Using newly released detailed data on absence from school, we find a 'Friday effect'--children are much less likely to attend schools in England on Fridays. We use daily level data across the whole of England and find that this pattern holds for different schools and for different types of absence, including illness-related authorised and…

For some children and young people (CYP) with long-term physical health conditions (LTPHCs) attending school can be difficult. There is a lack of evidence documenting their school attendance experiences, how schools manage absence for these children, and subsequent effects. This study utilised an existing dataset from eighty-nine 11-18-year-olds…

This interim report shares emerging findings and recommendations from a collaborative project. The project examines post-16 Education and Training (E&T) in the UK. It is focused on analysing the divergent approaches to E&T policy across the four devolved nations to understand more deeply the key policy issues and challenges facing E&T…

School absenteeism is a significant social and public health problem, and it has considerable negative consequences on the development of children and adolescents not only in the short term but also in the long term. We investigated special education needs (SEN) as a risk factor for absenteeism. For 418,455 mainstream secondary school students…

Empirical analysis of secondary microdata, bespoke social mobility surveys and administrative school attendance data reveal the extent of learning losses that have evolved in the four nations of the UK over the year of the pandemic. They are sizable in all four nations, with a common feature of disadvantaged pupils suffering particularly large…

This article aims to examine the implicit and explicit motivations behind the compulsory schooling reform in England as well as its unintended and long-term effects by analysing publicly available policy documents and key scholarly literature. The analysis indicates that even though the 19th century's schooling project appeared to focus on…

This research uses an active listening approach within a narrative inquiry methodology to consider the views of three teenage males aged 15-17 years on the topic of missing education. Missing education is a term used to describe children and young people (CYP) not receiving a suitable education or being on a school roll. The participants' accounts…

Since 1870, levels of pupils' absence from maintained schools in Wales have always been higher than those in England. Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh government has tried exceedingly hard to improve this situation. Despite much effort, improving school attendance in Wales is proving stubbornly difficult to achieve. The present article…

As research today is often required to validate innovative aspects of education, David Sobel's analysis of the SEER report makes quantitative sense of nature education and its ability to improve learning. Test scores increase, attendance surges, language arts assessments show richer self-expression, speaking skills gain a community cause, math…

Two complementary studies of poor and better attenders are presented. To measure emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) different teacher-completed rating scales were employed, and to determine social difficulties, the studies used sociometry and some items from the scales. One study had a longitudinal design. It revealed that, after…

Using the latest international educational database, TIMSS, this study investigates and compares the occurrences of 11 student problem behaviors as reported by middle school principals in ten countries. For each country, the study reveals the relationships of these problem behaviors with teachers' attitudes and parental involvement, and discusses…

Students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are at a greatly increased risk of poor academic outcomes. Understanding the factors that influence their attainment is a crucial first step towards developing more effective provision. In the current study we present a multi-level, natural variation analysis which highlights…

This interdisciplinary cross-cultural research project surveyed teachers in elementary schools in five countries: South Africa, Australia, Jamaica, England, and the United States. This study attempted to define and identify best practices used in teaching children considered to be "at-risk" in these five countries: Three research…

A survey of 569 young people with sickle cell disorder (SCD) in England has found such pupils miss considerable periods of time from school, typically in short periods of two or three days. One in eight has school absences equating to government-defined "persistent absence". Students with SCD report that they are not helped to catch up…

Student boredom within the school system has been widely studied and shown to be linked to various negative consequences such as diminished academic achievement, school dissatisfaction and truancy. However, little attention has been given to the issue of boredom within higher education and the current study aims to redress this balance. Two…