Welsh Government
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Education Minister welcomes further improvements in secondary school attendance

Education and Skills Minister Huw Lewis welcomed the publication of statistics which show that attendance rates for secondary schools in Wales are continuing to rise. The statistics reveal that in 2013/14:

  • Overall absence is down 1 percentage point on last year, continuing a pattern of falling figures every year since 2005/06.
  • More children than ever have no absences at all.
  • Persistent absence is now half what it was six years ago at 5%
  • 60% of absence is due to illness.

Huw Lewis said:

“If children and young people are going to get the most out of their education and fulfil their potential it’s so important that they attend school regularly and benefit from being in a learning environment.

“In the last two years we have invested £800,000 to support regional consortia working with local authorities and schools in securing long-term improvements in school attendance. The Attendance Analysis Framework has also been implemented and attendance data is now included in school data packs.
 
“In addition, we introduced school banding, helping to give us and parents a clear picture of how our schools are performing. Banding has provided us with a constructive evaluation process to improve school performance. The inclusion of attendance data in the All Wales Core Data Sets for schools and local authorities is a key source of information for schools to use in their self-evaluation and school improvement processes.

“These are encouraging statistics and we will continue to focus on improving school attendance

Channel website: http://gov.wales

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