<p>Improving Attendance</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 8 February 2017.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:33, 8 February 2017

Thank you, Rhianon. As you say, I’m very pleased to acknowledge that the latest data shows that absenteeism from our primary schools remains at the lowest level since the Welsh Government started to collect these figures, and attendance at secondary school continues to improve all the time. And the biggest improvements have, indeed, been for those children who are on free school meals. Their rate of attendance is improving faster than that of the general population. And a lot of that is down to the very hard work of individual schools and the innovative ways in which they work with families to address issues of school attendance. I have asked my officials to work with key stakeholders to identify what more support and what additional guidance we can give to schools, local education authorities, and consortia so we do not lose momentum on this very important aspect of education policy.