Parents and caregivers “need to do more” to reverse post-Covid trends of poor attendance and behaviour in schools, the education secretary has said, announcing measures to support schools in England before the start of the new school year.
Bridget Phillipson unveiled a UK government programme on Sunday targeting 800 schools attended by about 600,000 pupils, beginning with an initial wave of 21 schools that will serve as attendance and behaviour hubs.
The struggling schools will have access to support from headteachers who have tackled the problems successfully in their own schools. The whole programme is expected to support 5,000 schools, including intensive support for 500.
Phillipson said: “I am calling on parents, schools and families to join us in playing their part to get children in class and ready to learn for the start of the new school term.
“We have already made progress with 5m more days in school this year, and are backing parents and supporting schools through our plan for change.
“But we all need to do more, and when it comes to getting kids in and behaving – this includes mums, dads and carers too.”
Data showed seven out of every 30 classroom minutes were lost to disruption, the Department for Education (DfE) said in a statement. A survey by the NASUWT teaching union this year found four in five of more than 5,800 members felt the number of pupils exhibiting violent and abusive behaviour at school had increased, and government figures show suspensions and exclusions in England rose to a record high in the 2023-24 school year.
Overall absence rates declined in the autumn of 2024-25 compared with the previous year, but the number of “severely absent” pupils – those missing more than 50% of school days – increased from 142,000 to 148,000.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Phillipson said she was particularly concerned about white working-class children, the demographic group with one of the highest overall absence and suspension rates.
Newly released statistics from the national behaviour survey show that one in 10 white children on free school meals in England were suspended in the 2023-24 academic year. It was the highest suspension rate of any group except Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils, who are far fewer in number.
Phillipson said: “For far too many white working-class children, opportunity is out of reach,” with statistics showing “one in 10 white children on free school meals were suspended last year, with suspension rates five times higher than their peers”.
“These children are swimming upstream against a staggering, entrenched class divide that sees them disproportionately kicked out of education or not attending in the first place.”
Persistent school absence or periods of suspension are directly linked to quality of life in adulthood: by the age of 24, children who were suspended at school were three times as likely as their peers to be on sickness benefits, and on average earned £10,000 a year less by the age of 28.
Phillipson announced two attendance and behaviour ambassadors would support the new programme: Tom Bennett, who has previously advised the DfE on behaviour, and Jayne Lowe, a former pupil referral unit headteacher.
The government’s schools white paper, expected to be published in the autumn, will set out further plans to tackle bad behaviour.
