In the third instalment of our blog series marking the publication of Thrive’s new ImpactEd report, Tom Preston explores our impact on attendance.
Attendance has joined the cluster of challenges facing school leaders in recent years, with the pandemic accelerating attendance problems in many schools.
Attendance really matters. Even seemingly small differences in school attendance can have significant implications.
According to DfE research, children with 95-100% attendance in Year 6 have 30% higher odds of reaching expected standards in reading, writing and maths compared to similar pupils with 90-95% attendance.
At secondary the impact is even more pronounced. Year 11 pupils with near perfect attendance almost double their odds of achieving grade 5 GCSEs in English and Maths compared to similar pupils with 90-95% attendance.
And when it comes to longer term impacts the differences are amplified. According to the DfE, persistently absent pupils earn £10,000 less at age 28 compared to pupils with near perfect attendance.
It’s clear from those insights why boosting attendance is one of the top priorities for most school leaders – and Thrive.
According to ImpactEd’s evaluation of the Thrive Approach, schools using Thrive have lower absence and severe absence rates than schools nationally, suggesting stronger patters of attendance and engagement.
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Analysis conducted by ImpactEd Evaluation for the Supporting Education Group shows that, during the 2023/24 academic year, Thrive customer schools experienced approximately 3% lower overall absenteeism and 15% lower severe absenteeism compared with national averages.
Differences were more pronounced among highly engaged Thrive schools completing more than 100 individual pupil assessments per year. Absenteeism was around 5% lower than the national average in this group, overall, while severe absenteeism was 38% lower. It’s an indication that sustained and consistent use of the approach is associated with more favourable attendance outcomes.
National comparative evidence indicates that schools using the Thrive Approach have lower absence and severe absence rates than schools nationally, suggesting stronger patterns of attendance and engagement.
Building on this system-level context, evidence from the two-year evaluation provides further insight into attendance patterns within participating primary schools over time. Primary pupil attendance within the evaluation cohort remained consistent across timepoints, showing only a small decrease of 0.9 percentage points between baseline and endline. This change is smaller than the around 1 percentage-point decline typically observed nationally between the autumn and summer terms and is therefore positive and consistent with expected seasonal variation.
When considered alongside national benchmarks, attendance levels in participating primary schools remained broadly in line with national averages, with indications of slightly higher attendance for pupils with SEND, aligning with wider evidence from the evaluation that Thrive-supported approaches may help support engagement and sustained attendance for pupils with additional needs. It is important to note that national attendance figures reflect performance across the full academic year, whereas attendance data within the evaluation cohort relates to specific terms only.
Against this context, the slight decrease observed within the cohort suggests that attendance was maintained at levels comparable to, and in some cases slightly above, national patterns, despite wider pressures on attendance.
Teachers and school leaders described how implementing Thrive supported calmer, more predictable school environments that supported pupils to feel settled and ready to engage with learning. Teachers noted that when pupils felt emotionally secure and supported, this was reflected in greater enthusiasm for school and fewer incidents of distress or disruption, helping to sustain regular attendance.
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Read the Thrive Evaluation Report
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