Teaching School Hub Partnership TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL
Foreword Attendance is one of the most challenging post-pandemic issues being tackled in education today and in Cornwall this toolkit is intended to support and guide school leaders based on the emerging evidence for good attendance practice in our schools. We are indebted to the authors and contributors to this toolkit, for sharing thinking emerging from research, local policy implementation and professional development to provide a practical toolkit to improve attendance for all. One of the key points is that this toolkit is not seeking to replicate the work of the Education Endowment Foundation or the DfE Attendance Hubs but provides practical case studies of how strategies are impacting our Cornish schools in a positive way. Importantly, positive relationships and a sense of belonging are central to the approaches shared in this toolkit to improve how children and young people and their families relate to school. This toolkit is unique. We have had the privilege to work alongside a true partnership of education professionals in Cornwall to share and develop our thinking on how to tackle the issue of attendance and we recognise that there is no single solution. Communities and families are unique and the strategies to ensure our children and young people attend school regularly and engage fully in their school-life, are equally diverse. This toolkit begins a dialogue of shared practice and experiences which is intended to generate rich and evidence-informed discussion and implementation in schools. The Cornwall Education Partnership (CEP) aims to bring together representatives from all education providers to establish shared priorities to help support improvements across the county, and one of the first educational issues to tackle collectively has been attendance. This toolkit is part of the operational response to improve attendance and reduce persistent absence alongside a programme of professional development through the OneCornwall Teaching School Hub. This toolkit will evolve and expand with the evidence of impact to improve attendance and we thank everyone who has contributed thus far. 2 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Dr Jennifer Blunden OBE, Chair of the CEP Operational Board
Contents 1. Foreword IFC 2. About 03 3. Our model 06 4. The current picture 08 5. Building a holistic understanding of pupils and families. Diagnose specific needs 12 6. Building a culture of community and belonging 18 7. Communicate effectively with families 24 8. Improve universal provision for all pupils 28 9. Deliver targeted interventions to supplement universal provision 34 10. The use of research evidence 36 11. Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the approaches being adopted 40 12. Poor evaluation - a house of cards 42 13. Avoid initiative overload. Draw on guidance on effective implementation 44 14. The role of Governance in supporting attendance 48 15. Disciplined inquiry 50 16. Further resources 66 17. Acknowledgements 68 18. Case Studies 70 ”Despite our considerable efforts, absence rates remain stubbornly high.” Marc Rowland 3 Marc Rowland Unity Schools Partnership / Research School Marc introduces the booklet, and how it has been built - using a mix of research evidence, local expertise and a test and learn approach to understand the impact of attendance and belonging strategies in Cornish schools, with Cornish families. SCAN HERE TO WATCH THE FULL CASE STUDY VIDEO
4 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL
About This guidance has been developed in partnership with Cornish school leaders – building on excellence in our education community. The guidance has been developed over 12 months, with multiple (in person) meetings, discussions, and a number of reviews by colleagues within Cornwall and beyond. Leaders have given their time, energy, and commitment freely. As a group, leaders have engaged and debated research evidence and good practice, seeking to revisit and refine approaches to addressing attendance challenges for pupils in primary, secondary and special schools. The work has been supported, encouraged, and championed by the attendance steering group and the OneCornwall Teaching School Hub team. They have been steadfast in the belief that this guidance is for all Cornish schools, and all Cornish pupils. All voices have been listened to and heard. School leaders brought the voice of their pupils and families, as well as their staff teams. We have used case studies provided by schools in Cornwall to bring the guidance to life. The guidance does not seek to tell school leaders what to do. It does not look to duplicate work already set out through DfE Attendance hubs. It should help school leaders to ask good questions and support the hard work of those in our schools and classrooms – to open up choice and opportunity for all. Much of the guidance is based around the Education Endowment Foundation recommendations around attendance. But these are supplemented by our own findings from working on attendance and belonging within Cornwall and beyond. The recommendations are as follows. 5
6 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL These questions draw on the work of the Education Endowment Foundation’s ‘Supporting School attendance’ resources. In particularly, the planning and reflection tool, which can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/leadership-and-planning/ supporting-attendance 1. Building a holistic understanding of pupils and families, and diagnose specific needs. - Is your attendance data up-to-date and accessible, and do tracking and reporting systems support staff to understand and act on the data? - Who is involved in monitoring and reviewing attendance data to identify patterns and priorities? - What processes do you have in place to go beyond the headline data and ‘dig deeper’ into factors affecting attendance for individuals and families? As there are likely multiple staff involved, are these processes structured and consistent? - Do school structures ensure that every pupil has an adult in school who knows them well, and is this knowledge used to support attendance? 2. Build a culture of community and belonging for pupils - Are systems for managing behaviour clear and consistently applied? - Is behaviour management data monitored and reviewed to identify patterns such as pupils being caught in a cycle of negative consequences? - Does the school’s approach to behaviour include explicitly teaching, modelling and reinforcing positive learning behaviours, and is this consistent across the school? - How do you know if pupils feel safe, seen, understood and heard within the school? - Does pupil voice represent the full diversity of pupils? - How are achievements celebrated, and is this valued by pupils? - Are there systems in place to track pupils’ engagement with social and extracurricular opportunities, and are potential barriers to engagement understood and addressed? Audit questions for schools and Trusts
7 We have also included sections on: - The use of research evidence - Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the approaches being adopted - Avoiding initiative overload. Drawing on guidance on effective implementation - The role of Governance in supporting attendance We have drawn on national expertise to support this work. The guidance is "brought to life” through a model of ‘disciplined inquiry’ to create case studies which trial an approach to look to improve attendance to school and attendance to learning. 3. Communicate effectively with families - How frequently, and in what ways, is the school communicating with families? Does communication seem clear, helpful and supportive? - How do you know if families feel positive about the communications received from school? Do families find communications clear, supportive and appropriate in frequency, timing, language, tone and medium? - How are accessibility, literacy and language needs considered in the medium and language of communications? - Are communications about attendance understood as you intend by families, or might there be misunderstandings? Are parents supported to understand and contextualise attendance data? - Do families have clear and reliable ways to communicate with key staff, and do they feel they are heard and valued as partners in their children’s school journey? 4. Improve universal provision for all pupils - Do all teachers have a good knowledge of pupils learning needs, and how is this information shared regularly? - Do teachers have the expertise and support to meet these needs in the classroom so that all pupils can learn successfully? - Is professional development effective and structured in a way that supports staff to change and develop their practice? [See the EEF Effective Professional Development guidance report for more information about a balanced approach to effective PD]. - What systems are in place to hear seek and hear pupils’ views about their school and learning experiences, and do you use this to help identify potential barriers to pupil learning an engagement? 5. Deliver targeted interventions to supplement universal provision - Do you have a complete and up-to-date picture of local external agencies and services that may be able to support pupils and families? - Do interventions precisely target a specifically identified need for pupils? - Is there clear and consistent provision mapping, providing an accessible overview of which interventions are in place for pupils? - Are the right people involved in delivering interventions, and do they have the necessary expertise to deliver the intervention[s] effectively? - Is the intended impact of targeted interventions clear, and is this tracked, monitored and reviewed periodically so that you are confident interventions are effective or can adjust the approach if needed?
8 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Our Model Improved attendance to school and learning Disciplined inquiry to trial and exemplify approaches to improve attendance Ensure governance forms a central role in strategy Improve universal provision for all pupils Communicate effectively with families Build a culture of community and belonging Build a holistic understanding of pupils and families Use research evidence to inform approaches Avoid initiative overload/use implementation guidance Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of approaches Deliver targeted interventions that supplement universal provision
9 We have exemplified this model with case studies from schools and Trusts where appropriate. Absence from school life is more than just coming into the building. There is: - Not coming to school (extended/inconsistent?) - Coming to school but not attending [some] lessons - Poor punctuality to lessons - Exiting the lesson during challenging learning - Coming to lessons but opting out of learning And: - Not participating in extracurricular activities, residentials etc. - Not participating in personal development opportunities – work experience, student leadership - Not participating in wider school life – sports teams, music etc. - Opting out of additional academic support Poor attendance at school impacts on pupils academically and socially, with their personal development and their wellbeing. Proactive approaches, linked to pupils experiencing success, feeling like they belong and have strong relationships with adults and peers is critical. In order to secure good attendance to school, and attendance to learning, we need: - To have clear and consistent expectations, routines, structures. All pupils feel safe and secure when they are confident, they know what’s coming. Structure liberates! - To recognise that pupils are largely consistent in their behaviours and interactions with school and learning. The challenge comes when we, the adults, are the variable, when we are inconsistent. This may relate to recruitment and retention of staff; it may relate to micro interactions in the classroom / around school. We are the variable; we need to be the consistent. - That background knowledge is the glue that makes learning stick. Build background knowledge to help pupils feel like they belong. Front load key knowledge pupils need to be successful at the start of lessons. Don’t make presumptions about pupils’ background knowledge.
10 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL The current picture Headline facts for 2023 This is the baseline for our work in transforming attendance Overall absence rate 7.3% during week commencing 23 January 2023 Authorised absence rate 5.0% during week commencing 23 January 2023 Unauthorised absence rate 2.1% during week commencing 23 January 2023 Overall absence rate 7.6% academic year to date Authorised absence rate 5.4% academic year to date Unauthorised absence rate 2.2% academic year to date
11 Headline facts for 2024 In 2023/24, we have seen some improvements, but much still needs to be done Overall absence rate 7.1% during week commencing 23 January 2024 Authorised absence rate 4.2% during week commencing 23 January 2024 Unauthorised absence rate 2.9% during week commencing 23 January 2024 Overall absence rate 7.1% academic year to date Authorised absence rate 4.7% academic year to date Unauthorised absence rate 2.4% academic year to date
12 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Our ambition is for all children to be attending school, all their classes every day and for them to feel like they belong in school. In some cases, the challenges to achieving these aims are not fully in the school’s scope – transport, some health issues, difficulties within families, etc. However, this remains an aspirational aim – one that every school and Trust can unite around and address as they see fit. This guidance aims to support that work. It is needed because, despite the best efforts of school and system leaders, we are some way off from getting close to that goal. EEF research suggests: - There is a strong connection between school attendance and educational outcomes at all key stages - In 2022-23, just over one in five pupils missed 10% or more of their schooling - Pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds were nearly twice as likely to be persistently absent than their classmates - Pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds with SEND have even higher levels of absence - Attendance levels are typically worse in secondary schools than primary - Schools in England use a wide variety of strategies to improve pupil attendance - There is some evidence of promise for parental engagement approaches and responsive interventions that meet the individual needs of the pupils - But overall, the evidence on the effectiveness of different approaches is weak, with very few high-quality studies taking place in English schools - The interventions that show promise take a holistic approach in understanding pupils and their specific need, and which address the specific barriers to attendance that have been identified Reference: EEF. (2022). Attendance Interventions: Rapid Evidence Assessment. London: Education Endowment Foundation.
School attendance is a safeguarding issue. Regular, frequent attendance at school helps ensure the safety, well-being, personal and academic development of pupils. When a pupil is absent from school frequently or for extended periods, it can be an indicator of underlying problems that may put the pupil at risk. 1. Visibility of the pupils Schools provide a structured environment where children are regularly seen by teachers and staff who can observe their well-being. Any issues between pupils can be picked up within that structured environment. 2. Early Identification of issues Trained teachers and school staff are trained to identify early signs of concern. If a pupil is frequently absent, it can hinder the ability of staff to spot these signs and intervene early. 3. Monitoring physical, emotional and mental Well-being Schools play a critical role in the physical, mental and emotional development of children. Good attendance allows school staff to recognise changes in behaviours, mood, or social interactions that could indicate struggles or concerns. 4. Access to Support Services Schools provide access to key support services like counselling, social and emotional support or additional help with academic learning. Poor attendance may mean that a pupil misses out on essential support that addresses need. 5. Preventing Risky Behaviour Pupils who are frequently absent from school may become vulnerable to risky behaviours or exploitation, especially if their absences are not well supervised. Pupils talking about risky behaviours can be more readily picked up if they are taking place in school. 6. Enables good communication and understanding Good attendance enables teachers and support staff to communicate effectively with pupils and families and other agencies. It enables staff to understand any challenges pupils are experiencing beyond school, and put support or contingency in place. Knowledge of a pupil and their lived experiences enables schools to play their role in keeping children safe. Attendance and safeguarding 13
14 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Building a holistic understanding of pupils and families. Diagnose specific needs. We need to properly understand the drivers of attendance issues before taking any action. Issues with attendance to school and attendance to learning are a symptom of issues, rather than the issue itself. ‘In school drivers’ need to be addressed alongside working with families to ensure sustainable success. In school drivers can include: - High turnover of staff – leadership and classroom - Poor staff attendance – academic and pastoral - Several changes in governance approaches – e.g. re brokering - Inconsistencies in quality of teaching and learning and pastoral care - A lack of clarity within school about roles and responsibilities for addressing attendance challenges - A lack of knowledge and understanding about individual families - Judgemental, inconsistent, or inaccessible communications about attendance - Decisions based on labels, rather than need - Lack of (inclusivity) Community drivers include: - Geography – transport, population density, local interest (e.g. coastal) - Local housing - Curriculum relevance - Employment levels - Careers opportunities - Mobility - Housing - Levels of education in the community - Provision from community services – e.g. health, social care, sport, and culture enrichment 1. Building a holistic understanding of pupils and families, and diagnose specific needs. - Is your attendance data up-to-date and accessible, and do tracking and reporting systems support staff to understand and act on the data? - Who is involved in monitoring and reviewing attendance data to identify patterns and priorities? - What processes do you have in place to go beyond the headline data and ‘dig deeper’ into factors affecting attendance for individuals and families? As there are likely multiple staff involved, are these processes structured and consistent? - Do school structures ensure that every pupil has an adult in school who knows them well, and is this knowledge used to support attendance?
15 Pupils and families’ drivers include: - Systemic / attitudinal issues (e.g. term time holidays) - Low current attainment, impacting on confidence and motivation and relationships - Poor reading skills / attainment - Poor behaviour / learning behaviours - Pupils not experiencing success beyond the classroom – e.g. student leadership, sports - Narrow friendship groups - Socially isolated families - Low income and its impact on pupils inside and outside of school - Misconceptions about school attendance in the family - Historic experiences within the family These issues impact pupils academically, in their personal and social development. Understanding the drivers for poor attendance is key to effective mitigation. A video about understanding the drivers can be found here: https://vimeo.com/900841929/6e529b5e30 SCAN HERE TO WATCH
16 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL How does disadvantage impact on attendance to school and attendance to learning? Long-term disadvantage will have a greater impact than periodic disadvantage. The only way to find out which pupils fall into this group is to know your families. Once identified, you can overtly ensure that their needs are prioritised. This will have particular significance during periods of transition. Criteria that will further disadvantage pupils may include: - High mobility between settings (housing insecurity, school moves, exclusions) - Long-term health conditions and vulnerabilities. See the documented link between poverty and health issues - Being a Young Carer - Negative family experience of education In addition, consideration should also be given to the impact of SEND, Multi-language or any potential for discrimination linked to a protected characteristic. Further, disadvantaged pupils who are also Low Prior Attainers (LPA), particularly in reading, may face a broader range of challenges. The lower the starting point for each educational phase, the greater the challenge in making sufficient progress to close the gap. Progress achieved with learners with this profile should be particularly recognised. Low family income may present as one or more of the following: - Food insecurity - Housing/fuel insecurity - Transport difficulties - Social isolation - Few opportunities outside of school - Family/carer short-termism as a result of a crisis cycle - Lack of social networks limiting access to cultural capital, wider aspects of personal development and opportunities, for example, work experience, travel, clubs, and activities - Difficulties with the cost of school life (even very low-cost items or activities) - Societal challenges – uncertain income and unemployment risks - Particular judgements, beliefs, and assumptions - Negative feelings of self-worth, anxiety and its impact on future agency and aspiration
17 What might we mean by disadvantage? Pupils are not at risk of poor attendance because they are ‘Pupil Premium.’ They are at risk of poor attendance because of the impact of socio-economic (and other) disadvantages on their lives over time. This is a process, not an event. Many pupils may experience a number of challenges which potentially impact on their learning, wide school life and their experiences beyond the school gate. These pupils may be at greater risk of poor attendance. They should be a priority for early intervention, support and have maximum opportunities for working with high quality, expert practitioners. Diagnostic and formative assessment should shape strategy and activity, not labels. Taking time to ensure assessment is meaningful and useful to teachers and leaders. Schools should ensure that assessment is used to adjust teaching responsively. This enables staff to respond to, and address, gaps in learning. Learners then develop belief in themselves through experiencing success in the classroom and in wider school life. This helps them to become successful learners. Assessment, not assumptions, should inform approaches. Properly understand the impact of disadvantage on attendance. Poorly identified need leads to poorly identified activity, which leads to weaker outcomes and initiative fatigue. It can lead to a reactive approach to supporting learners.
18 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL How might low family income impact the school experience? This can be broken down into three parts: Pupils and families: Oral language, vocabulary, language comprehension, gaps in background knowledge, self-regulation of cognition and emotions, dispositions towards learning, motivation, gaps in learning due to poor attendance and access to resources. Social isolation can be an important factor in the impact of disadvantage on learning: the more people we meet and interact with, the broader our vistas. Community: It is important to consider the impact of growing up as a disadvantaged pupil within each school’s community. Cost of living challenges. Geographical isolation. Employment, transport, housing. School: Cost of the school day/term/year. Beliefs and assumptions. Limited access to high-quality teaching, a failure to address the expectations of pupils and their families, high turnover of staff, lack of clarity in understanding the issues being addressed, initiative overload and poor implementation can be in-school factors that disproportionately impact disadvantaged pupils. This is not an exhaustive list. They are generalisations. Have school leaders accurately assessed and understood pupil needs in respect of how disadvantage impacts learning? Is there a collective understanding of this across the school? The key questions to address, when considering the attendance of cohorts, classes and individual pupils is: ‘If the attendance and wider outcomes for this (group of) pupil(s) is not improving, what will: - Be done differently? - What will be improved? - What will be paused/stopped?
19 CHES Academy is a medical provision academy that provide education for children and young people with complex medical and/ or mental health needs which prevent them from attending school. We pride ourselves in providing pupils with access to high quality education, ensuring they are thoroughly prepared for the next stage in their learning journey. Personalisation is the cornerstone of our pedagogy; the curriculum is bespoke, and programmes are crafted to meet individual needs which demands a totally flexible and adaptable approach to teaching and learning from all involved. Read the full case study on page 70 Case study – A specialist school approach Lucy Stocker - CHES Academy
20 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Building a culture of community and belonging for pupils. A maturing culture of inclusivity (From Addressing educational disadvantage (2021) Our system should mature in its inclusivity over the duration of the plan, from that which: • Identifies pupils as separate, requiring different resources and strategic approaches • Uses diagnostic labels to inform strategic planning • Sees labels as an anchor on attainment • Plans for ‘most’ and then ‘some’ • Uses bell-curve thinking • Focuses on operational compliance • Relies on individual experts • Relies on individual ownership of pupil groups Moving to a system that: • Recognises difference • Adopts inclusive pedagogy for all • Adopts a strengths-based discourse that celebrates difference • Expects to be surprised by pupil potential • Sees all pupils as their responsibility • Considers accessibility for everyone • Sees the purpose of education as social justice through better attainment • Focuses on inclusive teaching and learning • Develops system-wide knowledge, responsibility and expertise • Develops collective responsibility and ownership of pupil groups 2. Build a culture of community and belonging for pupils - Are systems for managing behaviour clear and consistently applied? - Is behaviour management data monitored and reviewed to identify patterns such as pupils being caught in a cycle of negative consequences? - Does the school’s approach to behaviour include explicitly teaching, modelling and reinforcing positive learning behaviours, and is this consistent across the school? - How do you know if pupils feel safe, seen, understood and heard within the school? - Does pupil voice represent the full diversity of pupils? - How are achievements celebrated, and is this valued by pupils? - Are there systems in place to track pupils’ engagement with social and extracurricular opportunities, and are potential barriers to engagement understood and addressed?
21 To support pupils learning, and in wider school life, there needs to be a more consistent, collective understanding of inclusion and inclusivity. Our work found that this was variable in both theory and practice. To help address this, our guidance sets out a maturity index and better proxies for inclusion. A strength-based discourse around pupils and families is key to building a culture of inclusivity. The most effective strategies for addressing the attendance challenge focus on giving teachers and wider staff the capacity, expertise, and development to meet the needs of their learners. To improve them as learners and help them to thrive in wider school life. Teacher and wider staff agency and buy-in are fundamental to success. Developing culture is a continuous process, not an event. It should not be thought of as something ‘to be achieved.’ A shared language around efforts for supporting attendance is vital. From governance to the classroom to external support, staff should speak with one voice. Belief in learners matters. Schools are encouraged to be outward facing, engaging, and being challenged by research evidence. They should also be inward facing. Pupils should be listened to – about their sense of inclusion in school life. Recruitment and retention of high-quality staff, with expertise in the challenges faced by pupils is key. Learners need maximum opportunities to work with high-quality, committed, and stable staff. It is important to be wary of potentially poor proxies for inclusion: • Assigned responsibility • Pupils are in lessons with their peers • Pupils are being supported by a staff member • Pupils are busy and engaged • Work is differentiated • Pupils working in smaller groups • Work has been completed; there are answers in pupils’ books • Additional interventions are provided • Nurtured vs attainment false dichotomy • Staff training has taken place Better could be pupils participating in and being successful with challenging learning over time through: • Teacher expertise: subject knowledge and inclusive pedagogy • Relationships and high expectations • Background knowledge (subject and pupil) • Modelling, scaffolding and worked examples • Collaborative learning strategies • Oral language strategies where pupils’ contributions are valued • Consolidation and checking understanding (not rushing through content) • Assessment for learning • Evidence-based intervention
22 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL High expectations - All schools and staff should have the highest expectations of all learners and families. They should understand and be empathetic to those who, for any number of reasons, may find it more difficult to engage with school life. - For multiple, complex reasons, some may find learning more difficult. Be mindful of not lowering expectations and aspirations for these learners. Nurture and support all learners to take pride in their individual achievements. Learners’ contributions to lessons and wider school life should be encouraged and valued. Needs, not labels - Disadvantaged learners, those with SEND, and those that are multilingual should not be treated as a homogenous group. Labels can create unconscious bias and set limitations on what learners can achieve. Strategy and activity should always focus on pupil need. - Employ a proactive approach, anticipating future challenges and addressing them through early intervention. Early intervention is what we do in the moment, at the start of the school year… It’s about caring and responding to the day-to-day experiences of disadvantaged pupils in the classroom and in wider school life. Early intervention is not just about Early Years or Year 7. Relationships - Efforts to support learners will stand or fall based on the quality of relationships we forge. Relationships between adults and learners, and between learners’ matter. To be successful, learners will need to feel like they belong in our schools and in our classrooms. - Multiple studies –have shown that where relationships across schools are strong, the most disadvantaged learners will thrive. Learners do well when teachers know them well and hold them in high regard. Relationships as drivers of human development: Positive supportive contexts Osher et al, 2019 Relationships between and among children and adults are a primary process through which biological and contextual factors influence and mutually reinforce each other. Relationships that are reciprocal, attuned, culturally responsive, and trustful are a positive developmental force between children and their physical and social contexts. Such relationships help to establish idiographic developmental pathways that serve as the foundation for lifelong learning, adaptation, the integration of social, affective, emotional, and cognitive processes and will, over time, make qualitative changes to a child’s genetic makeup. Bornstein & Leventhal, 2015; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006. Good relationships should enable open, reflective discussions about the quality of the learning experiences of all learners in our schools. Relationships should enable open, reflective discussions about the quality of personal development and pastoral care. They should enable discussions about any targeted academic support. Any ‘interventions’ where learners are away from the classroom and their peers should be of exceptionally high quality, be rooted in research evidence and be a better learning experience than ‘business as usual.’
23 Colleagues should work together, and engage in conversations that may feel challenging, for the benefit of learners. Staff with the privilege of influencing the education of our most disadvantaged learners have to be their champions every day. They are a voice and an advocate for those learners in all aspects of school life. Subconscious bias is something we should always consider. The impact of a pupil’s background, behaviours and personal presentation can still play too big a part in the assessment outcomes allocated in teacher assessments. In any given mixed population, the children who experience the highest level of success in school have: - Cultural capital - Social capital - Financial capital Schools are well placed to support pupils who do not necessarily have all of these advantages. Pupils thrive in school when there is a collective responsibility for a high-quality educational experience underpinned by the highest of expectations in all aspects of curriculum provision, learning and personal development opportunities. The drivers of poor attendance should inform the approaches adopted. The following are examples of how we can be responsive to particular drivers, recognising that some pupils experience multiple drivers. The following examples overleaf may be helpful:
24 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Driver: Physical / mental health Activity - Class teachers, tutors building relationships: ‘I can’t wait to see you tomorrow’ - Carefully modifying language to avoid judgement - Offering soft starts / flexibility - Ensuring that pupils have strong friendships and are supported in unstructured times - Consistent, trusted adults - Ensuring pupils are given opportunities in enrichment, student leadership - Collective, rather than individual rewards - Rewards for improvement, meeting thresholds, rather than the highest - Preventative support Driver: Systemic / attitudinal Activity • Class teachers, tutors building relationships ‘I can’t wait to see you tomorrow’ • Carefully modifying language to avoid judgement: ‘we want your child in school – let’s work together • Highlighting social norms: pupil attendance compared to classmates • Highlighting wider challenges arising from poor attendance – beyond academic learning: friendships, participation in sport etc • Consistent, trusted adults • Attendance induction for families – including problems arising from short termism: messaging about valuing educational expectance, clarity over consequences, high expectations • Use of text messaging rather than letters • Reducing jargon • Rewards for improvement, meeting thresholds, rather than the highest • Requirement to speak to a person, rather than leave a message to report absence • Pre-emptive support Extrinsic rewards Extrinsic rewards can have their place as part of a wider attendance strategy. Collective, rather than individual rewards may be more effective. Whilst 100% attendance rewards are good for celebrating good attendance, they are unlikely to drive behaviour change for inconsistent attenders, as they do not address underlying drivers. Further, once pupils miss a day, they no longer have an incentive to attend. With 100% attendance awards, we also need to be wary of the ‘reward and relax effect’, where pupils / families feel they have earned a ‘day off’ school when attendance has been good over time. Rewards for consistent attendance, as well as improvements can be helpful – both in terms of a culture, and for good attenders to be ‘noticed.’
25 Attendance and belonging are at the heart of all that we do. It is high priority, from leadership to the classroom. Read the full case study on page 72 Case study – whole school approach linked to a trust wide strategy. Marie Taylor - St Columb Major Primary Academy
26 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Communicate effectively with families. - There is a strong association between parental engagement and good educational outcomes. However, research evidence about how to influence it is less strong. Evidence varies, depending on the age of the pupils - Key to success is defining what constitutes success with parental engagement - Defining the aims of any strategy is vital. What does success actually look like? - Pupil success (in the classroom and wider school life) is a good driver of parental engagement High impact approaches which may be less complicated to implement may include working with families to: - Speak positively about school and learning - Encourage showing an interest in school and learning - Encouraging good attendance, punctuality, and behaviours This article from Town End Research School exemplifies how all staff can play a role in supporting good attendance through communication with families: https://researchschool.org.uk/news/think-it-through-thursdays-supporting-pupil-attendancethrough-staff-communications ‘Everyone who works in schools, in any role, has some connection to attendance. Everyone plays a part in supporting school leads to improve attendance, whether or not they are employed in a role directly linked to the management of attendance or attendance-related interventions. Supporting attendance is a whole team effort and it’s important to empower all staff members to help in this shared endeavour.’ 3. Communicate effectively with families - How frequently, and in what ways, is the school communicating with families? Does communication seem clear, helpful and supportive? - How do you know if families feel positive about the communications received from school? Do families find communications clear, supportive and appropriate in frequency, timing, language, tone and medium? - How are accessibility, literacy and language needs considered in the medium and language of communications? - Are communications about attendance understood as you intend by families, or might there be misunderstandings? Are parents supported to understand and contextualise attendance data? - Do families have clear and reliable ways to communicate with key staff, and do they feel they are heard and valued as partners in their children’s school journey?
27 Effective parental involvement evolves over time, depending on the ages of the pupils. The following model should help: Direct involvement in learning. Encouraging language development, Modelling talk and reading. Real life experiences, routines. Supporting attendance, punctuality, Social interaction. Embracing challenge. More ‘hands o ’. Encouraging good learning behaviours, attendance, habits, routines, self regulation. Encouragement and interest. Open communication channels with school. Encouraging resilience. YOUNGER CHILDREN OLDER PUPILS
28 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Gill Main, University of Leeds, 2018 Children who were in a low-income household were: - 4.5 times more likely to have not eaten or not eaten enough when they were hungry - 5.6 times more likely to have had to wear old or poorly fitting clothes or shoes - 5.2 times more likely to have pretended to their family not to need something - 6.7 times more likely to have pretended to their friends that they did not want to do something that cost money - 6.7 times more likely to feel embarrassed by a lack of money - 4.4 times more likely to miss out on social activities Their parents were 7.9 times more likely to have gone hungry. This points not only to the devastating impacts that poverty has on children, but also to the pervasive nature of ideas which suggest that poor people themselves are somehow to blame for their situation in life. Perversely, they are made to feel ashamed because they don’t have the resources to have the same things and engage in the same activities as their better off peers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2023 A number of disciplined enquiries being carried out by schools in Cornwall look carefully at adapting communications with families. The EEF guidance on working with parents also provide more resources: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/ supporting-parents Stephen Tierney, formerly a system leader working in coastal Blackpool has shared some high-quality resources on communicating effectively with families about attendance issues. Ore can be found here: https://leadinglearner.me/2017/07/02/absences-matter-and-you-can-help/
Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published in 2023 highlight how families are increasingly poor and hungry, and consequently adopt ‘short termism’ behaviours. Short termism might mean families opt for payday loans, purchases on credit with poor interest rates, more convenient but less healthy foods. It leads families to focus on getting through day / week / month, as opposed to planning for the long term. When a family is experiencing destitution, or indeed, other significant challenges or multiple priorities, they may also prioritise other issues over attendance to school or attendance to school work, particularly home learning. I may recognise the long term academic and social benefits of a curriculum trip, but critically low funds at home means that paying for participating is not possible. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation research suggests that 5.7 million low income households were skipping meals in 2023: https://www.jrf.org.uk/news/57-million-low-income-households-having-to-cut-down-or-skipmeals-as-jrfs-cost-of-living The more stable a families’ income stream, the longer ahead they can plan - whether that is health, wellbeing, social, educational. Families on higher income streams are better placed to save for holidays (in school holidays), save for a child’s university place, pay for books / building social and cultural capital. Families can also buy long lasting, higher priced clothing, equipment etc which is more resilient. Families on the lowest income streams may be forced to by less expensive, but less robust equipment, shoes, cars etc. And have less access to cheap credit. Food poverty also impacts negatively on self esteem, confidence, health and wellbeing and drives social isolation. Telling a family that is struggling to feed their family that they need to plan for the long term may not always elicit a favourable response. 29
30 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL Improve universal provision for all pupils. Attainment and attendance Pupils that attain well, attend well. Classrooms are about learning as part of a large group. It is therefore essential that pupils experience success with regards to both learning and being part of a group. Success leads to motivation. Learning becomes something to engage in rather than get through. Staff can create the conditions in which pupils are more likely to experience both academic and social success but can also unwittingly create invisible barriers if pupils’ learning needs are not attended to. Do teachers have good knowledge of pupils’ learning needs, and how is this information shared regularly? When staff have good knowledge of pupils’ learning needs, adaptations to teaching and interventions more closely hit the mark. What do pupils know? What do they need to know next? This knowledge and its deployment are a key part of creating psychological safety in the classroom, ultimately leading to pupils feeling that they are ‘good at this.’ Assessment of pupils’ learning needs is a broad domain, and leaders need to be clear that assessment, monitoring, and transitions systems give staff actionable data to support pupils. Here we can briefly explore one fundamental aspect – that of checking for understanding. Barack Rosenshine underlined that more effective teachers had strong checking for understanding protocols, asked lots of questions and evaluated pupil responses. He also outlined the wrong way to check for understanding: teachers calling on volunteers to hear their (usually correct) answers and then assuming that all of the class either understood or had then learned from hearing the volunteers’ responses. When teachers aren’t investigating the difference between ‘I taught it’ and ‘they learned it’ many pupils can feel left behind and unheard. It is too often the case that pupils with a weaker understanding sit through lessons compliant but inhibited and fearing exposure. Pupils who regularly experience this may avoid coming to school. 4. Improve universal provision for all pupils - Do all teachers have a good knowledge of pupils learning needs, and how is this information shared regularly? • Do teachers have the expertise and support to meet these needs in the classroom so that all pupils can learn successfully? • Is professional development effective and structured in a way that supports staff to change and develop their practice? [See the EEF Effective Professional Development guidance report for more information about a balanced approach to effective PD]. • What systems are in place to hear seek and hear pupils’ views about their school and learning experiences, and do you use this to help identify potential barriers to pupil learning an engagement?
31 Maturity index for checking for understanding: Labels can get in the way of thinking about learning needs. A child with a diagnosis of autism who is also finding learning challenging might need glasses rather than positioning all his learning needs in relation to his autism. To quote Margaret Mulholland, we need to be experts in our pupils, not labels. SEND diagnoses must not cloud responding to observable, diagnosed learning needs (e.g. they now need to learn their 5x table, they now need support in constructing a cohesive paragraph). Do teachers have the expertise and support to meet pupils’ needs? Does professional development enable teachers to continue to improve? More now than ever, we have descriptions of how to implement and sustain professional development, such as the work of Sam Sims et al. The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of teaching are vast and complex, meaning that teachers’ professional development needs are huge. It is imperative to use time impactfully. Within professional development, teachers should be guided to prioritise key aspects such as reading diagnostics (phonic knowledge, fluency of reading) and the core mathematical concepts outlined in the DfE’s Mathematics Guidance (ready to progress criteria). Backwards planning units of work is helpful in teachers grasping the journey they will take pupils on, and therefore what knowledge to prioritise and check along the way. Professional development should support teachers to avoid the trap of narrowing the curriculum as a result. Assessment tools are not a curriculum, and teachers should be supported to understand this difference. From… Pupils show evidence of learning (e.g. mini whiteboards, utterances) but there is too much information for the teacher to process or action Teacher takes responses from the most confident pupils Errors are difficult to respond to Correct answers are met with positivity, giving secret signals that pupils should only speak up when they are certain Misconceptions can be left hanging. Learning as a linear process, covering the curriculum Core concepts and knowledge are covered To… Teacher has clarity over what they are looking for and engineers checking so that this is revealed Teacher uses different means of participation to illicit data which enables responsiveness Errors are seen as valuable and interesting Teacher values thoughtfulness and effort. Contributions are met with emotional evenness Misconceptions are exposed and responded to. Learning as a contingent process Core concepts and knowledge are learned more accurately, rehearsed, discussed, and interrogated
32 TRANSFORMING ATTENDANCE IN CORNWALL What systems are in place to seek and hear pupils’ views? Is this used to help identify potential barriers to pupil learning and engagement? The ‘curse of the expert’ makes it hard to stay conscious of how a novice learner will experience content for the first time. Failing to view our classrooms, learning content or paired talk from the perspective of pupils can mean that there are barriers to engagement of which we are unaware. We may be using words pupils don’t understand. It may be that rather than I do > we do > you do, our pupils will feel that they really get it with I do > we do > we do > we do > you do. It may be something as simple as ‘I can’t see the board.’ How do you ensure that you are successful in your learning? How do you know that you have been successful in your learning? What do you do when you find a task difficult? From… I don’t muck about To… I ask for a better explanation From… I do well in a test I get a good grade I wrote a lot My lessons are fun I get rewards From… I put my hand up and wait for the teacher I get embarrassed To… I understood the teacher’s explanation I checked my answers I used the example the teacher used on the board I asked a friend to check through my work I have asked questions To… I look at the example the teacher has used I use the times table grid to help I ask questions I go back through my book My teacher asks someone to give an explanation about how they got to their answer
33 Without listening to our pupils, teachers may invest a great deal of time in preparing lessons which are ineffective without knowing why learning is failing. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230853009_Teaching_Functions https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/teacherprofessional-development-characteristics https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/Rosenshine.pdf https://teacherhead.com/2021/10/17/check-for-understanding-why-it-matters-and-how-to-doit-redsurrey21/ Teachers and other staff should have a shared understanding of the components of inclusive quality first teaching, specific to their subject and phase. Subject and phase leaders should ensure that their daily practice, and that of the teachers in their teams, is inclusive and high quality for all. There should be memorable, joyful learning experiences in which all learners, particularly the disadvantaged, are expected and encouraged to participate. Activity might include: - Professional development for teachers and other classroom practitioners, focused on assessment of need - Recruiting and keeping specialist teachers. Disadvantaged learners may be disproportionately impacted by a high turnover of staff or difficulties in recruitment, as well as inconsistencies in expectations, relationships, or knowledge of prior learning/experiences All pupils thrive when there is a relentless focus on high quality teaching (and a shared understanding of what this is). The Great Teaching Toolkit may be a resource that supports this work, alongside EEF guidance: https://evidencebased.education/great-teaching-toolkit-cpd/ https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports What more could teachers do to support your learning? From… Make lessons more fun Give you rewards To… Slow down Give clearer explanations Encourage me to ask questions. Tell me to be independent when I haven’t understood Get pupils to explain how they got their answer. Not sit me by my friends
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