Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce school absences in rural areas.

The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, it does not matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.

To address this, the department will roll out funded breakfast clubs to all primary schools so that all children are ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews on safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with specialists in every school.

The ’Working together to improve school attendance’ statutory guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers. Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance registers with the department, local authorities and trusts. Schools, trusts and councils are able to access this data via an interactive secure data dashboard maintained by the department.

For all schools it is vital that there are opportunities to share best practice on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.