other way around . Hence why these children are always missed and the families not like this are accused of this ..have you noticed.

1. The more a child attends school does not mean they will pass their gcse's hence why 65% failed in 2025 even with over 90% attendance , it comes down to sex and biology ( females are usually more academic whereas males learn more hands on etc ) and an outdated curriculum that was used to train children for factory work which needs to be scrapped

1. Homeschooled children are barely ever sick . The system structure that has a one size fits all approach is a real issue and causes absences plus germs !!! Kids being sent in sick causes more sick children ...its not rocket science and our NHS is just struggling so good luck getting an appointment

1. Negative experiences in schools has the same impact on a child who has been abused...the local authority ignore this . So children being bullied or being forced to attend things are in distress. And yes this should be challenged as the previous generation suffered and we have the highest epidemic of DV , drug use , undiagnosed SEN needs etc ever.

1. GENETICS. Mental health is not just from environmental exposures and home life I.e lack of routine ...it is also from genes and can be passed down through families. Anxiety is a common one . Undiagnosed conditions is another issue with lack of GP resources and underfunding. Or just ignorant people who think that the authoritarian route will somehow fix a SEN child's issues

And yes my children go to school and we have days off when sick and when they feel.burnt out because I was a support worker for charities and worked for the local authority handing out this same dribble to parents until I worked for charities outside of the LA and realised that their evidence from research is either misinterpreted and rewritten by them , bias or just suits their narrative which is to produce workers for the population. The reality is far more complex and they refuse to change their school system so they are responsible as well. They are failing because businesses and schools fail to acknowledge that it is not all cut an dry and the economy is in tatters.

I think we need community ran schools who use more initiative and do not try to push everyone into a box but most importantly to ditch the local authority and the government's system. Happier children menas more engagement and the kids are just not happy , or the parents or teachers.

And yes I agree that excluding children from things for attendance issues does not work and should not be used.