Agenda item

The Committee considered a report from the Manager, Additional Educational Needs regarding attendance data for schools/academies for the school years 2009-10 to 2011-12 and the work being undertaken by the Local Authority to support attendance in maintained schools and academies in the London Borough of Havering.

The Committee noted that the Government was placing high importance currently to improving school attendance and reducing the number of children with high levels of absences from schools/academies. The Committee also had regard to information concerning the overall rates of attendance and the rates of “persistent absence” for schools/ academies in the borough for the three school years from 2009-10 to 2011-12, providing comparisons with figures both national and for outer London boroughs.

The report detailed the strategies currently employed by the Local Authority to improve levels of school attendance and reduce the level of absences at schools within the borough. It further explained the loss of funding to the Local Authority as a result of schools converting to academy status and the changing relationship between the Local Authority and academies in terms of the services provided. Despite the changing nature of this relationship the report highlighted the need for the Local Authority to continue to monitor overall levels of school attendance and the rates of persistent absence for both maintained schools and academies in the borough.   

The Committee noted the Government had adopted all of the recommendations made by Charlie Taylor, the Government’s expert adviser on behaviour, in his report “Improving School Attendance” published in April 2012. The focus was on improving attendance results from the evidence which showed that children with poor attendance were unlikely to succeed academically and they were more likely than not to be in education, employment or training (NEET) when they leave school.

There was also an established link between poor school attendance at school and lower academic achievement. Of pupils who missed more than 50% of school only 3% managed to achieve 5 or more GCSE’s at grades A*-C including Maths and English. 73% of pupils who had over 95% attendance achieve 5 or more GCSE’s at grades A*-C.

The Government was particularly concerned about the relatively small number of pupils who were persistently absent from school. As a consequence it lowered the threshold for pupils to be considered to be “persistently absent” from school from 20% to 15% in September 2011. This change was intended to ensure that pupils with attendance issues were identified earlier.

As children move up through the school system the number of children who are persistently absent grows. By the time children have reached their mid-teens it would often become more difficult for schools to get these children to attend. Evidence suggested that children with low attendance in the early years of education were more likely to come from the poorest backgrounds. As a consequence the government was seeking to increase the emphasis on improving the attendance of vulnerable pupils in primary schools. Non-attendance at school, for whatever reason, was an important issue that parents, schools and the Local needed to take seriously and address effectively.

The Committee noted that School staff, both teaching and non-teaching, were in the front line of the drive to improve attendance. While Local Authority staff could make a valuable contribution, teachers and others who worked in schools were in daily contact with pupils and could forge effective links with parents at a local level. It was essential that the promotion of good attendance was recognised at every school.  

Schools/ academies had been supported to improve their attendance levels by:

·         Having in place a whole school approach to ensuring good attendance, and where necessary to improve it through data analysis and prioritisation.

·         Identifying a designated member of the Senior Leadership Team to have responsibility for all attendance matters and to initiate the review of attendance targets. Schools/ academies have also been advised that it is good practice to have a designated member of the governing body responsible for monitoring attendance matters.

·         Developing a written attendance policy which sets out the school’s expectations and priorities, strategies for improvement, advice for parents on procedures and the role played by the Education Welfare Service.

·         Paying particular attention, within their absence management strategies, to persistently absent pupils, intervening early to nip emerging patterns of absence in the bud, and making full use of the support available from the Local Authority and other agencies to address problems which are beyond the capacity of the school to deal with. 

·         Developing efficient systems of registration which encourage children and parents to account promptly for any absences, which are in accordance with legal requirements and which show a consistent approach to the classification of absences as either authorised or unauthorised.

·         Implementing First Day Contact schemes, attendance incentive schemes, individual and group awards etc. in accordance with the needs of the school.

·         Developing suitable monitoring and referral procedures to ensure that children whose attendance is a cause for concern are identified, supported through the school’s/ academies own pastoral systems, including appropriate contact with parents, and, if required, brought to the attention of the Local Authority.

·         Accessing regular training for staff with responsibilities for the registration of pupils.

·         Ensuring absences are authorised only when the school is satisfied that they are genuine.

·         Ensure that Parenting Contracts are completed in line with Havering’s Policy Parenting Contract.

·         Adopting the borough’s ‘Holidays in Term Time Guidance

The Committee noted the report.