Many Derbyshire primary schools that rank as above average when it comes to teaching their pupils valuable school skills also excel in another measure - encouraging strong attendance.
The same can not necessarily be said nationwide. The Government’s latest absence and attendance figures, covering the full 2023/24 school year, show that the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils in England - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. One in five pupils were also labelled ‘persistently absent’, meaning they missed at least 10% of these half-day sessions.
A recent Department for Education report has shown just how much this really matters - even for primary-aged pupils. Those who attended school nearly every day in Year 6 were 1.3 times more likely to meet the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths compared to pupils who only attended 90-95% of the time. This means missing just 10 days of school cuts their chances by around 25%.
As the end of another school year looms, we’ve taken a look at how schools in the Derbyshire County Council area did. We then used this data to create a league table of the county’s state-funded schools with overall absence rates below 3.5% - an outstanding achievement for any school community. Naturally, this gave many of Derbyshire’s village schools with fewer pupils in general the chance to shine - although some with roll sizes in the hundreds made the list too.
Here were the 12 local schools that came out on top:
1. Morley Primary School
At the top of the list, is this primary academy in the village of Morley. It has about 82 pupils, and also made the national list of primary schools with the lowest absences. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a low overall absence rate of just 2.4%. | Google
2. Breadsall CofE VC Primary School
Another village school, this one is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary in Breadsall. It has a roll size of about 114, and a much higher proportion of its pupils met the Government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths than both the national and local averages. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 2.8%. | Google
3. Osmaston CofE Primary School
This local authority-maintained Anglican primary school, in the village of Osmaston in the Derbyshire Dales, is also an above average academic achiever. It has about 146 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 2.9%. | Google
4. Kirk Langley CofE Primary School
This is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school, in the village of Kirk Langley. It has about 91 pupils, and an above average proportion meeting Government standards. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 3%. | Google