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School belonging, attendance and education reform.
William Gomes’s evidence to the Education Committee’s inquiry into the ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper examines how educational achievement depends on the conditions that enable children to participate, belong and learn.
Written evidence by William Gomes, also published as William Nicholas Gomes.
What makes achievement and thriving possible?
Submitted in an individual academic capacity as a doctoral researcher at the University of Essex, the evidence argues that attainment and attendance cannot be improved sustainably through targets, sanctions or structural change alone. Gomes places school belonging, teacher–pupil relationships, family–school trust, high-quality teaching and coordinated local support at the centre of the implementation debate.
The submission examines attendance, disadvantage funding, curriculum breadth, behaviour and exclusion, workforce stability, admissions, complaints and the transition beyond school. It recommends distinguishing anxiety, illness, poverty, family crisis and disengagement when responding to absence. It also asks whether accountability measures can support improvement without encouraging exclusion, off-rolling or a narrowed curriculum.
Gomes treats digital and artificial intelligence tools as matters for independent evaluation rather than substitutes for professional judgement. He calls for scrutiny of accuracy, bias, privacy, workload and effects on vulnerable pupils before wider deployment. The evidence does not address the White Paper’s SEND-specific proposals, which it identifies as a separate area of committee scrutiny.
Recommendations in the submission.
- Use validated measures of pupil engagement for improvement, with safeguards for pupil voice and attention to bullying and discrimination.
- Differentiate attendance support and assess sustained engagement and wellbeing alongside attendance figures.
- Independently evaluate school-improvement teams, disadvantage-funding changes and accountability measures.
- Strengthen safeguards around suspension and reintegration, and prioritise teacher retention and relational practice.
- Preserve professional judgement in AI use, provide accessible complaints routes and evaluate unintended consequences.
Read the original evidence.
This overview summarises William Gomes’s submitted analysis and recommendations. Publication as written evidence does not imply endorsement by Parliament or a committee. Consult the official ECA0004 submission on Parliament’s website for the full argument, references and qualifications.
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