We’ve all done it. We’ve handed out unlimited attendance certificates to children who were lucky enough to not get sick and whose parents didn’t take them on holiday.
Did it have an effect on attendance? Is it fair?
I decided the answer was no, to both questions.
Scrapping attendance awards
Our school is situated in a very disadvantaged area of Southall, West London. Housing around the school is generally expensive, living conditions are often very poor: families living in a single room; multi-occupancy housing; beds in sheds.
However, attendance on the day of writing stood at 96.4 per cent, with just 6.1 per cent persistent absence. This is not the norm for similar schools.
Do we get this figure by rewarding attendance? Definitely not.
I don’t do raffles, sticker charts, expensive prizes.
Great expectations
Instead, I simply expect children to come to school. It is parents’ legal responsibility to send them to school.
And when someone cannot attend, I take a detailed look at why.
We recently found the logbooks from when the school first opened in 1804, and the attendance problems the school had in those days were very different to what they are now. Children avoided school to work at the nearby brickworks. There were serious outbreaks of chickenpox and other childhood illnesses.
But, unfortunately, poverty still plays a large part in our pupils’ lives. And we have to be proactive about providing support.
Tackling poverty
We do what we can to alleviate a family’s difficulties and enable children to come to school. We provide a free breakfast. All children have access to milk at playtime. Key stage 1 receive fruit. We provide foodbank vouchers and food parcels, uniforms and books. We have a pupil and family worker who supports families and has even been known to go to children’s houses, dress them and walk them to school.
Whatever the problem, as a school community we will try to ensure that we find a solution that enables the child to attend school.
And when they are here, we continue the efforts to increase attendance.
The school day is fun and to ensure that we improve the children’s health, they all run a mile a day. There is a plethora of free sports clubs and we enter as many sports competitions as we can to attempt to instil a healthy lifestyle. Staff have delivered assembles about the sports they do, demonstrating to children that exercise is a healthy lifestyle choice.
Even their headteacher regularly runs in races and on sports days.
Parent communication
And we try to ensure that our parents don’t feel alienated, offering coffee mornings, parent workshops and the opportunity to volunteer. Poverty can lead to parental depression; depression can lead to pupil absence.
We have talked openly about needing to talk if you are feeling sad and how avoiding school is, therefore, the worst thing you could do. Parental engagement dramatically raises attainment.
What about requested time off during term time? We do have applications for term-time travel for a variety of reasons - and we don’t accommodate them. From day one, we encourage parents to book trips during the holiday periods.
Unfortunately, this restricts parents travelling when flights are cheaper and the weather is ideal. However, there is a clear correlation in our borough’s KS2 data between scores and attendance, which we share with families.
Deep cleans
Children get sick, but there are things that we can do to prevent it spreading. I lead “washing your hands” assemblies, teaching children the correct way to wash your hands. We have a lot of soap dispensers. We ensure that areas that are frequently touched are disinfected, door handles, bannisters etc.
If we have an outbreak of a sickness virus, we commission a deep clean.
We also ensure that no children are returned to school before 48 hours after they last vomited - to prevent the spread of infection.
As you can see, we place importance on attendance. However, we don’t reward attendance - we expect it.
Nicola Forster is headteacher of North Primary School, Southall
