Research suggests links between how often children attend school and how well they do in exams - and North Yorkshire’s secondary schools seem to exemplify this.
The Government has now released its absence and attendance figures for the full 2023/24 school year. Despite showing a small improvement on last year, the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. The amount of ‘persistently absent’ pupils missing at least 10% of these half-day sessions also remains incredibly high - affecting 1 in 5 children.
Another new Department for Education report has highlighted just how much this might matter when it comes to exams - with the start of this year’s summer exam season now just days away. 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 English and Maths GCSEs, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This meant that missing just 10 days of school reduced the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
Included with the Government’s attendance figures was the absence data for each state-funded secondary school in England. We’ve used this to take a closer look at how schools across North Yorkshire - in the City of York and North Yorkshire Council areas - did, to create a league table of those with the lowest rates of pupils missing class for any reason, excluding private and special schools.
Only schools with absence rates below 8% have been included on our list. It will likely come as no surprise to many that a lot of these schools were also amongst North Yorkshire’s highest achievers in the last GCSE exam season - further cementing the ties between attendance and attainment.
Here were the 14 local secondary schools that fit the bill:
1. St Francis Xavier School
St Francis Xavier is a combined Catholic and Anglican secondary academy in Richmond. It is one of North Yorkshire’s highest performing schools when it comes to its GCSEs-based Progress 8 score - which is firmly in the ‘well above average’ band. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a low absence rate of just 5.24%. | Google
2. Ripon Grammar School
This is a selective local authority-maintained secondary school and sixth form in Ripon, another top performer with a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had a low absence rate of just 5.68%. | Google
3. Skipton Girls' High School
This is a selective girls’ secondary academy and sixth form in Skipton, with an ‘above average’ Progress 8 score. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of about 6.1%. | Google
4. Brayton Academy
Another high achieving secondary academy, this one is between Brayton and Selby. It too had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score off the back of the last summer exam season. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 6.64%. | Google