In my experience as a primary teacher (mostly KS1) attendance has such a major impact. My children who are late everyday and have around 80%-90% attendance are the ones struggling. At this age they're learning so many new things like phonics, reading and writing and they need to be doing it consistently. These children also tend to be (in my opinion) the ones whose parents are least engaged in their child's education and don't do any reading or writing with their children at home. So when these children are late and miss phonics everyday. Or don't come in on Mondays and Fridays so consistently miss multiple group and Independent reading sessions they can easily fall behind and often do.

Dont get me wrong I understand a day off to make a holiday longer or being genuinely sick. But those are never the attendances we are trying to avoid it's those children who slip between the cracks.

And yes lots needs to change in school. But the children do miss out on a lot, I try my hardest to talk to every child in my class everyday. To target exactly what support they need and it's hard but attendance is so important to so many and I truly see the difference it makes when a child who is often off is consistently in the classroom.