Learn about the DfE's AI powered 'similar schools' attendance report

We developed this report at the Department for Education following analysis which suggests that characteristics of schools and pupils can only explain some of the differences in attendance levels between schools.

So whilst some of the variation is explained by differences in the demographics of the pupils at a school such as ethnicity, the level of SEN needs alongside school size, religious character, admissions criteria and location. 

The remaining variation is likely to be due to school-level practice. We know from extensive engagement with the sector that factors like leadership, an inclusive culture, processes and systems and parental and LA engagement can make a big difference.

The characteristics for similar schools are:

• proportion of pupils:

  •  eligible for free school meals (FSM)

  •  with special educational needs (SEN) support 

  •  with ‘social, emotional and mental health’ needs as their primary SEN type

  • with English as an additional language (EAL)

• amount of deprivation affecting their pupils, measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)

• geographical region of your school and a similar urban/rural classification

• funding amount per pupil to your school

We have also made this new similar schools report available to trusts who can access a zipped folder which reports on all of their schools. It’s worth noting that this report is for primary and secondary mainstream schools - not special schools. 

You then see the following graph (below) which compares weekly attendance. The blue line represents your school and the orange line, similar schools. Again, this isn’t real data as in reality, based on above data, those lines would be much further apart. This information gives you and your school leaders an idea of how your school is doing, not just against local and national averages but compared to schools with a similar cohort of pupils.

What we do next is show your school’s strengths and its areas for focus which gives your school actionable insights.

This school’s attendance on Wednesday afternoons is very good so they’re doing something right – perhaps an extracurricular activity. But you can also see areas to focus on and, for example, Year 11 attendance could be improved. Straight away, we’re giving you a really targetable group to focus your efforts on. Similarly if the focus was on Year 8s, we explain that a small increase in attendance for this particular group could lead to a 0.83%  increase in overall attendance.

There is no identifiable information here so there’s no reason why a headteacher can’t share this with your board. Where there are – for example – fewer than five free school meal pupils, that data would be suppressed in the report to protect children’s identities.

This report is available to school and trust leaders via the Monitor Your School Attendance tool and you can ask for school leaders to bring it to your next board meeting. You can view the sample report here.