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:
9. Mugginton CofE Primary School
As its name might suggest, this is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in Mugginton, an above average performer with about 64 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, it once again had an overall absence rate of 3.2%. | Google
10. Wessington Primary School
This is a local authority-maintained village primary school in Wessington. It was one of a small group of schools nationwide which had all of its pupils meet the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths last year. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had an overall absence rate of 3.2%. | Google
11. Longford CofE Primary School
This is an Anglican academy in Longford with about 54 pupils, and another to get all of its Year 6 pupils meeting reading, writing, and maths standards in the last school year. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 3.3%. | Google
12. Long Lane Church of England Primary School
Rounding out the list as the last Derbyshire school with an absence rate below 3.5% is this tiny primary academy in the Longlane area, with about 22 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 3.4%. | Google