As a county, Cornwall has one of the highest rates of persistent absence at 22.7 per cent. At Launceston College, an 11-16 secondary where I became principal at the start of this academic term, we were part of this picture, with persistent absence at 24.7 per cent.
This was something I was determined to tackle from day one - and I am delighted to say that after just one and a half terms we have already reduced persistent absence to 15.5 per cent.
Furthermore, these improvements have boosted overall attendance, from 90.9 per cent last year to 93.7 per cent now. Here’s how we’ve done it:
How our school reduced persistent absence
1. Reward initiatives
One early change we made was to introduce something called Streak Rewards.
This is based on a Snapchat model of earning streaks through daily completion. Students with 100 per cent attendance for two non-consecutive 10-day periods and no visits to support for behaviour issues each half term are invited to exciting rewards events.
These activities have included an inflatable obstacles course, bouncy castles, wipeout games, silent discos, films and innovative cooking opportunities.
We have ensured that any medical appointments, illnesses or family events that might impact absence do not break a streak.
2. More parent meetings
A closer relationship between schools and families, and understanding what is going on at home, is central to lifting student attendance. As such, we have made this a huge part of our new approach.
We have timetabled our heads of year to meet with parents and carers to identify any barriers to attendance, with many meetings taking place during breakfast drop-ins to ensure that parents have time to access the pastoral team.
I consistently check in and make sure such meetings are being held, and so far 252 have happened since September, underlining the importance of this approach.
3. More calls home
I have also set a goal for the pastoral team to be making a minimum of 50 calls to parents a day.
We often beat target this by a significant margin, and the number of calls we make is directly proportional to the quality of our relationships with parents and the amount of problems we can solve.
More on school attendance:
Our team make sure to approach families in a friendly and supportive way, where relevant ensuring that parents are aware of their legal responsibilities when it comes to their child’s attendance.
We also discuss with them what can be done to ensure that their child both comes to school and arrives punctually, what support we can offer and what services we can connect them with outside of school.
4. Dedicated staff
We have also introduced two full-time attendance mentors - who previously worked in our student support team - whose core purpose is parental and student outreach, and they have completed 500 home visits since the start of the academic year.
They visit some families every day to ensure they have everything they need from us. They visit others as one-offs when there is unexplained absence or when we think a visit may support a student to feel more welcomed when they return.
We encourage parents to enter into a dialogue with us and make sure they know how to explain any necessary absences. We outline why unexplained absences must be recorded as unauthorised.
Our mentors have bought shoes, driven children to school for the first time in months, connected families with mental health support, set up adapted timetables, resolved longstanding concerns and, most importantly, been a friendly face to connect with some of our most vulnerable students and families out in the community.
I hope to further improve attendance rates, both in terms of persistent absence and more generally, at Launceston College going forward and create a school culture in which excellent attendance is the norm.
Matthew Thompson is principal at Launceston College, part of the Athena Learning Trust
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