Children who are not considered "school ready" by their teachers are more than twice as likely to become persistently absent at some point in their education, according to a new study led by the University of Leeds. Researchers analyzed data for 62,598 children aged 5-13 from across the Bradford district and compared it with school absence records between the academic years 2012/2013 and 2019/2020 to identify associations between early childhood problems and absenteeism. The team from the School of Psychology and the Born in Bradford Centre for Applied Education Research found that 67% of all persistent absentees with attendance below 90% were considered "not school ready" when they entered reception.
This contrasted with only 37% of children "not school ready" who were not persistently absent. The researchers believe their findings, which are published today in the Royal Society Open Science Journal , show that the seeds of absenteeism are sown early in childhood and that school readiness measures already used by teachers could identify children at risk of long-term disengagement from the education system. School is where children develop and flourish, academically, emotionally, socially, and physically.
However, as a society, we are edging towards a school absence epidemic, with many pupils missing out on opportunities to thrive by not attending every day. This has worsened dramatically since the pandemic." Dr Megan Wood, lead author, post-doctoral research fellow, School o.
