Some of Doncaster’s highest performing secondary schools during exam season also boast some some of its lowest absence rates.
The 2024/25 summer GCSE exam season is currently in full swing. And to perform to the best of their abilities, pupils will need to have put in the legwork - including attending class as often as possible.
A recent Department for Education report demonstrated just how strong a link exists between attendance and attainment. It found 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 as those who only attended 90 to 95% of the time. This means missing just 10 days of school reduces the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
The Government’s latest absence and attendance figures for the full 2023/24 school year are also out now. Despite showing a small improvement on the year before, 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.
We’ve taken a closer look at secondary schools in the City of Doncaster Council area - excluding private and special schools - to see how they did when it came to absences for any reason. We’ve included only schools with absence rates below 10%, many of which also appeared amongst the city’s top performing schools.
Here were the 12 that made the cut:
1. Doncaster UTC
At the top of the list is the Doncaster University Technical College, in the central city. It has ties to both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, and takes pupils from the age of 13. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a low overall absence rate of just 5.06%. | Google
2. The Hayfield School
Next up is this high performing secondary academy in Auckley, to the east of the city. In the last academic year it had a GCSEs-based Progress 8 score in the ‘well above average’ band - the highest available. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 7.17%. | Google
3. XP School
XP is a secondary free school and sixth form in the Hyde Park area. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 7.43%. | Google
4. The Laurel Academy
Laurel is a secondary academy in Mexborough, between Doncaster and Rotherham. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 7.46%. | Google