The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has urged parents, schools and families to play their part in improving attendance and behaviour as the Government rolls out measures to support schools. The Department for Education said around 600,000 pupils in about 800 schools will have access to help from headteachers who have already acted to improve attendance and behaviour. An initial group of 21 attendance and behaviour hub schools will share strategies from leaders with experience in improving attendance and behaviour. The hubs are intended to support around 800 schools serving about 600,000 pupils, with the wider programme expected to reach around 5,000 schools, including intensive support for 500. The plan also notes five million more days in school this year.

Phillipson wrote in remarks published in a national newspaper that there is particular concern about white working-class children. She said that “for far too many white working-class children, opportunity is out of reach” with statistics showing “one in 10 white children on free school meals were suspended last year, with suspension rates five times higher than their peers.” She added that this group has among the highest absence rates and that “these children are swimming upstream against a staggering, entrenched class divide.”

ASCL general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio welcomed the call for parents to join the effort but said more government action is needed to support schools amid chronic underfunding. A NASUWT survey earlier this year found 81% of members felt the number of pupils displaying violent or abusive behaviour had increased. The Department for Education has also announced two attendance and behaviour ambassadors, Tom Bennett and Jayne Lowe. Bennett said every child deserves a school that is safe and calm, where staff are treated with dignity, and that the programme would draw on the experiences of schools across England. Labour’s shadow education secretary Laura Trott said behaviour and attendance are major challenges and criticised Labour for not including discipline in its proposed Schools Bill.