Schools that have improved or maintained high attendance levels during the pandemic have adopted a strategy of “listen, understand, empathise and support - but do not tolerate”, according to Ofsted.
The inspectorate has today produced a report on securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence.
The report highlights Covid cases and rising anxiety as some of the drivers of higher absence in the last term.
But it also says that, where attendance is markedly low in schools, some of the reasons for this predate the pandemic.
Some school leaders have not tackled a culture of poor attendance in the past or had systems in place to monitor what was going on, the inspectorate has warned.
The watchdog also found that, on occasion, leaders have held back from challenging pupils and parents about poor attendance in the autumn term of last year.
It says that schools with successful attendance strategies do not dismiss pupils’ anxieties or parental concerns but address them sympathetically.
Ofsted has identified a series of approaches that it says successful schools adopt. These include:
1. Communicating high expectations
The report stresses the importance of having high expectations for every pupil’s attendance at school and communicating these expectations clearly, strongly and consistently to both parents and pupils.
Ofsted said that communicating with parents without paying equal attention to communicating with pupils is unlikely to be successful in securing good attendance at school.
This is particularly the case at secondary schools where older pupils are more able to “vote with their feet”. Inspectors said this came through strongly in discussions with leaders and in inspection evidence.
2. Leaders setting a positive tone
The Ofsted report said that some heads emphasised the importance of the leadership team having a positive presence in the school.
The watchdog highlighted how leaders wanted to be out in the playground or at the front of the school to greet pupils at the start of the school day.
Some secondary leaders told inspectors that it was important for that greeting to come from the headteacher or the deputy headteacher.
They emphasised how this first interaction of the day must be a positive one and not “someone barking at them about uniform or being late”.
3. Explaining why good attendance is important
Schools should explain to parents and pupils why good attendance is important and how it helps pupils to achieve, the watchdog states.
They should also explain that pupils who aren’t attending aren’t learning, it adds.
One secondary leader told Ofsted that pupils will not necessarily make the link between attendance, achievement and future plans.
The report found that in one successful school, overt links were made to the importance of attendance when teaching pupils about careers and about being a good citizen, for example.
4. Listening to parents
The inspectorate said schools should listen to parents carefully to find out why their children are not attending so that they can act accordingly. This means both challenging parents who do not make sure that their children attend and offering support where needed.
By listening, schools told Ofsted they found that sometimes problems can be solved easily.
The report adds: “Leaders have many examples of how they have ‘tackled the simple stuff first’.”
One headteacher, for example, described how she had found out that, sometimes, when parents were running really late, they were too embarrassed to come into school so kept their children off for the whole day.
“Having discovered this, she was able to convey to them that it is ‘better for your child to arrive at 9.30am than to take the whole day off’.”
5. Ensuring attendance is recorded and analysed
The report states that ensuring attendance is always recorded accurately and analysed for patterns and trends helps target action - both for individuals and at a whole-school level.
Ofsted also says that, in schools that are systematically removing barriers to attendance, pupils’ anxieties are not dismissed but are also sensitively analysed.
It says schools will question if this is a mental health issue that needs serious action or a worry that can be alleviated by some discussion or adjustments.
6. Linking attendance to school curriculum and ethos
Ofsted says there is a relationship between “attendance and the quality of the school’s curriculum, ethos, behaviour and inclusivity”.
One primary school leader told inspectors that in their school, “pupils don’t want to miss out - the curriculum is so exciting that they know they’ll miss things if they’re not here”.
The report also highlights the importance of a school ethos on attendance.
Many leaders also said they had worked on behaviour in lessons, anti-bullying measures and the wider school culture. One primary school leader said: “Kids should feel safe and happy when they come to school.”
7. Not being content to reach national average
Successful schools do not stop pushing for whole-school improvement once attendance reaches the national average, the report says.
Ofsted adds: “Rather they see the process of securing good attendance as an ongoing process that is never finished.”
Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman said there was “no doubt that schools continue to face some very tricky challenges around pupil attendance”.
She added: “It is clear that leaders who have previously improved pupil attendance have managed to maintain good levels this term” through a principle of “listen, understand, empathise and support - but do not tolerate”.
Ms Spielman said headteachers who have successfully improved attendance at their schools understand the importance of making their school “a safe place where pupils really want to be”, and they “also seek to understand what is stopping individual pupils from attending regularly and they put the right support in place to help solve the problem”.
‘Sensible albeit rather obvious’
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Ofsted’s findings in this new report are sensible, albeit rather obvious.”
All schools were “acutely aware” of the factors that affect good attendance and were already working very hard to address the issues they come across, he said.
Disruption during the pandemic had created new problems for schools over managing attendance, he continued, including students fearing family members becoming ill if they go into school and seeing their parents under more stress or facing financial hardship.
Attendance for some older students had been affected by concerns about whether exams might be cancelled, he said.
Mr Barton also highlighted how cuts to local councils’ school support budgets have impacted work to promote attendance.
He added: “The wider problem, however, is government cuts to local authority funding which have denuded the support that is available to schools over attendance.
“In addition, school budgets have been under huge pressure for several years because of government austerity and this has, in many cases, affected things like pastoral support for pupils which can help to address poor attendance.”
