15 May 2026 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

As we enter the critical phase of the exam season, I would like to take this opportunity to update schools on the impact of our collective work on school attendance, suspensions and permanent exclusions - areas which continue to have a significant influence on pupil outcomes.

I am pleased to report that attendance levels across Kent schools continue to track closely alongside national average. This reflects the continued strength of partnership and multi-agencies working across the county, reinforcing the principle that “attendance is everyone’s business,” as outlined in the DfE statutory guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance.

More detailed analysis highlights a number of positive trends, including improvements in both overall attendance and persistent absence. This is especially so in secondary schools. There do of course remain areas where continued focus is required with severe absence being both a local and national priority.

Severe absence practice and data in Kent have seen improvements over the past year and in recognition of this progress, Kent County Council was invited by the DfE to lead a severe absence project. This project was presented to many local authorities across the South of England in March. A number of these authorities are now adopting this approach, working in close partnership with schools, Early Help, Social Care, Youth Justice and the Virtual School.

Looking ahead, we will shortly be launching a Kent Safeguarding Children Multi-Agency Partnership (KSCMP) audit, designed to strengthen our understanding of the relationship between school absence and safeguarding risk. This work is focused on shared learning and system improvement, rather than assessment of individual school performance.

The audit will explore:

• How schools use attendance data to identify emerging concerns
• Barriers and challenges impacting attendance
• How safeguarding thresholds are recognised and applied
• How schools collaborate with wider partners when attendance may indicate risk.

A small number of schools will be invited to contribute insights from leadership teams and Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs). If your setting is approached, your contribution will be very valuable in supporting system-wide improvement.

Recent analysis from the Management Information Team further reinforces the strong link between attendance and attainment across all key stages (2024/25 data). Whilst this data is unsurprising, it must be recognised that as children progress through their educational journey, the gap in attainment between those eligible and not eligible for FSM increases.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFSP)

• 79% of pupils with 95 to 100% attendance achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD).
• Pupils attending nearly every day are 1.5 times more likely to achieve expected standards than those attending 85 to 90%.
• Among pupils with high attendance, those not eligible for FSM achieve GLD at a rate 17 percentage points higher than FSM-eligible pupils.

Key Stage 2

• Pupils with 95 to 100% attendance are 1.2 times more likely to achieve expected standards in reading, writing and maths than those attending 90 to 95%. So, missing approximately 10 days in Year 6 reduces the likelihood of achieving expected standards by nearly 20%.
• Among high-attendance pupils, those not eligible for FSM outperform FSM-eligible pupils by 24 percentage points.

Key Stage 4

• 57% of high-attendance pupils (95 to 100%) who are not eligible for FSM achieve a strong pass in English and Maths.
• This is 23 percentage points higher than FSM-eligible pupils with equivalent attendance. So, they are 1.7 times more likely to achieve successful outcomes.

Secondary schools are reminded that they can now access attendance and absence data for Year 6 pupils who have been offered a Year 7 place at their setting. This information is available through the view your education data platform under the Year 6 transition data download section. This data provides a valuable opportunity to support effective transition planning and identify early intervention needs.

Guidance and further support can be found in:

• The Monitor Your School Attendance: Transition webinar
• The DfE RISE Attendance Improvement Toolkit (Key Area 7: Transition)

Finally, I would like to recognise and commend the continued work regarding suspensions and permanent exclusions. There remains a clear and consistent ethos that exclusion is used as a last resort where absolutely appropriate. While national comparator data for 2024/25 is not yet available, the most recent published DfE data (2023/24) shows that Kent’s rate of suspensions and permanent exclusions per 100 pupils remain significantly below national, regional and statistical neighbour averages. Kent currently ranks first among its statistical neighbours in:

• Permanent exclusion rates (Primary, Secondary and Special schools)
• Suspension rates (Primary, Secondary and Special schools)
• Permanent exclusion rates within Special schools.

Year-to-date figures (September 2025 to March 2026) show further improvement when compared with the same period last year:

• Suspensions reduced by 5.5%
• Permanent exclusions reduced by 3 cases (total of 59).

Thank you, as always, for your continued collaboration, commitment and dedication to improving outcomes for children and young people across Kent. The progress achieved is a testament to the strength of our shared approach.

Best wishes

Simon Smith
KPAS Manager (Kent PRU and Attendance Service)