The Rigby Foundation launches new research project with the Centre for Social Justice

3 Feb 2025

On Monday 3^rd February 2025, our Executive Director, Sonia Chhatwal attended an event at the Centre for Social Justice where Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, set out her vision for a new era for school standards. It was reassuring to hear the Secretary speak about raising standards for every student, identifying poor performance by schools and driving change to lift the life chances of every child.

But students can't succeed in education if they are not in school, and the statistics around pupil absence are stark:
- Severe absence (pupils absent more than 50% of the time) has more than doubled since the pandemic
- 157,038 pupils are absent from school more than they are present
- Persistent absence (pupils absent 10% or more) has also continued to rise with 1,548,228 children being persistently absent.
This equates to 1 in 5 children, with vulnerable children being the most affected.

Ms Phillipson was clear that parental involvement is vital in improving student attendance, saying “it is also crucial that parents recognise that they have responsibilities too, to send their children to school."

These shocking statistics around school attendance are why The Rigby Foundation is proud to be partnering with the Centre for Social Justice in a bid to tackle student absenteeism - by helping re-engage parents and re-building communication and trust between home and school.

The project will have a particular focus on the West Midlands which suffers worse than the national average in both severe and persistent school absence and where The Rigby Foundation’s funding is focused.

The Rigby Foundation and the CSJ will be working together with the Foundation’s West Midlands school and college partners and with Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Combined Authority, and we hope to be able to support meaningful change that ensures more children in the West Midlands are back in education. The final report and recommendations on helping re-engage parents in their child’s education will be published later this year.