The North West is a big region, home to hundreds of excellent, high-performing schools.
But some have also proven themselves to excel based on another important factor - how often their pupils are turning up to class.
Last week, the Government released absence and attendance figures for the full 2023/24 school year. Despite showing a small improvement on the year before, the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingered well above pre-pandemic figures. About 1 in 5 pupils were also classed as ‘persistently absent’, meaning they missed at least 10% of these half-day sessions.
Released just days earlier, another new Department for Education report highlighted the impact this could potentially have on a young person’s attainment. It found that pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 11 were almost twice as likely to achieve a Grade 5 in their English and Maths GCSEs, compared to those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This meant that missing just 10 days of school reduced the likelihood of a strong pass by around 50%.
Included with the Government’s attendance figures was the absence data for each state-funded secondary school in England. This meant we were able to see which schools had the country’s lowest overall absence rates. We’ve also taken a closer look at secondary schools across the North West, to work out the region’s schools with the lowest rates of pupils missing class for any reason.
Here were the 13 schools that came out on top, when it came to attendance:
1. Tauheedul Islam Boys' High School
Tauheedul is a high-performing Islamic boys’ secondary school and sixth form managed by Star Academies, in Blackburn, Lancashire. It has a very high ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score based on the last academic year’s GCSE results. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an exceptionally low absence rate of just 2.84%. | Google
2. Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School
Just like its counterpart, this is a secondary school and sixth form in Blackburn, Lancashire, this one for girls. It also had the third highest Progress 8 score in the country in the last school year. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 2.97%. | Google
3. The Blue Coat School, Liverpool
The Blue Coat School is a selective secondary school and sixth form in Liverpool, also with ‘well above average’ Progress 8 results. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 3.28%. | Google
4. Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester
Another high-achieving Star Academies school, this is an Islamic girls’ secondary school and sixth form in Manchester. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an absence rate of 3.89%. | Google