In remote community schools, children often miss one or two days of school a week. A majority cannot do maths or read at their age level, and few ever do so beyond the level of an eight year old. As many as half do not make the transition to secondary school and only a handful obtain a Year 12 certificate.

School attendance, achievement and retention are among the minimum requirements for a good school education. Children who leave school unable to read or write at their age level and unused to a five-day-a-week work ethic will find only limited social and economic opportunities open to them. Knowing how schools perform on these most basic measures allows us to recognise and replicate successful programmes and to jettison programmes that might look good but are ineffective.

Kirsten Storry looks at the school-side and community-side interventions with which good schools are trying to break the cycle of low attendance, achievement and retention.