Dealing With Truancy

Regular attendance at school for all pupils is a key target for this Government. Not only is it thought to raise national educational standards, but it is also known to impact outcomes in students' lives, directly encouraging young people to be the best they can be - to work towards reaching their true potential in life. This article shows the range of practical ways in which failure to attend can be addressed, whether face-to-face with individual pupils or at school and LEA level.

Truancy impacts self-esteem, achievement and employability. It's one of the single most destructive elements that young people must circumnavigate in their journey through school. Every day in this country over 50,000 pupils miss school without permission and an estimated 7.5 million school days are missed each year through truancy. It's known from research that these students are easily drawn into crime and anti-social behaviour and, equally alarming, are more likely to be unemployed after leaving school.

A Youth Justice MORI survey of young people in 2002 shows that those who play truant are more likely to offend than those who do not, with two-thirds (65 per cent) of truants having offended, versus less than a third (30 per cent) of those who have not played truant.

In part, at least, for these reasons, the overall national target is to reduce truancy by 10 per cent from the 2002 position, and there are currently many schemes and approaches designed to discourage truancy and encourage school attendance. Since May 2002 the DfES has organised nationally coordinated truancy sweeps with follow-ups by individual LEAs, and fast tracks to prosecution for parents of persistent truants.

Truancy receives a focus in many legislation and guidance documents, not least in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill that began its passage through Parliament on 27 March 2003. This bill will introduce parenting contracts for truancy and misbehaviour, parenting orders for serious misbehaviour in schools and penalty notices for truancy. These are designed to reiterate the fact that responsibility for school attendance and behaviour rests with parents. Indeed, failure to see that a child enrolled in school attends on a regular basis is already a criminal offence for parents.

Although improving attendance is part of local education authorities' development plans (the Government has asked LEAs to agree targets for unauthorised absence for 2002/3 and for 2003/4 for every school that is above the average for their sector - 0.5 per cent for primary schools, 1.1 per cent for secondary schools and 2.2 per cent for special schools), combined with parental responsibility for school attendance, there are still certain measures that schools and individual teachers can take to ensure that attendance is as high as it can be.

What individual teachers can do

• While attendance figures for the school generally will be analysed by the senior management team, as a teacher you can keep a close eye on your own personal attendance records for the classes that you teach. Can you see any patterns emerging for any individuals?
• Parents can be the gatekeepers of a sound education for their children. Serial non-attenders may receive little or no encouragement from home when it comes to getting to, and staying in, school. Involve parents as much as you can in the work you do with your classes. Demystify the whole school experience for parents as often as you can. The energy and enthusiasm you have for what pupils experience in your classes needs to be shared by their parents.
• Those prone to truanting are often ill-prepared and ill-equipped for the school day when they do actually turn up. Encourage your pupils to prepare for the school day the night before. Truants, and those at risk of truanting, should be told precisely what they need to bring to school. If there are specific difficulties regarding equipment, find out what can be loaned on a day-by-day basis, even if only for the short-term.
• Keep the lines of communication with parents of truants as open as possible.
• Consider offering incentives for good attendance. These might be computer time, a class quiz or contest, a homework-free day and so on; whatever is close to the desires of your particular class.
• Ask colleagues about pupils who regularly miss your lessons. Is the pattern the same across the curriculum? Have any colleagues noticed what will encourage particular pupils to attend school? Share as much information of this kind as possible. Some schools have established attendance improvement committees for this very purpose.
• When a regular truant does attend your classroom, don't make a public thing of it, but do make sure you acknowledge, on a one-to-one basis, how pleased you are to see the child. Talk about what you have been doing in recent lessons and tempt him back with information about what you'll be doing in the immediate future.
• Make sure that you, or the relevant personnel in your school, discuss each incidence of truancy with an offending child every time he appears in school. Truancy needs to be acknowledged and tackled openly.
• Recognise and praise improved attendance. A letter home could show parents that concerted efforts on all sides have paid off.
• Devise rewards for good attendance. Even something as simple as a certificate presented in assembly at the end of term can act as an incentive and if an inspiring personality such as a local sportsman or woman can attend, then all the better!
• Talk to older pupils about what it is that will help to encourage them to attend school regularly.
• Consider what you can do as an individual teacher in your school, to encourage school pride and a sense of community.

Good practice - what has worked for others?

The following examples are LEA-wide projects, but many of the ideas they contain could be adapted and implemented on a school-by-school, or even teacher-by-teacher basis.

• Recognising that punctuality is a significant dimension of positive school attendance, Torfaen LEA has devised a scheme whereby six programme stickers and certificates are awarded to Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils for arriving at school punctually. Letters are sent to the parents prior to the scheme to request support and children are given weekly encouragement through assemblies. Lateness and punctuality are also tackled directly in the curriculum where appropriate with children doing creative writing and poster competitions around the theme. As a result, punctuality and attendance actually improved.
• Newcastle upon Tyne LEA introduced the '100 per cent Attendance Club' in Newcastle schools in 1998. This club has the objectives of raising awareness of the importance of regular attendance among all interested parties, providing incentives to achieve 100 per cent attendance and encouraging local businesses to promote regular school attendance. School-based staff are directly involved in the project. A wide variety of rewards and incentives have been generated for pupils achieving 100 per cent attendance including stationery items, certificates and swimming vouchers. Media links have been generated ensuring press coverage and annual events celebrating 100 per cent attendance have been developed. This project is thought to be responsible for improvements in attendance across all age ranges with increases in the numbers of pupils achieving 100 per cent attendance being seen termly and annually.
• Kingston-upon-Thames has been targeting non-hard-core absentees. From its own research, the LEA realised that those pupils whose attendances were not known to be problematic incurred the most absences (64 per cent), while those already known to the Education Welfare Services represented 36 per cent of total school absences. Armed with this knowledge, more preventative project work was pursued with the aim of empowering schools in dealing with non-hard-core cases more effectively. As a result, overall school attendance has been improved and unauthorised absence rates have been reduced.
• Bexley LEA aimed to reduce truancy by assisting in the transition to secondary school of targeted pupils who could be in danger of non-attendance. Intensive work is undertaken with these pupils and their families to improve attendance rates and reduce exclusions. One feature of the project is that pupils are supported in secondary school by a mentor who is responsible for monitoring the pupils' integration into secondary school life. The outcome is that the attendance and behaviour of targeted children has improved.
• Coventry Education Action Zone devised a programme whereby the parents or carers of absent pupils are contacted on the first day of absence to determine the reasons and to encourage school attendance. Logs of these contacts are made and it is hoped that attendance will improve as a result.
• Hartlepool LEA runs Year 8 Attendance Conferences focusing on issues facing Year-8 pupils. Year 8 is broken down into small groups of 10-15 pupils and the day is split into sections. Pupils take part in interactive sessions through discussion and role play and follow up work is completed during Personal, Social and Health Education lessons. Attendance is collated for the two six-week periods prior to and following the conference as a method of evaluating success.

Originally published on Teachernet