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Communicating with families

The department has developed resources to support schools to communicate with families about repeating a year level:

Download information for families in different languages

The repeating a year level information for families is available to download in different languages:

Research on repeating a year level

For evidence on repeating a year level, refer to the following research:

  • Evidence for Learning, Teaching and Learning Toolkit (2021) Repeating a year – Negative impact for very high cost based on limited evidenceExternal Link , The Education Endowment Foundation, accessed 2 October 2025.

    Summary of findings of 71 studies:

    • Requiring students to repeat a year has a negative impact. Negative effects are rare for educational interventions, so the extent to which students who repeat a year make less progress is striking.
    • Where students are not achieving expected outcomes, alternative interventions to provide intensive support may make repeating a school year unnecessary, for example, small group tuition.
    • Students who repeat a year are unlikely to catch up with peers of a similar level who move on, even after completing an additional year’s schooling.
    • The average impact of a student repeating a year is about 3 months less progress over the course of a year than if the same student had not repeated the year, when compared with similar students.
    • Negative effects are disproportionately greater for disadvantaged students, for students from different cultural backgrounds and for students who are relatively young in their year group.
    • Negative effects tend to increase with time and repeating more than one year significantly increases the risk of students dropping out of school.
  • Visible Learning (2018) Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student AchievementExternal Link , accessed 2 October 2025.

    Summary of findings:

    • Hattie ranked 252 influences that are related to learning outcomes from very positive effects to very negative effects. Retention (holding students back) is an intervention with a significant negative effect of -0.32.
  • Peixoto F, Monteiro V, Mata L, Sanches C, Pipa J and Almeida LS (2016) 'To be or not to be retained ... That’s the question!' Retention, self-esteem, self-concept, achievement goals, and gradesExternal Link , Frontiers in Psychology, 7(1550):1–13.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level has long term negative impacts that remain even when students recover academic achievement and the experience is in the distant past.
    • Students who repeat a year can lose confidence in their learning, develop negative attitudes towards school and learning, have low self-esteem, and increased aggressive and disruptive behaviours.
    • Year level repetition can increase the risk of not completing school and decrease the likelihood of participation in tertiary education.
  • Cham H, Hughes JN, West SG and Im MH (2015) Effect of Retention in Elementary Grades on Grade 9 Motivation for Educational AttainmentExternal Link , Journal of School Psychology, 53:7–27.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level is an expensive intervention with minimal evidence of benefits to the retained student.
  • Martin AJ (2011) Holding back and holding behind: Grade retention and students' non-academic and academic outcomesExternal Link , British Educational Research Journal, 37(5):739–763.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level has negative implications for academic motivation, academic engagement, academic self-concept, and general self-esteem.
    • Repeating a year level increased student maladaptive motivation and weeks absent from school.
Resources for the Department Repeating a Year Level Policy

Reviewed 06 October 2025

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