Attendance Hub
On Wednesday 12th November, The Virtual School hosted a conference on the importance of school attendance for Foster Carers and Social Workers.
Headlines:
What is Persistent Absence? 90% attendance at the end of the year means a student has missed a total of a month out of school.
Students with attendance below 50% are known as having “Severe Absence”
What is the leading cause of absence?
- Illness - The leading cause of absence. Most of these students will recover, and attendance will improve. (For some students, we know health is an ongoing concern and we will adjust individual attendance expectations accordingly.)
- Suspensions
- Social and Emotional Factors/Placement Moves - Absence due to SEMH. This shows the importance of mental health support for our young people and its role in improving education outcomes. Absences due to placement moves are often due to students being unable to attend school due to distance or disruption and can lead to a school move which also impacts on attendance.
- Poor Attendance Prior to Entry to Care - Students coming into care with an established pattern of low attendance can find it difficult to maintain regular high levels of attendance and may need additional support with this.
School Moves - While the majority of school moves this academic year have been for primary school age children, over a quarter of moves have been for students in Key Stage 4, during the GCSE curriculum and 13% have been for students in their final year of GCSE studies.
We know from the research data, that these students in Key Stage 4 are at risk of reducing their attainment at GCSE by 5 GCSE Grades.
Strategies for Reducing Suspensions
Key Adult Support - Having a key adult in school can help reduce the risk of students being suspended from school and support them successfully into school following suspensions. A key adult should be a consistent presence within school that the young person is able to build a positive relationship with and is able to offer emotional support and co-regulation.
Alternative Educational Provision- Alternative learning settings can reduce suspension rates
by catering to individual student needs flexibly while preparing students to return to mainstream schooling.
Therapeutic Support e.g. Play Therapy, Lego Therapy etc
Part-Time Timetables -These should be monitored and be regularly reviewed with a plan to return to full time education as soon as possible.