We are in “uncharted territory” as school absence reaches “unacceptably high” levels.
That’s what minister of state for schools Nick Gibb told MPs on the Commons Education Select Committee when discussing school attendance in June.
It is clear that the pandemic has had a real impact on attendance and schools are working hard to tackle this situation, but it remains a stubborn problem.
At Lyndon School in Solihull, though, our attendance levels are higher than the national average for all learners, and we have just been awarded a National School Attendance Award by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) for being in the top 10 per cent of similar schools in England for attendance.
School attendance clinics: how they work
Achieving this has not been a “quick fix” and we have spent many years - including before the pandemic - building a comprehensive strategy focused on school culture, learner experiences and robust attendance and behaviour systems.
For most pupils this works well but one key area we have done extra work on is “attendance clinics” for those classed as being persistently absent .
These clinics bring together parents, carers and the learner to discuss the issues causing ongoing absence and how they can be overcome, and they are hosted in an informal meeting room to ensure that it feels like a welcoming, supportive environment.
Also present are the learner’s pastoral manager and either an education welfare or attendance officer, or both.
It is important to have someone present who has been conducting home visits during absences and has built a relationship with the family, so the family feel there is someone there they than can trust. These officers can also reinforce school messages in any follow-up sessions.
Flexible and open
In terms of when the sessions are held, we try and be as flexible as possible for parents and carers, which can mean potentially holding meetings in the early mornings or later evenings, and they usually last an hour.
Once everyone is together, the clinic has a very simple purpose: to remove any barriers in place and produce a plan of support to ensure that there are no excuses for bad attendance.
The key to a successful clinic is to genuinely listen to the issues and concerns that parents, carers and learners may have, address each point in turn, and develop a plan to move forward.
For example, concerns could be raised from parents or carers regarding mental health, previously not shared.
This would then allow us to make a clear plan that may involve directing parents to their GP or mental health services, accessing school mental health first aiders or counselling and welfare provision, increasing pastoral support and “checking in”, as well as working with a variety of colleagues to support the learner in lessons and in social situations.
Make a plan - and review it
After the clinic, we action the plan, engaging with any staff members or external services needed to provide necessary support, and book in further meetings to reflect on impact.
We also monitor the learner daily, and if they are absent from school, undertake home visits to stress the importance of the plan, and to show that we are serious about improving attendance.
If the learner still isn’t attending, we use the “Assess, Plan, Do, Review” cycle in our inclusion panel and, depending on the barriers, continue to liaise with the necessary professionals or involve new services or implement strategies.
In the very rare cases where this does not work, we then move on to legal enforcement through penalty warning notices and then fines.
There are, of course, challenges, the biggest of which is getting parents and carers to attend the clinic and follow up with any actions.
Where a parent or carer doesn’t attend, we rearrange the meeting and inform the parent or carer of the consequences of non-attendance, which ultimately is evidence of the lack of engagement by the parent or carer when pursuing legal routes.
In the case of a further absence, the meeting is held with just the learner, and parents are informed of the outcome, with any action followed up by pastoral managers and attendance officers.
Obviously, though, this is not what we want, and we have worked hard over the past few years to foster relationships with parents so they will attend the clinics.
It’s worth the hard work
There is no denying the serious commitment that is needed from school leadership to make this work, with a large investment in terms of funding for non-teaching staff, external support services, time and resources, and the time for staff to take part in the clinics.
What’s more, we would certainly advise that if you look at introducing attendance clinics for the first time, it’s vital you communicate why you are doing this and how it will work in practice with parents and carers.
We communicate this through a dedicated attendance letter and regular updates through the newsletter.
Springing this meeting upon parents and carers without prior warning can damage relationships before they’ve even begun, so building it into your communications at the start of each academic year is a good idea.
We strongly believe that the investment is worth it. If attendance is not good enough, everything else can fail.
Learners need to be attending school day in, day out to experience a high-quality and ambitious curriculum that instils the love of lifelong learning; it is only then that you can make real strides in attainment and personal development.
Richard Bohdanowitsch is the vice-principal at Lyndon School, part of the Summit Learning Trust
