Here’s how to really improve school attendance

Alliteration is a great way of selling things and, hey presto, we may soon have some more of it in the form of “attendance action alliances” made up of schools, local councils and doctors.

Trialling these, according to a report by Schools Week, is the latest idea being floated to improve the persistently high rates of school absence, which surged post-Covid and have barely improved since then.

The Department for Education (DfE) told me the idea was in its “infancy”, so it didn’t have anything to add. But watch this space.