School Attendance Gap Day

School Attendance Gap Day is a new Awareness Day led by School-Home Support.

By shining a light on the ‘lost learning’ as a result of school absence, School Attendance Gap Day aims to promote positive collaboration to build an inclusive education system and encourage a laser-like focus on tackling the school attendance crisis

We will mark this day annually to track the country’s collective progress in tackling school absence.

What is School Attendance Gap Day?

School Attendance Gap Day is marked on 4 February 2025 – this is the halfway point in the school year when ‘severely absent’ children and young people (with 50% attendance) effectively have their final school day and are absent for the rest of the academic year. In 2025, School Attendance Gap Day is the final school day for 158,000 ‘severely absent’ pupils in England.

School Attendance Gap Day will fall on approximately the same day each year – half way through the academic year – but the number of children who have their final day on this date will change, and will be a measure of our progress in tackling absenteeism.

It’s time to close the school attendance gap.

Why do we need to close the School Attendance Gap?

The School Attendance Gap represents the learning lost by children who miss school. It relates to learning of all kinds – including academic, social and practical.

The problem of ‘severe absence’ is getting worse rather than better. The number of children missing this much of school is 149% higher than pre-pandemic (2018/2019).

This means that collectively we are still failing huge numbers of children, who are out of school as often as they are in. We need to go further and faster to tackle school absence.

The long term consequences of absence

The long term consequences of lost learning are significant, contributing to cycles of poverty, missed opportunities and lost potential.

Lower Attainment. There is a proven correlation between school absence and school attainment. Data from the Children’s Commissioner report ‘Missing school, missing grades’ reveals that 78% of pupils who were rarely absent in both years passed at least 5 GCSEs, including English and maths, in 2022. By comparison, just one in twenty pupils who were ‘severely absent’ met the same standards.

Reduced Social Mobility. The Social Mobility Commission views NEET (not in education, employment or training) as a key indicator for social mobility. Research has found that ‘persistently absent’ children and young people (missing 10% or more of education) are 3.9 times more likely to be NEET and 6.3 times more likely to be persistently NEET.

Risk of School Exclusion. The Who is Losing Learning Coalition has found that children who are ‘severely absent’ from school are also five times more likely to be permanently excluded than the national rate, suggesting that severe absence may correlate with behavioural problems that schools do not have the capacity to address.

Exposure to Harmful Influences. School provides a strong protective effect from harmful influences. Analysis from the CSJ in 2023 indicated that the rising rates of school absences could create an extra 9,000 extra young offenders by 2027 if left unresolved.

Join our campaign if you want to see bold collective action to:

Go further and faster to close the school attendance gap
Support families whose children are losing learning by missing school;
See an inclusive education system which recognises that each child is different;
See absence tackled through more support and fewer fines.

Get involved

Help us to raise awareness of the consequences of school absence, and encourage positive collaboration to move further and faster close the school attendance gap.

Join in the conversation and show your support for the campaign by sharing our campaign board and social media post, tagging us on Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram and using the hashtag: #SchoolAttendanceGapDay.

Download the campaign poster

Sam’s story

6 year old Sam was absent from school for long periods of time due to illness. His attendance fell to 51%, at the threshold for severe absence. Sam was missing out on half of his education, which meant he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with his learning and stay connected to his peers.

School-Home Support practitioner Helena worked with Sam and his mum to understand and overcome the root causes of Sam’s absence. With support to overcome the family’s health and housing issues, Sam’s attendance increased to 82%.

Read Sam’s story

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