Education Minister has launched a public
consultation on a new draft strategy to improve school attendance
and understand the reasons behind pupil absence.
The proposed Attendance Matters Strategy sets out six priority
areas to support children and young people to attend school every
day:
- Promoting a nurturing environment to understand and reduce
Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA);
- Ensuring inclusive strategies to promote positive
behaviour;
- Using data to identify vulnerable children and young people
and delivering early interventions;
- Understanding why children are missing from formal education
and taking steps to address this;
- Piloting a whole community approach to improving attendance;
and
- Transforming support for schools and settings.
Launching the public consultation, said: “Recent trends in
pupil absence show almost 82,500 pupils are currently missing 10%
or more of their school days. There has been a significant
increase in these figures since 2018/19, and this is a worrying
trend that we should all be concerned about.
“School leaders have told me the impact of the pandemic
on our children and young people should not be underestimated.
This has consequences at primary and post-primary level, making
the challenge of raising achievement and closing the gap more
challenging.”
The Minister continued: "If a child is happy in school,
they will feel a sense of belonging, feel safe and supported, and
will want to attend.
“My Department's updated attendance strategy reflects the
importance of understanding why pupils are absent and the
benefits of early intervention in strengthening our approach.
It seeks to highlight the impact of non-attendance and
seeks ways to put effective measures in place.”
concluded: “I would
encourage all those with an interest in this issue, particularly
families and schools, to respond to the consultation and ensure
your views are heard as we collectively find ways to ensure
attendance is valued and achieved.”
The consultation will run from 8th December to 6th March
2026 and can be found here – www.education-ni.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-pupil-attendance-strategy-attendance-matters
Notes to editors:
1. The Attendance Matters Strategy updates the previous "Miss
School. Miss Out" strategy published in 2016.
