Some of Manchester city’s highest-achieving schools also have some of the highest rates of pupils showing up for class.
This year’s GCSE exam season in currently in full swing. But just how well secondary school students do on these exams may, in part, come down to their attendance over the past school year.
A recent Department for Education report 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 means that missing just 10 days of school cuts the likelihood of getting a strong pass by around 50%.
But the Government’s most up-to-date school absence and attendance figures - covering the full 2023/24 school year - show definite room for improvement when it comes to attendance. Despite a small improvement on the year before, the country’s 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 each state-funded secondary school in England. With more than 30 state secondary schools in the Manchester City Council area alone - excluding private and special schools - we’ve also taken a look at how they got on last year. We’ve only included those with absence rates below 7.5% - a fantastic achievement for school communities and families alike.
Here were the 11 city schools that made the cut:
1. Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester
At the top of the list is this extremely high-performing Islamic girls’ secondary free school and sixth form, in the Cheetham Hill area. Last year, it had a ‘well above average’ GCSEs-based Progress 8 score - the highest band available. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a low overall absence rate of just 3.89%. | Google
2. Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Manchester
Just like its counterpart, this is a high-achieving Islamic secondary free school in the Cheetham Hill area - this one for boys. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 4.65%. | Google
3. Our Lady's RC High School
Our Lady’s is a local authority-maintained Catholic secondary school, in the Higher Blackley area. Last year, it boasted an ‘above average’ Progress 8 score. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 4.85%. | Google
4. Levenshulme High School
This is another very high-performing girls’ secondary academy, in Levenshulme, with a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an overall absence rate of 5.03%. | Google