Case Study: Egglescliffe School and Sixth Form College, Stockton-on-Tees

I always knew that I wanted to do a job that involved helping people, so perhaps a natural extension beyond my work in a classroom (which I have always loved) was to work with some of the most vulnerable students in our school community. Invariably, if students are struggling to attend school, there are often other underlying reasons.

Attendance is the job that is never complete and in an ever more complex world, attendance concerns can easily be missed in their early stages. Whilst every school is stretched, we try to adopt a policy of ‘the earlier the better’ and the A Star Attendance Solutions system enables us to easily identify concerns and act upon them immediately.

My role involves various layers, which include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Using the A star system to identify concerns and sharing these concerns with students and parents/carers.
• Using other forms of data as intelligence, such as pulling together school assessment data, attitude to learning scores, medical information, SEND needs and pastoral concerns. This helps to build a fuller picture before the school acts. The A* letters that we send out are excellent and are an important tool. However, we believe that when these letters are sent out is crucial. Relationships between school and home are fundamental and we are very mindful of knowing the full context before sending letters.
• Analysis of cohort data. Alongside our School MIS, we use the A* system to determine where we will direct our resources most effectively. This is through studying data and patterns for year groups, SEND students, Pupil Premium students, boys/girls, etc. This also enables us to establish if there are particular issues that underpin these trends so that our pastoral team can address this, either with individuals or through the PSHE programme.
• Comparison to national, regional and local trends. This is studied closely to benchmark where we are as a school. This feeds into my dialogue with other senior leaders and the governing body, who need to have a clear awareness of attendance patterns and trends and how the school are addressing this via the school improvement plan.
• Working with students and parents. This is by far the most time intensive, but easily the most important part of the role. Whilst we need processes and procedures as a school, we also need to personalise approaches as every child is different. Almost all meetings we have with parents are with designated follow up times, so that we build an ongoing dialogue and can establish whether initial concerns have been successfully addressed or whether there is a need for further interventions.
• A reward culture: attendance is promoted in tutor groups via weekly raffles, through attendance assemblies, events such as ‘The 12 days of Christmas’ (where prize draws were done each day) and through rewards assemblies.
• Working with outside agencies. Early intervention requires early help and our pastoral team work exceptionally hard to engage wider services when it is evident that it is required.

The attendance role is never easy, never complete and never boring. I’m exceptionally fortunate to work in a team where everyone is committed to the same goal of getting students into school and striving for daily attendance for all.

Attendance is an area that is incredibly data rich, but my eyes always widen when figures such as the ones below are considered.

In a school of 1200 pupils, the attendance difference between 93.5% and 91.5% might not seem that significant, but the difference in cumulative hours of learning is enormous. For the school with 93.5%, this would result is more than 27,000 additional hours of cumulative learning across the school community in an academic year than the school with 91.5%. I can think of no intervention systems or additional catch-up scheme, however sophisticated, that can compensate.

With this in mind, there are two things in particular that I focus on in conversations with parents and students. Firstly, the number of periods of absence. Sometimes absence is unavoidable, but for two students with 90% attendance the context for each can be very different. One student may have had one period of absence for two weeks with a serious illness, but another student could have had ten days off but spread over eight periods of absence, with lots of occasional days. The Bradford factor, available in many MIS systems, gives a score according to the number of periods of absence, as well as the length of absence. This provides a rich layer of data, useful for discussion.

Secondly, hours of learning that have been missed often provide a stark picture for parents and students. Ten days off across a year may not sound as significant as 50 missed hours of learning. I strongly believe that how messages are put across is everything.

Tomorrow will bring new concerns, new challenges and new students to support. The A star system has been, and will continue to be, a crucial cog in our approach towards addressing attendance concerns.

Reference Details 

– Mark Cowan Associate Assistant Head Teacher – Attendance, Egglescliffe School and Sixth Form College, Stockton-on-Tees