Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been in Birmingham to urge parents to help school leaders address truancy amid fears World Cup mania could undo progress on bringing down troubling absence rates.
Plea to Families
Speaking ahead of England's opening World Cup game against Croatia on Wednesday, June 17, she issued a plea to families to ensure football fans attended lessons as usual, even if they were tired. Ideally they should be encouraged to catch up with late-night games on catch-up and highlights, rather than being glued to phones and TV screens into the early hours, she said.
School Leaders' Response
One schools boss in the city, Summit Learning Trust CEO Vince Green, who oversees five primary schools, three secondary and one college, said he was pleased England's weekday group matches both had 9pm kick-offs. He said he hoped that would lessen the impact.
Free breakfasts, a warm welcome and a morning chat about the previous night's big games before lessons begin were part of the trust's strategy to ensure pupils did not skip school during this critical period. This year's World Cup is being held in Mexico, Canada and the United States, meaning many matches kick off at 9pm, 10pm, midnight or 2am for fans in the UK.
Addressing Truancy
The education minister was in the city to address a conference of primary school leaders who met to share innovative ways to address truancy and unauthorised absence from school. Across the country, many schools have successfully lifted attendance rates to close to pre-Covid levels. But the 'normalisation' of children being home more during lockdown, more social anxiety and other impacts of schools shutting are still reverberating.
Birmingham is one of the hotspots for primary pupil absences, with the local authority ranked 149th out of 151 councils. Last year the city council launched an attendance improvement strategy to address concerns by 2028.
Impact of Absences
School attendance is a critical factor in both academic success and long-term life outcomes, according to multiple research findings. Pupils with higher attendance are significantly more likely to meet expected standards and achieve strong GCSE results. Many mums and dads don't realise how much damage the odd day off can do to a child's education, said Mrs Phillipson.
She said: “In recent years, we’ve slipped dangerously into a culture where ‘just one day off’ feels harmless. A birthday here, an afternoon off after the doctor or dentist; missing the last day of term because ‘they won’t be doing much anyway’. “New government analysis suggests those seemingly small decisions may be having a bigger impact than many realise. These days ‘here and there’ add up, and the impact is rarely felt by just one child: helping them catch up can delay learning for the whole class.”
Local Initiatives
David Barker, head at Oaklands Primary School in Acocks Green, and Summit Learning Trust chief executive Vince Green at Villa Park, where an education conference was held this week, June 15. She said: “In the age of scrolling and smartphones, school remains one of the few places where children come together every day, build real relationships and develop the social skills that will shape the rest of their lives.” Summit Learning Trust's schools are all in east Birmingham and north Solihull. CEO Mr Green and the head of Oaklands Primary School in Acocks Green, David Barker, shared their experiences of how to drive down absence rates with fellow city leaders.
On the World Cup issue, Mr Green told BirminghamLive: "I am quite thankful that the England group games - these are the games that affect us the greatest in these periods - aren't at 2am in the morning. The finishing times are quite late, 11pm at night, but much as we guide our families, that is not that (unusually) late a bedtime for some of our pupils. We are discouraging watching those really late games and encouraging them more to catch the highlights over breakfast...but the big thing is the support we give children when they come in the next day, even if they are quite tired."
"The reality is we know many families will give really strong guidance and be supportive but the child might stay up and watch the game anyway. There is only so much we can do about that. But what we can do is give really warm welcomes in school, we have provided free breakfasts in our schools for four years, pupils are really looked after when they come in, they are welcomed warmly into a warm, clean, happy environment and it's made clear they should come in even if they are feeling tired. We also give them an opportunity to talk about the game when they first come in, but then it will be on to the English, the maths and the wider curriculum."
Fear of missing out - on banter with friends, World Cup related games and lessons and special events - is also a big lure for pupils who might otherwise be tempted to skip school, some heads told the gathering.
Creative Campaigns
Moat Farm Junior School in Oldbury has come up with its kindness-themed world cup attendance campaign. Moat Farm Junior School in Oldbury shared how it was using the World Cup to get more children in to school, and encourage kindness, with a themed 'competition'. Classes earn points by taking part in lunchtime football sessions, can earn 'kindness footballs' for being kind around school or on the pitch, receive bonuses for attendance of more than 97% during a week, and take part in daily 'attendance matches', with classes being drawn against each other and a prize going to the 'best attending' the next day. Overall winning classes will receive a football training session.
Why Does Attendance Matter?
Research shows that those with 95–100% attendance in Year 6 are 1.3 times more likely to meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths in their Sats exams. Similar attendance in Year 11 makes pupils 1.9 times more likely to achieve a Grade 5 in English and Maths. Future earnings are also impacted, with research showing each additional day missed between Years 7–11 is associated with a reduction of approximately £750 in future earnings. Critically, local rates remain higher than nationally for particularly vulnerable children including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), those known to a social worker and children in care.
