100% Attendance Policies!

[MummyMadness03]

Hey all!

I am looking to gain your experiences of how your children's school manage and incentivise attendance.

My DD has a chronic health issue which sadly means numerous trips to hospital during school hours (which can't be avoided, despite trying!). Due to this, she doesn't meet the 100% attendance set by the school and misses out of the end of term treats.

I am looking to gain a picture of other stories similar to mine across the Country before battling the issue further....

I am very sceptical about the research on attendance as someone up thread says. I missed half a year of school at one point myself - serious chronic condition and on medical advice only attended in the afternoon for a year. School were very supportive and I still managed top tables etc. Got decent end grades in secondary.

I have yet to see anything convincingly showing that normal levels of absence impact significantly for healthy pupils with stable home lives.

Another reason I am sceptical is that some of my dc attend a non selective independent school with fairly high percentages of SPLD among the children. They seem to take a relatively relaxed attitude to attendance yet still have high grades.

I hate the certificates.

If you leave aside the question of whether high attendance causes higher grades (I accept there is a correlation, but causality isn't the same thing at all), is there actually any research on what actions a school can take to improve attendance? I very much doubt that certificates have a measurable impact on attendance.

At my dd's school there are certificates for those with 100% attendance but they are given out with minimal fuss at the end of term assembly. Pretty much all the children get certificates for something so it isn't a big deal to those who missed out. No special treats and literally no mention of it at any other time. Children are often out of school for family holidays etc. We're in Scotland though so I'm not sure if the policies are more relaxed up here.

I think the schools that make a big deal about it are massively in the wrong.

Schools find themselves in a difficult position over this.

I used to work in a school with a high percentage of disadvantaged children, and specifically a large proportion of Gypsy / Roma / Traveller children.

When preparing for an Ofsted inspection we knew to be due, we self[-assessed against the Ofsted criteria, as schools are required to. The criterion that attendance fell under was a limiting judgement - ie if we scored very low on that, then our overall level would be limited to our judgement for the criterion that included attendance (if that makes sense - like safeguarding: fail safeguarding, fail Ofsted, however good you are elsewhere). Our self assessment said - as the final report did - that teaching and learning were good, and behaviour was outstanding, but because our attendance percentage was low (because of the nature of our pupils), we would have ended up in special measures.

So we instituted all kinds of measures both to improve attendance, and to overtly evidence that we were doing everything that we possibly could to improve attendance. Masses of things - routines for chasing up absentees / those who were late, employing a specific TA to liaise with the GRT site, even in 1 family's case going down the legal route. Yes, and the dreaded 100% attendance certificates - awarded every half term, because we felt that short term bursts rather than a 'lost it by the second week of the year' - as well.

Our attendance did go up, and in the years since the efforts have continued, but not enough in the timeframe I'm talking about to get over the threshold for Ofsted. However, the inspector reviewed the evidence, and decided that the school had done everything it possibly could to improve the attendance. Instead of special measures, gave the school a good, which made a MASSIVE difference to the school in terms of numbers of local families choosing it, long term viability etc etc.

Attendance is high stakes for schools, because as far as I know the criterion including it is still a limiting judgement for Ofsted. It's like many things for schools - don't necessarily blame the school for e.g. SATs pressure, attendance certificates, look at the system (and the weight we attach to Ofsted grades when choosing and judging schools) that offers incentives, sometimes perverse ones, for them to behave int hat way.

(I do, by the way, think that the implementation of 100% attendance can be done much better in many cases. For example, I see no reason why things like music exams should affect it, given the way such things are coded in the registers, and for those with chronic illnesses or disabilities, then it should be done on an 'attendance at sessions that they could attend' basis. But i do see why schools - some schools in particular - HAVE to go down the route of overt reward / recognition of attendance)

How are they any different to rewarding exam grades?

There are pupils I teach that will never get a grade let alone a C. They will still get a page full of U grades on exam results day. This isn't their fault, they have SEN. How is rewarding "being healthy" any different?

Anecdotally rewarding 100% attendance in our school has improved attendance overall. As a PP said, ofsted look at attendance and can fail a school if they deem it too low.

Our reward trips require above 95% attendance and a good report on progress and effort. Maybe this would be a good compromise for other schools.

Some children (frequently disadvantaged) have consistently appalling attendance and need to be motivated to attend school as there are already deep barriers to their leaning embedded into their lives

IME these children are unlikely to be the ones that benefit from 100% attendance certificates.

And let's face it, if your bar is 100% you've lost your motivating factor after the first half day of absence you have. There's nothing to lose then.

NoraDora,s school system sounds great.

To get better attendance for my ds, we do work really hard on regular day to day basis. Strict hygiene at home, carry hand gel/wipes all the time, slight sniffles he has to take it easy and no ex-cul activities or going to the park, never get wet in rain(had to work with school so he can stay inside rather than go out in rain for breaks), take vitamins and immune boosting supplement(expensive!), eat loads of veggies, if I/dh have some sniffles, we wear mask in the house so we don't pass it to ds, etc, etc.

I just wondered people with healthy children who gets ill do what we do to prevent them getting ill in the first place.

A school I worked in (many disadvantaged children) had a good policy - they had a scale of bronze, silver, and gold attendance. There were rewards for each, from a school film afternoon, trip out somewhere close by and trip to the seaside ( a big day out).
I have suggested a similar reward system at my children's' school, but no change so far. I really think this would ensure there was still something to work for and children don't just give up trying once they have a day off and automatically lose out on the 100% award.

Brollsdolls, that sounds really good. I do also think that working in short bursts - at most a half term at a time - keeps motivation up as you 'restart' every 7 weeks or so.

Yes I agree. I am going to make the suggestion again when the school asks for our opinions on questionnaire next term.

llhj Thu 12-Jan-17 11:50:57

"Some children (frequently disadvantaged) have consistently appalling attendance and need to be motivated to attend school as there are already deep barriers to their leaning embedded into their lives. "

The difficulty with a child with a chronic disorder is not only that it can be hard to motivate them to attend school, but that it can be even harder (and more necessary) to motivate them to be absent from school in order to attend painful or exhausting treatment.

It hardly makes it easier if they know that their attendance at physio will make them the subject of disapproval at school. How do you sell this to your child: "I am taking you to a place where you will be bashed about and be in even more pain when you next get back to school- and by the way, when you do, the head and the teachers will be cross with us. But it may just be that in years to come- not that I can promise you this- you will be in less pain if you will only ignore the teachers and do as I tell you now"?

Dd will not win an attendance award for the foreseeable future, our choice as we take her out of school for holidays. She is almost 5 and will have missed 16 days at least by the end of the year, not taking into account any illness she may have. We will continue to do this for at least the next few years.

We are fortunate in that our head thinks holidays can be as important as school learning so although they obviously aren't authorised we are not fined.

However, I do think that allowances should be made for illness, particularly children with chronic problems who are never going to be at school 100%.

I honestly feel like we can't do right for doing wrong. It feels impossible to 'please' parents and 'please' management and ofsted.

I wish the attendance of children with chronic illness didn't count. But it isn't that simple. I've got children with chronic illness with chronically poor attendance which is not due to their illness. I've got children with chronic illness (some with multiple conditions) who attend 100%. I've got some that attend 100% whilst we are on their case and as soon as we back off, they slip into old habits. I've got children with EHCPs who aren't making expected progress, not due to their SEN or our provision, but because of poor attendance.

It is so difficult! And who is held accountable for their poor attendance? Us. And who is accountable if they don't make expected progress or do as well in exams? Us.
I wish targets were lower and there was more wriggle room, but currently that isn't how it is.

In industry goals have to be realistic and under the control of the person being measured.

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

if that's what you expect from education, get yourself out of the insane car crash that is the uk education system asap!

is there actually any research on what actions a school can take to improve attendance? I very much doubt that certificates have a measurable impact on attendance.

you are completely missing the point, no body gives a stuff whether they do or they don't, only that ofsted can be shown them.

That sentence really encapsulates all that is wrong with the system.

Pointless targets

absolutely

Ditsyprint40 Fri 13-Jan-17 18:35:55

"I wish the attendance of children with chronic illness didn't count. But it isn't that simple. I've got children with chronic illness with chronically poor attendance which is not due to their illness."

How would you count school refusal due to school's unempathetic attitude towards chronic illness? School refusal due to fear that if condition worsens during the day, the school will refuse to believe it/not pay attention/not get you help? Suicide attempt due to having been told once too often by the school that someone who is unable to maintain expected attendance levels cannot expect to cope in the grown-up world?

That would count as unauthorised absence

I know it would in the records, user: I was wondering whether Ditsy would count is as "not due to the illness".

I guess it its not due to the illness, but it is related? What is the medical condition and Is there a care plan? Have you met with school nurse or have any professionals provided you with evidence or 'instructions' for the school?

I was referring to a few cases I've got at the moment where they're just not bothering, and it's really frustrating as I'd been authorising the absences. Would give more detail but it would be outing.

Ditsyprint40 Sat 14-Jan-17 08:10:14
"I guess it its not due to the illness, but it is related? What is the medical condition and Is there a care plan? Have you met with school nurse or have any professionals provided you with evidence or 'instructions' for the school?"

In our case (this is a few years ago now, thankfully), the condition was Ehlers Danlos: dd was diagnosed and seen by a range of medical specialists both locally and at a specialist clinic elsewhere- in each case, we made sure the paperwork was sent to the school. Dd's GP wrote to the school and asked them to show understanding; the LA school nurse wrote to the school; the consultant even came into the school to explain how dd's condition affected her ability to cope at school.

We were still told repeatedly that the situation was unacceptable and threatened with fines, we were reported to SS, and the EWO kept coming round lecturing us on the importance of education. Despite asking again and again, the only "care plan" the school would agree to was that dd must achieve the Ofsted-expected attendance. They put her down as "unauthorised absence" when she was being treated in hospital (and we had, as usual, sent them the paperwork).

After the consultant had given her talk about why dd's condition causes chronic pain and disability and invited the meeting to put any questions, the only question was from school management was not "how can we support her?" but "how can we know that she is really in pain?"

The headteacher's explanation to me over the phone was "yes, we understand that corydd is ill but you can't expect us to be happy about it "

Dd later went to a very supportive secondary, but by that time the damage was done: if she felt any pain in the morning she would go into a fullblown panic attack and end up with muscle spasms because she could not get away from the thought that "they won't believe me".

That's awfully! Sorry you had a really terrible experience, that should never happen - as soon as we have any advice/documentation from medical professionals we have to follow it... even in the odd case (such as suspected fabricated induced illness) where it seems suspicious, medical advice still has to be followed!

*awful