I’ve met very few school leaders in the last few years who aren’t worried about and working to support the attendance of their socio-economically disadvantaged pupils.
At my own school, a large comprehensive to the north of York, despite a small improvement in the first term of this academic year, attendance for this group of pupils remains well below pre-pandemic levels.
It’s so important that we maintain our efforts to support these pupils, refining our approach where necessary. Our ambition of great outcomes for all will only be realised if we can increase attendance at school so pupils can access the high-quality teaching and pastoral care.
Attendance matters
Establishing good attendance patterns from an early age is vital for social development. The more time a child spends with other children in the classroom and as part of broader school-organised activities, the more chance they have of making friends, of feeling included, and of developing social skills, confidence, and self-esteem.
We also know that extended absence from school is linked with behavioural and social problems. These effects can be long lasting and affect a young person’s mental health and their long-term life chances.
Exploring the evidence
As a member of the Research School network, when faced with a problem in need of solving in our school, I look to the research evidence for approaches that have proven effective in other classrooms alongside the knowledge of the issue in our context.
In March, 2022, the EEF released their Rapid Evidence Review of attendance interventions in response to a growing call for evidence on how to support pupil attendance. This looked at 72 studies, which explored mentoring; parental engagement; responsive and targeted approaches; teaching of social and emotional skills; behaviour interventions; meal provision; incentives and disincentives and extra-curricular activities. All but three of the studies were from the USA and the review team concluded that the overall quality of the evidence included in the review was weak.
However, the review did find that some parental communication approaches offered some promise.
Parental communication interventions aim to increase awareness of the consequences of absenteeism or target commonly held parental misbeliefs that undervalue the importance of regular attendance. The aim of these interventions is that greater awareness of the misconceptions will lead to guardians taking a more active role in improving their child’s attendance.
Examples of elements within parental communication interventions included:
- personalised communications to parents, such as emails or ‘nudge letters’;
- emphasis on the value of regular school attendance to the individual and the school community;
- reporting the number of days of school their child had missed (rather than the percentage they have attended, where high numbers such as 90% can be misunderstood as a ‘good’ number);
- comparison between the attendance of the child and their peers;
- providing details of other organisations that could be used to help improve their child’s attendance;
- clear school contact details; and
- translations of communication for commonly spoken languages in the community.
The studies around this theme included large sample sizes and one was conducted in a UK context. Their findings suggest that small wording choices matter, and carefully designed school communications can have a positive impact on parents’ beliefs and behaviours.
Using evidence to inform action
Many parents underestimate the number of days their child has been absent from school and act differently when given accurate information. In one study, by Rogers and Feller (2018), 72% of parents with children whose absence was higher than average did not know that their children had missed more school than their classmates. When informed of their child’s total absences, they made extra efforts to improve attendance.
One way that schools can support this is with short, simple letters or messages to parents with above-average absences stating the total number of days their child has missed that term or year, framed in a way that encourages parents to support attendance. Personalisation and wording that aims to promote parents’ efficacy rather than blaming them was crucial. An excellent example of such a communication can be found in the Working with Parents to Support Children’s Learning guidance report (Recommendation 3, p.22).
Questions to consider:
When did you last critically review how you communicate with parents about attendance?
Have you carefully considered the tone that is conveyed in your communications, emphasising parents’ efficacy and partnership rather than criticism or blame that might be causing further disengagement?
Do you use attendance percentages with clarity over what ‘good attendance’ is or could you add ‘days missed’ to improve clarity in your communications?
Could small changes to your communications make a difference in your context?
Further reading:
The Welsh Government’s guidance on improving learners’ engagement and attendance details that good attendance also has a positive effect on emotional and physical wellbeing.