Cameron, C.;
Villadsen, A.;
Roberts, A.;
Evans, J.;
Hill, V.;
Hurry, J.;
Johansen, T.;
... Wyse, D.; + view all
(2025)
School absence and (primary) school connectedness:
evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study.
London Review of Education
, 23
(1)
, Article 5. 10.14324/LRE.23.1.05.
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Abstract
School-mandated exclusion, or school absence, is on the increase in England. Earlier analyses focused on the characteristics of children, rather than the relationship with school. Using the Millennium Cohort Study, we explore the relationship between school exclusion/school absence and school satisfaction. The Millennium Cohort Study is a UK birth cohort study of around 19,000 children born at the start of the twenty-first century and includes measures relating to school satisfaction, including liking school, being interested in school and being happy. We ask: What are the exclusion risk factors? What is the predictive relationship between school satisfaction and school exclusion and school absence? And what is the predictive relationship between school exclusion and school absence and subsequent school satisfaction over time? Our analysis applied fixed effect models based on within-child comparisons across time (age 11, 14 and 17). Results confirm that Millennium Cohort Study children miss school through exclusion (9 per cent) and absence (14 per cent), are disproportionately male and have special educational needs. School satisfaction was protective; a high level of satisfaction with school at age 7 and 11 reduced the likelihood of exclusion and truancy at age 14 in secondary school. Girls who experienced primary school exclusion reported significantly lower satisfaction with secondary school. We discuss the relationship between school satisfaction and school connectedness measures, with a view to a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between school attitudes to children and children’s attitudes to school. We conclude with tentative implications for policy and future research.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | School absence and (primary) school connectedness: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14324/LRE.23.1.05 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.23.1.05 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025, Claire Cameron, Aase Villadsen, Amelia Roberts, John Evans, Vivian Hill, Jane Hurry, Thure Johansen, Jo Van Herwegen and Dominic Wyse. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | exclusion, truancy, primary school, secondary school, school connectedness, Millennium Cohort Study, school absence, inclusion, special educational needs |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212307 |
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