What's Actually Happening in Schools?

COVID-19 broke something in school attendance that has not yet mended. Before the pandemic, about 1 in 9 pupils were persistently absent — missing 10% or more of sessions. By 2023-24 it was 1 in 5, and the rate has barely improved since. Anxiety, disengagement, and a cultural shift in attitudes to attendance all play a role, but the pattern is not evenly distributed: disadvantaged pupils are absent at far higher rates, and absence feeds directly into attainment. The disadvantage gap index has risen every year since 2020 and now stands at its highest in over a decade. Just 25% of disadvantaged pupils achieve grade 5 or above in English and maths, compared with 52% of their peers. The progress made through the 2010s in narrowing that gap has been erased.

The SEND system has moved from strain to statutory failure. The number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans has nearly tripled in a decade — from around 240,000 in 2015 to over 630,000 — driven by rising identification of autism, ADHD, and speech and language needs. Local authorities cannot keep pace: fewer than half of new EHCPs are issued within the 20-week legal deadline. Families who appeal to the SEND tribunal win in almost every case, which suggests that initial refusals are routinely wrong rather than borderline. The system is generating delay, conflict, and cost while failing the children it was designed to protect.

Funding and international benchmarks add context to the domestic picture. Per-pupil school spending fell by over £1,300 in real terms between 2009 and 2017 — from roughly £8,900 to £7,630. Nominal spending has since recovered to record levels, but the legacy of the squeeze in deferred maintenance, lost support staff, and narrowed curricula takes years to reverse. Internationally, the UK's PISA 2022 scores — 494 in reading, 489 in maths, 520 in science — sit above the OECD average and roughly mid-table among G7 nations. England's schools are neither catastrophic nor exceptional: performing respectably overall while struggling to close the gaps within.