Instability

Frequent changes in care placements and schools — particularly during critical GCSE years (Years 10 and 11) — disrupt learning and continuity.

Attendance

Attendance is closely linked to attainment.

• Pupils with above 93.5% attendance have a 70% chance of achieving 5 A*–C grades.

• For those below 93.5%, the likelihood drops to 30%.

Lack of Educational Support

Many children in care do not receive the targeted support needed to catch up academically.
AfC Virtual School offers Pupil Premium Plus-funded one-to-one tuition and educational outreach.

Carer Support

Carers may not always have the tools or training to support education at home. We provide guidance and training to help foster and kinship carers champion learning.

Placement Type

Young people in residential care at age 16 score, on average, six grades lower than those in foster or kinship care.
AfC Virtual School prioritises foster placements for GCSE years and offers tailored academic and emotional support to those in residential settings.

Health and Wellbeing

Emotional and mental health needs can significantly affect progress.
We support schools through access to a Wellbeing Outreach Worker, Educational Psychologist, and trauma-informed training for staff.

Whole-School Approach

Schools play a vital role.
Designated Teachers with status, time, and visibility can ensure a coordinated approach to supporting children in care.
Whole-school training in attachment and trauma-informed practice is key to embedding this support.

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Working Together

We ask our school partners to:

• Prioritise good attendance

• Avoid exclusions wherever possible

• Work with us to close the attainment gap for children in care

Together, we can create the stability, encouragement, and opportunity these young people need to thrive in education and beyond.

Findings from The Educational Progress of Looked After Children in England: Linking Care and Educational Data – Rees centre research the longer-stay CLA (early and late entry) groups do better than CIN shorter-stay CLA group do least well those who were already in care by the end of KS2 made greater progress over time than the other groups of children in care or in need. Special educational needs (SEND) are far more common among CLA and associated with large differences in outcome. SEND in mainstream achieve higher than peers with similar needs in Special Schools or Alternative Provision. Type of school is one of the strongest predictors of outcomes. Absences, exclusions and changes of school explain substantive variations in GCSE outcomes and a significant part of the disadvantage CIN and CLA suffer. Having someone whom they felt genuinely cared about them was very important to the young people in this study. Young people needed to feel that they would not be let down A focus on progress gives a more realistic depiction of the achievements of the care system Progress Targets for CiC should be more ambitious than for their non-looked after peers. Some CLA will take longer to fulfil their educational potential than those not in care or in need Initiatives to support pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties need to become more widely known and studied to address the educational problems we have highlighted Involve young people more fully in what happens in their lives