Bedfordshire's 12 top state secondary schools for attendance - and the difference it makes to GCSE performance

It likely comes as no shock to parents that children typically need to regularly attend school, in order to not only ace important exams - but also make the most of their education.

But a recent Department for Education report has highlighted just how attendance matters to attainment - with the start of this year’s summer exam season now just days away. 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 getting a strong pass by around 50%.

The Government has now released its absence and attendance figures for the full 2023/24 school year. Despite showing a small improvement on last year, the overall absence rate - the percentage of half-days missed for all pupils - still lingers well above pre-pandemic figures. One in five pupils were also labelled ‘persistently absent’, meaning they missed at least 10% of these half-day sessions.

Included with the Government’s attendance figures was the absence data for every state-funded secondary school in England. We’ve used this to take a closer look at how Bedfordshire’s schools did - across the Central Bedfordshire, Bedford, and Luton Borough Council areas.

Only schools with absence rates below 7.5% have been included on our list - a phenomenal achievement for any school community. Private and special schools are also not included, and we’ve left out middle schools that don’t teach pupils up until Year 11, when they sit their GCSEs. Eagle-eyed parents will also notice many of those that made the list were also among the county’s top performers in last year’s GCSE season.

Here were the 12 local secondary schools that met our criteria: