Education Endowment Foundation:Funding round to understand the impact of different approaches to improving attendance

Today the EEF has opened a new ​‘School Choices’ funding round in partnership with the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), to understand the impact of different school-level approaches to improving pupil attendance in schools.

Pupil absence – missed attendance, as well as fixed and permanent exclusion – not only impacts on students’ attainment, but also on the likelihood of them becoming involved in violence and crime.

Schools currently use a variety of practices to monitor attendance, address issues around attendance and disruptive behaviour, and manage exclusions. However, the evidence base around which practices improve attendance and reduce exclusions is limited.

Through this funding round, the two organisations want to better understand the choices school leaders make about school-wide approaches and their impact on pupil attendance. It will generate research on the practices and approaches schools use to combat absenteeism, generating evidence on which are more effective.

The funding round sits alongside a grant funding round, which will find, fund, and evaluate programmes and interventions that have the potential to improve attendance and reduce exclusions.

Find out more about how to apply here.