WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY....


LEADERSHIP STARTS EARLIER THAN WE THINK


Comment by KEITH PATTERSON, Leadership Advisor and Founder of Built to Lead


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ecently, I had the opportunity to return to my former school, Rainham Mark Grammar School, to take part in a careers fair (my first time back in nearly 30 years). I wasn’t there to talk about job titles, industries, or career ladders. Instead, I wanted to talk to the students about leadership. That might sound like an unusual focus for a careers event, but the conversations that followed reinforced something I’ve learned repeatedly over the years: leadership isn’t something that suddenly appears when someone reaches


management, but a set of behaviours and choices that begin much earlier. Rather than delivering a talk, or handing out advice, I asked students a simple question. I described a familiar situation – a group project where one person isn’t pulling their weight and the deadline is approaching – and then asked: ‘what would you do first?’ And just as importantly ‘what would you be accountable for?’


There are no right or wrong answers, of course. What mattered was how


students thought about responsibility, standards, and ownership. Some focused on fairness, others on protecting the group outcome, others on having the difficult conversation. What quickly became clear to me was that these young people already have some strong instincts about leadership, they just don’t recognise them as such.


One of the most common misconceptions I encounter, both in schools and organisations, is that leadership is about authority, popularity, or position. In reality, leadership shows up most clearly when things get uncomfortable, when expectations aren’t being met, when pressure is building, or when someone needs to step forward and take accountability for the outcome.


That’s why I deliberately kept the interaction simple. No slides, no worksheets, no ‘tips for success’. Just a short conversation that encouraged students to pause, think and articulate how they would act when faced with pressure. Many were surprised by how seriously they took the question (and by how much they already knew).


Leaving the fair, I was struck by how capable the students already were when given the space to think. Leadership doesn’t need to be taught as a subject reserved for later life. It can start with simple questions, asked early, that help young people recognise that responsibility is not a burden; it’s a choice.


And that is one of the most valuable lessons we can offer, long before the first job title ever appears.


ATTENDANCE WON’T IMPROVE UNLESS EDUCATION FEELS ACCESSIBLE AGAIN


Comment by ED ROBBINS, CEO of Fresh Start in Education A


ttendance is often discussed as though it’s a compliance issue and, when figures drop, we tend to respond by focusing more heavily on enforcement, with clearer messaging, more monitoring and stronger consequences. However, attendance doesn’t just measure whether children are turning up. Importantly, it shows whether school feels like a place they can realistically engage with day after day. Recent figures suggest that, for many pupils, it doesn’t. Data from the Department for Education shows that around one in five pupils in


England is now persistently absent, missing at least 10% of school across the year. And over 170,000 pupils are classed as severely absent, meaning they miss more than half of their education.


We need to ask the question: does education feel accessible to the children we’re expecting to attend?


Low attendance is usually a visible sign of deeper-rooted challenges that haven’t been resolved. If absence is constantly treated as purely a behavioural issue, underlying problems aren’t addressed. Schools are under huge pressure to improve attendance. However, when the main response is escalation (fines, warnings and formal meetings), we’re sending a message to the child that attendance matters more than the reasons they’re struggling to attend.


For pupils who already feel overwhelmed, this can make returning to school feel even harder. Pressure doesn’t make learning feel more accessible – it just reinforces fear, shame or a sense of failure, all of which drive avoidance.


Children attend more consistently when they know they can cope with the day ahead. If returning to school means immediately being given work they don’t understand, facing difficult social situations or an environment where they feel constantly behind, absence can feel like the safer option. Clear routines, predictable expectations and consistent adult responses make a huge difference, as well as flexibility in how learning is delivered,


February 2026


especially for pupils struggling emotionally or socially. For some children, the traditional school day works well but, for others, it only becomes accessible once adjustments have been made.


Of course, the solution isn’t to lower standards, but we do need to recognise that children can’t meet expectations if they don’t feel able to engage with them in the first place.


For children who’ve missed substantial school time, coming back can feel very daunting. Expecting immediate full-time attendance or instant academic progress is unrealistic and can negatively impact re-engagement. A more reasonable approach is to focus on reintegration rather than return, with gradual increases in attendance, clear short-term goals and visible progress helping rebuild confidence. When reintegration is gradual and properly supported, attendance is far more likely to stabilise for the long-term.


There is a clear link between attendance and emotional safety, and children are more likely to attend school regularly when they feel accepted, understood and supported, not just academically, but as individuals. Sustained improvements in attendance are rarely achieved by schools working alone, and it’s vital that the school, home and any external support are fully aligned. Families play a crucial role here. When schools work in partnership with parents, engagement improves on all sides. Some pupils can benefit significantly from personalised or specialist support. When this support is joined up with what’s happening in school, it can make education feel accessible again in a way that standard approaches can’t.


The sheer scale of persistent and severe absence suggests attendance challenges are no longer standalone issues. They reflect wider questions about how children with different needs, pressures and starting points are experiencing education.


If we only treat attendance as a measure of compliance, we risk missing what the data is really telling us, which is that children attend when they feel able to learn, safe to be themselves and confident that their effort will be recognised.


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