It comes as no surprise to those involved in Scottish education that national attendance rates are at critical levels. Recent figures highlighted the urgent challenges facing schools and fuelled calls for intervention from the Scottish government.
A longstanding correlation between deprivation and low attendance was reaffirmed by national statistics, which showed an attendance gap of 6.7 per cent between the most and least deprived young people - attendance is a significant driver of the poverty-related attainment gap.
This is particularly relevant in primary schools, where the key skills of reading, writing and numeracy and a range of social and learning skills are developed rapidly. Average attendance at secondary school is lower, but the primary attendance rate continues to decline steadily, from a 95.1 per cent average in 2014-15 to 92.2 per cent in 2022-23.
The state of primary school attendance has serious implications for our education system over the coming years.
School attendance: wellbeing and support
In the wake of the pandemic, the interconnectedness of children’s wellbeing, behaviour and school attendance has never been more apparent. There are growing concerns about primary-aged children’s wellbeing and the lack of resources to address pressing issues such as a rise in additional support needs (ASN), an increase in children living in poverty, a national behaviour crisis, low attendance for care-experienced young people and mental health issues.
Increasingly, primary school children experience “emotion-based school non-attendance”, with mental health challenges becoming barriers to their education. To address this, we must consider the full spectrum of factors at play: poverty, ASN and the behaviour of other children.
We must have more accessible and permanently based staff to support wellbeing in primary schools - ASN, behaviour and attendance specialists, home-link workers and family-support services. Throughout prolonged austerity measures, these roles have been absorbed by primary schools within their communities, with specialists visiting infrequently.
Primary schools need properly funded and permanent specialist staff to support families and learners and act as an early intervention, to avert a looming crisis as these children progress through our education system.
Indeed, primary headteacher Jonathan Cunningham’s proposal for pastoral departments within primary schools is difficult to overlook as a staffing model. This could address the higher pupil-teacher ratio in Scottish primaries (15.3:1) compared with secondaries (12.5:1) and rectify the long-term decline in ASN teachers and support for learning in primary schools.
It could also provide the specialist staff needed to give adequate support to those with ASN (who have 2.6 per cent lower average attendance than non-ASN children in primaries), help address behaviour and violence in early-stage primary classrooms and establish a robust staffing model for the type of family support that primary schools often provide. Interventions that have proven effective in improving primary school attendance - such as walking buses, wellbeing hubs, family support and breakfast clubs - require staffing beyond what is currently available.
Early intervention is crucial; where poor attendance occurs, low attainment follows. Primary schools must also explore the inverse: can higher attainment and achievement in the early years of education protect against future low attendance?
Families and parents
Much of the focus around primary school attendance is often on families and parents, rather than children directly: a P1 child might not even know it’s a school day, let alone be able to get themselves up and through the school gates.
One strategy is free breakfast clubs, although more research is required to establish their effectiveness. Given the criticism of universal free school meals for all P1-5s (and the now apparently scrapped extension to P7), it’s worth considering whether redirecting funds from free lunches for those who can afford them towards free breakfast clubs for those who cannot might be a better use of resources.
There is more at play than just funding, however. Research conducted in England by Public First suggests that, following Covid-19 and school staff strikes, there is a disconnect between schools and parents around the importance of attending school. Some primaries, though, have successfully conducted pupil-led attendance campaigns, educating peers and families about the cumulative impact of missing days of school (particularly Fridays in local authorities that have adopted the asymmetric week).
Scottish primary schools are facing unique and challenging circumstances. Given the support that younger children and their families need to attend school every day, the case for increased funding for enhanced specialised staffing models in primaries has rarely been stronger.
The Scottish government urgently needs to review how school attendance can improve - and provide the resources necessary to make the difference.
Tom Mackenzie-Chalmers is a primary principal teacher in Scotland
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