Attendance improving across English schools

England has seen the biggest year-on-year school attendance improvement for a decade, with figures showing that more than 140,000 fewer pupils are persistently absent compared last year.

Of those, 45,000 are young people from deprived backgrounds, reflecting particular improvement in disadvantaged children.

This improvement has saved teachers over 10,000 days that would have been spent helping absent pupils catch up, freeing them to focus on educating the entire class.

A single day out of school cost an estimated £750 in lost earnings across the course of a career for a typical student, meaning that this year's progress alone will protect over £2 billion in pupils' future earnings and building the skilled workforce needed to drive economic growth.

When fewer children miss learnings, they are more likely to develop consistent study habits, knowledge and social skills that will serve them whether they progress to apprenticeships, colleges or universities.

Education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: "The record improvement in school attendance shows we are turning the tide on a crisis that saw a generation go missing from England's schools.

"Getting children back in classrooms, where they belong, is non-negotiable if we are to break the unfair link between background and success so we can build a fairer country--a cornerstone of our Plan for Change.

"When we tackle attendance head on, everyone benefits--pupils get the consistent education they deserve, teachers can focus on driving up standards, and we build the stronger workforce our economy needs."