Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence

Question 1

Introduction

Accepted Answer

In this short report, we look at different aspects of attendance and how schools tackle the challenges they face.

Schools that improve attendance from a low baseline, maintain high levels of attendance and minimise persistent absence all have different starting points and take slightly different approaches. However, these approaches tend to have a number of features in common. They can best be summarised as ‘Listen, understand, empathise and support – but do not tolerate’.

In these schools, leaders:

have high expectations for every pupil’s attendance at school
communicate these expectations clearly, strongly and consistently to parents and to pupils
set expectations about attendance from the outset – from Nursery onwards
explain to parents and pupils why good attendance is important and how it helps pupils to achieve
listen to parents carefully to find out why their children are not attending well enough so that they can act accordingly
challenge parents who do not make sure that their children attend, but also offer support where needed
have the right people in place to have these conversations with parents
ensure that attendance is always recorded accurately
systematically analyse attendance information so that they can see patterns and trends
use this analysis to target their actions, both for individuals and at a whole-school level
make sure that attendance is ‘everyone’s business’ in school
understand that good attendance does not happen in isolation – there is an interrelationship between attendance and the quality of the school’s curriculum, ethos, behaviour and inclusivity
do not stop pushing for whole-school improvement once attendance reaches the national average
see the process of securing good attendance for all pupils as an ongoing process, never something that is ‘finished’

Many schools are, of course, experiencing higher-than-average absences because some pupils have COVID-19. Schools also continue to face challenges in tackling absence that is indirectly related to the pandemic, such as parents’ and pupils’ anxieties. They also face some newer challenges such as parents not understanding the latest rules about isolation, being generally cautious or taking holidays now that they are able to.

However, inspection evidence and discussions with leaders indicate that schools that usually tackle absence well are continuing to do so. Leaders are using the same strategies that they usually do, showing the same persistence and conveying the same high expectations. At the same time, they are asking themselves their usual questions about what, if anything, they need to do differently to remove barriers to pupils’ attendance, and are systematically acting to do just that.

Question 2

The challenges in autumn 2021

Accepted Answer

Continuing challenges

A Department for Education survey of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) in the summer term 2021 found that around a fifth of all the schools inspected that term were experiencing more attendance issues than they would normally see. At that time, the 3 most common reasons for absence were that:

pupils were anxious
pupils or parents had specific health needs, including those identified at that time as clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable
pupils had disengaged from education during the pandemic

A second survey of HMI was carried out in the autumn term 2021 (see Annex A). COVID-related challenges were clearly continuing for schools. For example, sometimes parents themselves had COVID-19 and could not bring their children to school, particularly if they were lone parents. The survey found that the most common reason for higher-than-normal absences was pupils having COVID-19. However, this was closely followed by parents’ anxiety, then pupils’ own anxiety.

Pupils’ anxieties are often not related directly to school but to their various experiences since the pandemic began. Sources of anxiety for pupils of different ages include:

family members being ill or pupils’ concern that this might happen
seeing parents under more stress than usual
experiencing domestic violence
experiencing financial hardship

Older pupils worry about whether their Year 11 examinations might be cancelled and how this might affect their future. Some worry about not being able to come to school if there is another national lockdown. More time spent online over the successive national lockdowns has fuelled social anxiety for some. One secondary school leader described how pupils were much more immersed in social media than they ever had been before, and said that the resulting breakdowns in friendships were ‘through the roof’. Although many of these concerns are not directly related to school, they can affect pupils’ mental health and then their attendance suffers accordingly.

Sometimes a particular event or news item can raise anxiety levels further. One leader, for example, described how primary-age pupils were very upset by ‘anti-vaxxer’ protests outside the school, and a great deal of work had to go into alleviating their concerns. Another noted the ‘media-fuelled’ reactions from families, describing how some families were quickly affected by reports of rising COVID-19 rates in their local area. They then tended to keep their children off school as a result.

New challenges

Schools have found that some new challenges have emerged since the start of the autumn term 2021. These include:

higher-than-usual numbers of pupils with non-COVID-related illnesses
families that went to red-list countries in the summer to visit family then did not return at the start of term because of the cost of isolating in hotels, or could not afford the flights back
families who say that they have not had a holiday for a long time, so take a holiday, or a previously cancelled holiday, in term time (though some schools are reporting fewer than normal term-time holidays)
parents keeping children home unnecessarily because of proximity to COVID – a relative or another child in a separate class testing positive, for example – and finding it hard to move on from the ‘bubble–isolation mentality’
families isolating before a family event, such as a wedding or a holiday
pupils attending sporadically because of disaffection following the national lockdowns

Leaders also described situations where ‘possible COVID’ appears to be used as an excuse by some families whose children are usually poor attenders. In these situations, leaders say that they strongly encourage the family to either take the child for a test at a test centre promptly or get one online if this is impossible. Leaders stated that this does not always happen, meaning that the pupil then stays away from school for 10 days. Some parents think that remote education can be provided for non-COVID-related circumstances, such as being on holiday, which leaders have to explain is not the case.

It appears that the provision of remote education during national lockdowns has negatively affected some pupils’ perceptions of the need to be in school, particularly in secondary schools. There is a sense from some pupils, as one leader explained, that ‘you weren’t fussed when we weren’t in school all that time in lockdown and we did our work at home, so why does it matter so much now?’ Some schools have continued to make all lessons available online as a matter of course so that they are easy to access for pupils who are ill, but some pupils say that they would rather work at home and do not understand why they cannot just access this work remotely. Where one pupil has COVID-19 and is receiving remote education, this can affect other pupils’ perceptions: ‘My mate’s home, learning online, so the provision must be there, so why can’t I have it too?’, as one leader put it. Parents quickly learn when another pupil in their child’s class is isolating, so can take this view too.

Schools continue to report increased requests from parents for elective home education, as do local authorities. While these may not be as high as they were at the peak of the pandemic, they continue to be higher than usual in some schools. School leaders talked about working closely with parents to explain the implications fully, giving them every chance to change their minds if this was not an informed choice or if the school thought this would not be suitable for the pupil. There is a sense that some parents think that because their children seemed to learn reasonably well through remote education during the pandemic, that this will be straightforward to continue. One leader, for example, explained how the school had ‘sold’ to parents the benefits of learning using the Oak Academy platform in order to get them to commit to this during the national lockdown. Parents saw the benefits of this and a few now think that this is enough for their children, not necessarily understanding the essential role that staff had played in delivering the materials and helping pupils to learn from them.

The survey of HMI in the autumn term 2021 found that those responsible for governance were not consistently setting a clear direction for leaders on promoting attendance and challenging absence. Only around a quarter of inspectors identified that in most or all of their inspections, those responsible for governance had done this.

Removing barriers

Of course, COVID-19 rates vary considerably from one area to another, which is having an impact on overall attendance in different schools across the country. In some primary schools in particular, attendance is at least as high as it was before the pandemic; others are greatly affected by COVID cases. But regardless of overall attendance figures, some schools are now seeing pupils who were previously poor attenders attending well. Leaders attribute this to the work that they did with vulnerable pupils during the national lockdowns. Some of these pupils attended school when schools were closed to most. During this time, leaders and staff were able to work more intensively than usual with pupils individually and in smaller groups. This led to some ‘poor patterns of attendance being cracked’. Many families seem just to want their children to be back at school, following such long periods of time at home.

In schools that are systematically removing barriers to attendance, pupils’ anxieties are not dismissed but are sensitively analysed – is this a mental health issue that needs serious action, for example, or a worry that can be alleviated by some discussion or adjustments? These schools also recognise parental anxieties but sensitively challenge them, for example leaders explain to parents all the steps they continue to take to mitigate the risk of COVID spreading in school. In one secondary school, for example, pupils were very concerned about being vaccinated, and take-up rates in the community were also low. Anxiety levels were high as a result. Leaders decided to teach all pupils about the role vaccination has played in public health over time, through their personal, social and health education lessons. This had a positive effect both on vaccination take-up rates among pupils and on them feeling less worried about the issue.

It is clear, from inspection evidence and talking to leaders, that how well schools are dealing with these challenges now is related to the approach, systems and structures that schools already had in place. Where attendance is markedly low, some of this is related to situations pre-pandemic, for example where leaders have not tackled a culture of poor attendance in the past nor had systems in place to monitor what was going on. On occasion, leaders have also held back from challenging pupils and parents about poor attendance in the autumn term. Leaders who have improved attendance in the past, kept levels of attendance high and reduced persistent absence are applying the same principle of ‘listen, understand, empathise and support – but do not tolerate’ now as they were before the pandemic.

Question 3

Securing good attendance

Accepted Answer

Communicating expectations to parents

Communication with parents about the importance of attendance is crucial. For this communication to work effectively, leaders and other staff need to have built positive working relationships with parents, so that parents trust them. At the same time, these relationships need to be built on honesty, so that parents accept tough messages about attendance when they need to. We heard from school leaders about the importance of ‘overt messaging’, ‘straight talking’ and ‘spelling it out’. We see the effectiveness of this approach time and time again in our inspections.

Leaders who are successful in improving attendance and maintaining high levels of attendance over time have expectations are high for all pupils. They make it clear to parents that parents are responsible for ensuring that their children attend school: ‘Sometimes it’s about making sure parents understand it’s the child’s right to attend, not their right to keep their child at home’. They challenge parents who do not make sure that their children attend but also offer support where needed. Expectations are also communicated as soon as the child joins the school. Leaders of successful schools with nurseries, for example, explained that once the child has a place, they are expected to attend. Parents are helped, where necessary, to establish good attendance routines, and challenged if their child is not in school.

Leaders who do this well also challenge parents’ misconceptions about what ‘good’ attendance looks like. They tell parents why they are not going to authorise a holiday in term time. They talk openly to parents about the relationship between attendance and achievement. Often, they exemplify what attendance percentages really mean in terms of learning that the pupil will miss out on – how many phonics sessions or GCSE science lessons will be missed, for example.

Tenacity is very important when schools are trying to improve attendance. As one leader put it: ‘It’s about parents knowing that we are not going to let go’. Leaders who have to undo a legacy of poor attendance often have to ‘ride the storm’ before some parents accept the new expectations. Working closely with a family to improve attendance can be seen as ‘a personal attack’. As one headteacher said, ‘We upset a lot of parents early on’. Parents can become upset and angry when they receive a letter to say their child’s attendance is not as good as it should be, for example – particularly if this is the first time anyone has ever told them this. When parents are challenged about taking unauthorised holidays in term time because someone has seen their social media posts so know the child is not ill, they can be defensive.

Yet leaders who have taken their schools through this process of raising expectations describe a point where the culture changes. At this point, parents’ pride means that they want to receive a congratulatory letter, for example, rather than one saying that attendance is not good enough. Most families accept that term-time holidays are not going to be authorised. The emphasis shifts to concentrating on celebrating good attendance, improvements in attendance and achievement.

Communicating expectations to pupils

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’. This came through strongly in our discussions with leaders and in inspection evidence.

Leaders emphasised the importance of the leadership team having a positive ‘presence’ in school. This meant different things to different people, but in all cases the common element was communicating to pupils that leaders wanted them to be in school – setting the tone – as well as communicating high expectations. Many talked about the start to the day – the importance of leaders being out in the playground or at the front of the school to greet pupils. Some secondary leaders noted how important it is 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’.

Some leaders talked about noticing when a pupil who was often absent was there – greeting them and mentioning something positive about the following day: ‘It’s our sticker club tomorrow, remember, looking forward to seeing you there’. In one secondary school, attendance data is shared with the whole senior team, so anyone in the team can praise a pupil for their improved attendance, or comment on a concern as appropriate.

Some leaders set great store by helping the pupils to understand why attendance at school is important. One secondary leader noted that pupils will not necessarily make the link between attendance, achievement and future plans. In this school, leaders explained, overt links are made to the importance of attendance when teaching pupils about careers and about being a good citizen, for example.

Attendance rewards are part of many schools’ strategies for communicating the importance of good attendance to pupils, particularly in primary schools and for younger secondary-age pupils. However, no leaders saw this as the most important part of their approach.

Finding out what the problem is

This communication is a 2-way process. It is clear that leaders who have succeeded in raising attendance levels listen to parents properly and ask the right questions in order to find out why their children are not attending well enough. One leader described this as ‘remembering that there are families behind those attendance figures’.

The reasons for non-attendance can be many and varied. For example, sometimes:

parents of young children (in Nursery and Reception) do not think it is important for them to attend regularly at that age
parents did not have a good experience of school themselves and do not see the importance of attendance
attendance data is misunderstood by parents – while 90% may be good as a mark in a test, in attendance terms it means one day a fortnight being missed
basic routines are not in place at home, leading to lateness, which can lead to non-attendance through embarrassment or frustration
parents cannot get their secondary-age children to come to school, even though they understand the importance of attendance
older pupils’ non-attendance is affecting their younger siblings – the whole family stops attending
the pupil is a young carer
there are financial barriers, for example parents being unable to afford transport to school or school uniform
pupils are anxious about attending school
parents feel generally anxious around other people, or have fallen out with other parents, sometimes on social media, and do not want to encounter them while bringing their child to school

By listening, sometimes problems can be solved easily. 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 9.30 than to take the whole day off’. Once the parents had stopped keeping their children off for the whole day, then the issue of lateness could be addressed. In another school, a parent was so anxious about waiting with other parents in the playground that she had stopped bringing her children to school. The headteacher allowed the parent to drive into the car park to drop her child off – the problem, in the short term at least, was solved.

Equally, leaders who have got this right listen to pupils in order to find out why they are not attending well. Although the issues are sometimes complex, a simple action can go at least part of the way to solving the problem. One leader, for example, asked a pupil why they were not coming to school. They discovered that the family was not waking up in the morning, and when they did wake up, it was ‘too late’ to bring the child to school. The leader bought the pupil an alarm clock, to enable them to get up on time and wake up their parents. Many schools use pupil premium funding or help families to claim the benefits to which they are entitled. Some schools find that their breakfast clubs make a great deal of difference to pupils and their families, providing a safe and relaxed start to the day and a meal. And attendance issues can, of course, indicate safeguarding issues, where decisive action needs to be taken.

In secondary schools, it can be more complicated to find out what the problems are and to notice smaller issues before they become larger ones. Comprehensive pastoral support, where staff have roles dedicated to pupils’ well-being, including attendance, is often a key factor in improving attendance.

Having ‘the right people’ in place

Leaders emphasise the importance of identifying ‘the right people’ to have conversations with parents about attendance, including when issues start to emerge. For example, in primary schools, sometimes the class teacher or teaching assistant may be the most suitable person to have a ‘quiet word’ with parents about attendance when they are bringing their child to school in the morning. This can be a less threatening and therefore more productive conversation than ‘being called into the head’s office’.

In secondary schools, depending on how they operate, this point of contact may be the form tutor, head of year or head of house. One leader emphasised the importance of giving staff ‘really strong professional development’ to enable them to have ‘the courageous conversations’ about attendance that may quickly become challenging. Unless the conversation is ‘incisive enough’, it is unlikely that the right questions will be asked in order to work out what the barriers are.

The concept of a ‘constant person’ to work with a family once attendance issues become more serious was mentioned a number of times by leaders. This person may not be a teaching member of staff – indeed, leaders talked about the valuable skills and knowledge brought to this role by staff who have come from social work, police, mentoring or other backgrounds.

Noticing patterns

All schools record pupils’ attendance, but not all use this information well to target their actions. Systematic analysis of attendance information is very important. Where leaders systematically analyse attendance information, they can notice patterns, for example as one leader said, ‘you realise that they’ve missed the past 4 Mondays’. This is particularly important in secondary schools, where pupils do not spend the whole time with one class teacher and patterns can be easily missed, but it is important in all schools.

Absence patterns can be as simple as the pupil missing a week because they are ill, and attending well the rest of the time, or much more complex. When they are less easily explained, close analysis allows leaders to ask the right questions. Is the absence each Monday related to what happens at home at the weekend, for example? Is it because the pupil has a lesson that they really do not like on that day? Is weekend use of social media a factor? As one leader put it, ‘acting swiftly when things start to slide’ is crucial and can prevent attendance issues for individuals becoming more embedded. This includes, as another put it, ‘noticing the odd days off’ and doing something about it. Moreover, where schools do this well, they consider attendance issues alongside other factors, such as what bullying or behaviour records show.

The importance of ambition

Many schools that are successful in securing high levels of attendance adopt a similar approach to attendance as they do to safeguarding. They make it ‘everyone’s business, all the time’. Leaders of schools where attendance had previously been too low had challenged their staff to understand that noticing absence, following this up and promoting good attendance are ‘everyone’s job’. One leader of a secondary school, for example, described how ‘the receptionist, the lunchtime supervisor, the person out on duty – they’ll all talk to pupils about the importance of good attendance’.

In schools with high expectations for attendance, leaders seem to see it as ‘the bedrock of all that the school does’, as one put it. A high level of attendance, for all pupils, is part of the school’s overall ambition. These leaders are clear that if pupils are not in school, they cannot be learning, however good the curriculum is or the opportunities for personal development are. One leader explained how they had worked with staff to change thinking about the interrelationship between attendance and achievement from ‘this child is not achieving because they are not attending’ to ‘what do we need to do to improve their attendance so that they can achieve?’

Those leaders who have improved attendance have seldom focused on attendance in isolation. Leaders emphasised the importance of making school a safe place where pupils really want to be, with the right ethos, a curriculum worth studying and lessons that are worth attending. Making sure that pupils feel that learning is worthwhile is important. A primary school leader noted 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 curriculum and overall provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are important so that these pupils – too many of whom often have poor attendance – have a positive experience of school. Many leaders in these schools have also worked on behaviour in lessons, anti-bullying measures and the wider school culture as part of this. As one primary school leader put it: ‘Kids should feel safe and happy when they come to school’.

One leader described how in their school, which is in an area of high deprivation, celebrating pupils’ successes with both the pupils themselves and with the parents was a key part of improving attendance. Overtly demonstrating to parents that the children are learning and want to come to school had a positive impact. Once the pupils in this school really wanted to be there, they started to put pressure on their parents to take them each day. At the same time, some leaders had also worked on breaking down preconceptions about education, for example through supportive workshops for parents.

Attendance in these schools becomes much broader than just being in school – it is also about being punctual to school, being present in all lessons, all year groups having high attendance, including the sixth form, and being part of clubs and enrichment activities. So, when leaders think about attendance, they are thinking about much more than simply being present in school, important though that is. It is also about all pupils attending, including, and often especially, those who are disadvantaged, those who have SEND and those who attend some alternative provision.

The role of governors

How well those responsible for governance consider attendance practices and challenge attendance figures varies widely. It is not uncommon for governors to look only at the overall attendance figure for a school to consider where this sits in relation to national averages. But that figure can disguise variations in the attendance of groups, and sometimes real issues. Some leaders who have improved attendance in their schools spoke about how they worked with their governing body to change mindsets and raise expectations. Some had had to move governors away from what one leader described as a ‘well, what can you expect here?’ attitude to one of high expectations and challenge.

This shared understanding of the importance of attendance for all can be particularly important when it comes to taking a firm stance against families taking holidays during term time. Where leaders are trying to change ingrained local patterns of absence, for example pupils always taking time off related to seaside seasonal work or during harvest, governors can be influential, especially if they are members of the local community.

Weaknesses in schools’ practices

It does not always follow that schools that are judged to be inadequate have poor attendance or weak processes for promoting or monitoring attendance. In some schools, particularly primary schools, pupils still attend well, even if they are not getting an adequate quality of education. But there are inadequate schools where weak systems to shape, monitor and evaluate the school’s work in general are also evident in their work around attendance. Common factors include:

an inaccurate recording of attendance, sometimes including inaccurate coding of absence
a lack of analysis leading to lack of ability to see patterns – sometimes an over-reliance on a ‘knowing all pupils as individuals’ approach instead; sometimes no analysis at all
a lack of a coherent strategy – the school is doing different things to try to improve attendance but without being clear how everything ties together and what it is seeking to achieve
using part-time timetables, usually for pupils with SEND or behavioural difficulties, which are not well planned, not tracked and/or not time-limited
a lack of urgency about when to intervene or challenge, for example not contacting parents about attendance concerns until attendance drops below 90%
individual staff working hard to try to improve pupils’ attendance but with negligible impact because of some of the factors above

Question 4

Tackling persistent absence

Accepted Answer

Getting beneath the surface

Schools that tackle persistent absence successfully tend to have all the basics in place to promote good attendance generally. They are then really analytical about what is stopping individuals from attending. Particularly where persistent absence appears to be intransigent, there are often complex factors at play. These factors can be related to family circumstances, and often involve some of the most vulnerable pupils. As one leader put it: ‘It’s about working out what is needed to break down the barriers’. The most effective schools go out of their way to make sure that they notice the pupils who are often not there and persist with them. ‘Hard to reach’ families become reconceptualised as ‘too easy to ignore’, and therefore the ones who need the most attention.

Primary and secondary school leaders working together can be powerful in finding out why issues are arising when pupils from the same family have poor attendance. Passing on key information when pupils move from one school to the next is important too when attendance is an issue. Leaders in the receiving school need to know, for example, what the issue was, what the patterns were, what solutions had worked at the feeder school and what had failed.

Working with each individual

The attention that some schools give to detail, and the lengths they go to to analyse the barriers, is striking. Many schools had examples of how they had successfully adapted approaches for individuals, which have led to huge improvements in attendance. One school, for example, let a pupil spend time in school once the school was closed for the day, to overcome her anxiety about being in the building. Another had a staff member meet the pupil in the morning with the school dog. Once the pupil had walked the dog for a short while, they felt able to come in.

Schools have given families a wake-up phone call every day, given pupils special responsibilities in school to motivate them to be there, arranged transport and made home visits. They have also stepped back from assuming that ‘the basics’ are in place. For example, when needed, staff have taught pupils how to have routines in place in the morning – alarm set, shoes ready, bag packed – rather than assuming that they know what a good routine looks like. There is, of course, a balance to be found so that parents do not come to rely too much on the intensive support from the school.

Schools that work well with persistently absent pupils recognise the small improvements that pupils make. For example, if a pupil who is seldom in school is not there on Monday but is present on Tuesday, or arrives but is late, staff praise the success. But at the same time, they convey what needs to happen next. Expectations are not lowered but are broken down to become more achievable.

When pupils come back to school after absence, particularly if they have been away for a long time, it is important that this return is carefully managed. Without this, they will go back into lessons where they will feel, and be, very behind in their learning. The right support being put in place, including to help the pupil catch up where practical, can make or break the return to school.

The issues that lead to deeply ingrained patterns of persistent absence are often much wider than the school alone can deal with. Working with other professionals and agencies, such as social care, local authority attendance officers and virtual school headteachers, then becomes crucial.

Question 5

Notes

Accepted Answer

We have based this report on evidence from the following sources:

focus groups with HMI
focus groups with primary school leaders (headteachers and trust chief executive officers)
conversations with secondary school leaders
inspection evidence from schools with high deprivation and with persistent low absence rates over time, inspected under the education inspection framework (mainly in the autumn term)
inspection evidence from schools that have been judged to be inadequate in the autumn term
survey of schools HMI about challenges in the autumn term

Question 6

Annex A: HMI survey question – autumn term 2021

Accepted Answer

How often have you heard from leaders that the following are contributory factors to higher-than-normal absences this term?

^{Based on 69 responses

COVID-19 cases – staff: for example, class or school closures

COVID-19 cases – parents: for example, not being able to bring children in

Headteachers feeling uncertain/unhappy about challenging absence: for example, in the light of experiences of COVID-19 in the school community

Confusing or conflicting advice on who should be in school and when: for example, around isolation

Lack of support from external services: for example, education welfare officer

Holidays in term time: for example, when travel restrictions are lifted/altered}

Response data in accessible table format