Team Satchel

13/08/2026

Your students have the answers. Are you asking the right questions?

Student voice is one of the most valuable tools a school can have.

Understanding how students experience belonging helps leaders make informed decisions that support wellbeing, engagement, and positive school culture.

The FREE Belonging Audit gives Trusts an easy way to gather meaningful insights and turn feedback into action.

Because every student deserves to feel seen, heard, and valued.

👉 Register now: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post

12/08/2026

The most telling number in this week's DfE attendance data isn't the headline rate. It's that in the week temperatures hit 36C, absence climbed to around 11.8 per cent, the highest of the entire year.

New figures for 2025-26 put overall absence at 6.93 per cent and persistent absence at 19.05 per cent, both up slightly on last year but still below where they sat in 2023-24. The DfE says most of the rise was "driven by illness". That framing matters, because it is easy to read an absence spreadsheet as a behaviour problem when much of it is health, heat and buildings that struggle to cope.

So what should leaders actually take from this? Averages hide the students who need you most. Absence was almost twice as high for students eligible for free school meals as for those not eligible, and higher again for students with an EHCP. The gap, not the mean, is where the work sits.

New minister Paul Waugh says schools will get data tools offering insight "down to the level of individual pupil" and formal attendance targets from September. That only helps if the data connects attendance to wellbeing, SEND and disadvantage rather than treating it as a number to be chased. Joining those signals is where we spend our time.

Which of your absence is really a wellbeing signal in disguise?

Source: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/heatwaves-and-illness-take-their-toll-as-annual-school-attendance-falls/

Absence and persistent absence rates increased very slightly on last year, new data shows

10/08/2026

A school can get belonging right and still watch attendance slide.

This is the uncomfortable finding buried in new NFER research published in July 2026, looking at wellbeing and persistent absence across ten mainstream secondary schools. Once researchers accounted for how satisfied students felt with life overall, a strong sense of belonging on its own stopped predicting whether they turned up. What mattered more were the relationships underneath it. 51% of parents and carers named poor wellbeing as a key driver of rising absence, 66% linked it to phone and social media use and 35% pointed to bullying, including online bullying. Students told researchers the academic and social pressure of school itself was part of what wore them down.

None of that makes belonging work pointless. It makes it incomplete. Feeling seen and valued has to sit alongside real capacity to notice when a student is struggling and act before absence becomes the only signal anyone picks up on.

We see the same pattern in the conversations we have with schools every week. Belonging initiatives land best when leadership teams have the time and the voice data to follow through on what students are actually telling them.



Sources: NFER — New research suggests pupil wellbeing challenges fuelling persistent school absence rates https://www.nfer.ac.uk/press-releases/new-research-suggests-pupil-wellbeing-challenges-fuelling-persistent-school-absence-rates/

09/08/2026

The strongest school improvement plans start with listening.

Every school has areas of strength.
Every school has opportunities to grow.

The challenge is knowing where to focus.

Our FREE Belonging Audit helps Trusts gather meaningful student insights, making it easier to identify priorities and build a culture where everyone feels they belong.

Start with evidence. Lead with confidence.

Sign up today: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post

06/08/2026

Students don't just attend schools. They experience them.

Attendance is about more than showing up.

When students feel connected to their school community, they're more likely to engage, participate, and thrive.

The FREE Belonging Audit helps Trusts understand how students experience belonging, giving leaders valuable insights to strengthen school culture and support every learner.
Better insights lead to better decisions.

👉 Register for the FREE Belonging Audit: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post

05/08/2026

Ofsted's report card system is nine months old. This week, before most students were even back from the summer break, the government told the watchdog to prepare for another change.

The announcement itself was about something bigger: new technical education pathways for 14-year-olds from 2028 and a promise that ‘no dead ends’ await students choosing construction, coding or classics. Buried in the detail was the real story for secondary leaders: inspectors will be asked to recognise technical education and career readiness, with no timeline and no explanation of how. This is a second shift to the inspection framework inside a year.

We think the funding tells its own story. The government's own announcement points to £3.7 billion already committed to SEND places as proof the new routes will be inclusive, but that money was announced before this policy existed. Nothing new has been added to guarantee students with SEND get equal access to these pathways, not just a place on paper. ASCL's Pepe Di'Iasio raised a similar concern about timing, noting the announcement landed in the middle of the school holidays with little detail attached.

We welcome the change in the curriculum for older students, with the value of technical education being promoted, especially with the NEET figures ever growing, but could this have been announced at a better time?

Source: GOV.UK (Prime Minister's Office / DfE)

GOV.UK - The best place to find government services and information.

03/08/2026

Attendance is a lagging indicator. By the time a student's percentage turns red, the reason it slipped happened weeks earlier.

DfE figures put secondary absence at 8.13 per cent across the 2025-26 year to date, still well above pre-pandemic norms. The instinct is to attack the number: call home, issue the fine, run the assembly. Some of that helps. But persistent absence rarely starts as a decision not to attend. It starts as anxiety, an unmet SEND need, a friendship that fell apart, a family under pressure. The register records the symptom, not the cause.

This is why the schools making real progress tend to read attendance alongside how students actually feel about school, not on its own. When the government reported on mental health support teams, nine in ten schools said the teams improved wellbeing and seven in ten reported improved attendance. The causation runs through the child, not the spreadsheet. Support the wellbeing and the attendance tends to follow.

The practical shift is small but it changes everything: treat a dip in attendance as a prompt to ask what changed for that student, not just a figure to chase back up. The number tells you who. The conversation tells you why and why is the only thing you can actually act on.



Sources: DfE pupil attendance in schools statistics (secondary absence 8.13%)https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools/2026-week-28; GOV. UK: Record numbers of children with mental health support in schools (nine in ten schools report improved wellbeing, seven in ten improved attendance) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-numbers-of-children-with-mental-health-support-in-schools

02/08/2026

Better decisions begin with better questions.

• How do your students feel about their school community?
• Where do they feel connected?
• Where could they use more support?

The FREE Belonging Audit helps Trusts answer these questions with meaningful student insights, making it easier to identify strengths, spot opportunities, and take informed action.

Because creating a culture of belonging starts with listening.

👉 Register today: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post

30/07/2026

What if one survey could help every student feel more seen?

Every student deserves to feel like they belong.

But belonging can look different from one school, classroom, or student to another. The first step to creating a stronger school community is understanding those experiences.

Our FREE Belonging Audit helps Trusts and schools answer :

• Understand how students experience belonging.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen school culture.
• Use meaningful insights to inform future decisions.
• When students feel connected, everyone benefits.

👉 Register today: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post

26/07/2026

Every student experiences school differently.

The challenge is understanding those experiences before small issues become bigger barriers to learning, attendance, or wellbeing.

The FREE Belonging Audit gives Trusts valuable insight into how students feel about belonging in their school, helping leaders make evidence-informed decisions that strengthen school culture.

Because the best improvements start by listening.

👉 Sign up here: https://www.satchelpulse.com/belonging/belonging-audit?utm_source=socials&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Belonging_Audit_1&utm_content=LinkedIn_Post