Plan to end ‘stay at home Fridays’ as Labour targets school attendance decline

Schools will be given tailored improvement targets to combat a concerning drop in classroom attendance over the past academic year, with a rise in students staying at home on Fridays particularly notable. Education minister Paul Waugh, writing exclusively for The i Paper, said the latest figures show “progress has slowed” on attendance despite concerted efforts by the Department for Education (DfE) to improve school attendance rates. Sickness, lack of sleep due to screentime and social media bullying are all though to be responsible. The Labour MP for Rochdale said the Government would also look into why absence due to illness has surged by almost a quarter on Fridays, the end of the week becoming a “particular weak spot for attendance”. Shorts Waugh has also asked officials to consider how to “supercharge” the childhood flu vaccination programme before this winter, as uptake in primary schools is yet to catch up with pre-pandemic levels. Concerning fall in attendance due to heatwave and illness It comes as figures released today are expected to show a concerning fall in school attendance, with the absence rate across all schools increasing from 6.78 per cent in the 2024/25 academic year to 6.88 per cent in 2025/26. Today’s figure remains starkly higher than the pre-pandemic baseline of just 4.73 per cent in 2018/19. Waugh blamed the “unusually early winter flu season” followed by “extreme heat that disrupted learning across the country”, saying these events had a “real impact on attendance”. Before the record-breaking heatwave in June that saw the closure of hundreds of schools across England and Wales, the overall absence rate for the year to date was 6.68 per cent – marginally lower than last year’s. Falling attendance comes despite a stream of measures under Sir Keir Starmer’s government to keep children in class, including universal free breakfast clubs in primary schools, more mental health support in schools and updated statutory guidance cracking down on remote learning. Former education secretary Bridget Phillipson also announced there would be new individual minimum attendance improvement targets, set by AI according to the school’s specific circumstances, including location, pupil needs and deprivation. But with the latest DfE data showing pupil participation flatlining, Waugh, who was appointed to a ministerial position by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, writes that the Government must go further by “raising expectations, giving every school a clear improvement target”. “Each target will respect local challenges while making clear that every school has a role to play in helping improve attendance over time,” he adds. Clubs and enrichment could help Friday attendance Ministers will officially roll out the targets across all schools this coming year, with those that fail to meet their goal set to receive support from “attendance and behaviour hubs” in the first instance. Currently, there are no plans for schools with stubborn absence rates to be subject to an intervention by Ofsted, but officials will monitor the rollout and adjust the scheme if needed. Waugh noted that Fridays have become particularly unpopular with pupils, with a surge in school absence towards the end of the week. “It’s possible that where pupils are less engaged with school overall, Friday is becoming a particular weak spot for attendance,” he writes. Waugh said the DfE is encouraging schools to share strategies such as “putting on interesting clubs and enrichment on Fridays, so every child stays engaged right through to the end of the week”. Ernesford Grange Community Academy, a secondary school in Coventry, schedules high-engagement events such as school photos and sports days on Fridays and all parents’ evenings on Thursdays to encourage attendance to the end of the week. The school has around 50 per cent of pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium – which is extra government funding for disadvantaged children – as well as high numbers of children in care and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Tackling illness is the priority Waugh, who has been tasked with improving attendance, said that illness, as one of the biggest causes of absence, must be tackled “first”. Child vaccination rates for the flu jab in primary schools, which is where the programme runs, are yet to catch up with the pre-pandemic levels. In 2019/20, 60.4 per cent of primary-age children had the flu jab, but the rates have fallen each year since 2020/21, with the latest data showing that just 54.5 per cent were vaccinated in 2024/25. “That’s why I’ve tasked my officials to look at how they can supercharge how schools and education support the health system on the childhood flu vaccination programme ahead of this winter,” he writes. The latest intervention comes after Burnham announced a shake-up to education, allowing 14-year-old students in England to start vocational and technical pathways alongside GCSEs from September 2028, to tackle youth unemployment. Labour grandee Alan Milburn – who has been commissioned to review surging numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) – noted in his interim report that rising levels of school absence are driving this increase. He states there is a “cascade effect” from persistent school absence into long-term youth unemployment and calls on schools to reset how they prepare pupils for adult life, with his final recommendations due in the autumn. Progress has slowed on attendance – we’re raising expectations for schools By Paul Waugh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the DfE Thanks to the superb work of school staff and many right across the education sector, we saw major progress towards our attendance target last year. But today’s attendance figures show that the progress has slowed over the past year. Of course, context matters. This year schools have had to contend with an unusually early winter flu season, followed by extreme heat that disrupted learning across the country. Of course, those events had a real impact on attendance. Yet, while some disruption from short-term impacts may be inevitable, there are bigger factors beyond the school gate that we have to address to help boost the number of children in school. One of the most interesting anomalies in the data where I have commissioned further investigation is illness absence going up almost a quarter on Fridays. Different schools see different patterns, so we are constantly improving the data we give to schools, so they can see if they’re suffering more than comparable schools with this issue. It’s possible that where pupils are less engaged with school overall, Friday is becoming a particular weak spot for attendance. We’re encouraging schools to share innovative strategies like putting on interesting clubs and enrichment on Fridays, so every child stays engaged right through to the end of the week. Ultimately, every day in school matters. And then there’s so many other issues: the effect of screens on sleep; the bullying associated with social media use; the rise in the number of children with special educational needs and how we create a genuinely inclusive education system. Solving all this comes down to accepting that attendance isn’t just an education issue. That’s why our response has to be broader, smarter and more ambitious. First, we need to tackle one of the biggest causes of absence: illness. This year’s figures show the damage an early flu season can do. That’s why I’ve tasked my officials to look at how they can supercharge how schools and education support the health system on the childhood flu vaccination programme ahead of this winter. Before the pandemic, uptake in primary schools where the programme ran was higher than it is today. We need to get back to those levels and beyond. Second, we need to get ahead of problems before children disappear from the classroom. Schools know that early intervention works because once a pattern of behaviour becomes entrenched, catching up is harder for pupils and harder for staff and parents. That’s why this year we’re going to roll out the very latest data tools to give schools insights down to the level of individual pupils, identifying concerns earlier and intervening more quickly when pupils begin to drift away from regular attendance. At the same time, we’ll be raising expectations, giving every school a clear improvement target. Each target will respect local challenges while making clear that every school has a role to play in helping improve attendance over time. We will back schools with better tools and better support. Scaling up and spreading best practice from the schools that have had most success with attendance is crucial. So too are regular data review, strong systems and consistently strong leadership. Government, schools and parents must all continue to challenge and support each other on attendance. And it’s our responsibility as a government to address the deeper reasons some young people disengage from education altogether. That’s why we are expanding Mental Health Support Teams, rolling out free breakfast clubs and bringing hundreds of thousands more children on to free school meals from September. Making school an attractive place to be is part of our holistic approach to raising attendance – and raising attainment. It’s why we’re determined to make sure every young person can see a route to success through education. We know that lower attendance is linked to the chances of a youngster becoming NEET. School and the workplace are and should be very different places. But regularly turning up to school on time not only helps a youngster’s education, it prepares them for the real world expectations of employers where not turning up to work is not an option. A young person who wants to become an entrepreneur or a social carer should be just as excited about going to school and building their future as a young person aiming to be a doctor or a lawyer. That’s why we’re putting vocational and technical education on a stronger footing alongside traditional academic routes, helping all young people see a clear line from the classroom to a skilled and fulfilling career. It’s also why we’re asking every school to put on a broad enrichment offer from music to culture to sport. None of this will change things overnight, but we cannot collectively accept that higher levels of absence is simply the new normal. The world has changed. Schools and families face pressures that previous generations didn’t. We must adapt to those realities. But what cannot change is our ambition or our moral mission to give every child the best start in life. Every missed school day is a missed opportunity. As the minister responsible, I will make sure that we match the scale of the challenge with the scale of our response. Paul Waugh was appointed Education Minister under Andy Burnham on 22 July 2026. Prior to becoming an MP in 2024, he was a political journalist and worked for several titles including The i Paper.