Wallace Hall Academy is part of Wallace Hall campus, which includes Wallace Hall Primary School and Wallace Hall Early Years Centre within Dumfries and Galloway. The campus serves the town of Thornhill and surrounding rural areas. Approximately 570 young people attend the school. Most of the young people live in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) deciles 5 to 7. Around 7% of young people live in the 20% most deprived data zones in Scotland. Thirty-nine per cent of young people have additional support needs. Fourteen per cent of young people are registered for free school meals.

The improvement issue

Senior leaders identified that overall attendance had dropped by 3.7 percentage points from June 2019 levels. They identified a direct link between levels of attendance and levels of attainment at senior phase in levels 5, 6, and 7. This pattern was also evident in the Curriculum for Excellence levels within the Broad General Education stage of learning.

Principal teachers of pupil support (PTPS) reported a significant increase in pupils and families requiring assistance to maintain regular attendance. PTPS were spending considerable time gathering and tracking attendance data, which reduced the capacity available for direct interventions to support young people.

As a result, senior leaders identified improving attendance as a strategic priority within the school improvement plan. They highlighted the need to:

• raise awareness of the impact of low attendance among all stakeholders
• enhance tracking systems
• share responsibility for supporting attendance beyond PTPS
• strengthen interventions to support sustained improvement

What Wallace Hall Academy did

Strategic planning to raise awareness

Senior leaders used a self-evaluation toolkit to assess strengths and areas for development in attendance support provision. This process helped senior leaders create a targeted action plan to address attendance challenges and raise awareness of its impact on young people’s attainment.

A priority was to inform all pupils, parents, and staff about the direct correlation between attendance and academic achievement. Senior leaders communicated the importance of consistent attendance on both attainment and overall wellbeing through newsletters, assemblies and staff meetings. They highlighted the positive outcomes of improved attendance, creating a culture of awareness and responsibility among the school community.

Tracking approaches

Senior leaders reviewed the school’s approach to tracking and monitoring attendance. They established robust tracking systems to monitor attendance across all year groups effectively and developed spreadsheets to record and track attendance over time. This included data from the previous year to identify students with ongoing attendance concerns, which then allowed staff to intervene early, preventing attendance from deteriorating as the school year progressed.

The introduction of termly and weekly tracking meetings between the depute headteacher (DHT) and PTPS to review attendance data resulted in a consistent approach to supporting attendance. Individuals and cohorts were tracked by specific characteristics such as free school meal entitlement, care experience, additional support needs and being a young carer. The PTPS used this data to identify which students required targeted intervention and support to improve their attendance. They then monitored the impact of interventions to assess effectiveness through further tracking, meetings with parents and target setting through joint planning. Where interventions have not had the required impact, they discussed the cases with partners to plan additional interventions.

Shared Responsibility for Supporting Attendance

Principal teachers for curriculum (PTC) also played an important role in addressing attendance concerns. They were responsible for supporting those pupils who were attending between 70% and 95% of the time. Biannual tracking meetings between the senior leadership team members, PTPS and PTC now included attendance concerns. Low attendance and the impact on attainment in subject areas was discussed. This led to PTC bringing attendance to the forefront of their discussions about attainment with pupils and parents from within their faculties. Class teachers were also proactive in highlighting any attendance concerns to the PTC. This shared responsibility freed more time for the PTPS to work with young people with more complex attendance concerns.

Where there were concerns about young people’s attendance levels, staff ensured that parents and carers were kept informed of their child’s attendance termly. PTC were tasked with discussing attendance when contacting parents. Attendance letters were revised to incorporate more supportive and positive language. PTPS worked together to identify pupils with attendance concerns and collaboratively decided which students should receive letters. This helped to ensure a consistent approach. These letters were sent when attendance dropped below expected levels. Additional meetings were arranged with families and a key adult from the school to discuss improvements.

Staff ensured that at transition meetings information on incoming P7s included any concerns with attendance. Those pupils were offered enhanced transition to secondary school, including extra visits to the school and meeting staff. This has led to young people feeling more confident about the transition to secondary school and attending more that they did in the primary school.

Interventions

In response to attendance concerns, senior leaders increased the involvement of additional support staff, particularly in small group teaching settings. The following interventions were implemented to support students with poor attendance:

• meetings with pupils and parents to problem solve barriers to attending school
• use of school refusal toolkits with parents and young people that resulted in the creation of ‘attendance support plans’
• ‘soft start’ for targeted pupils - a dedicated space was provided for targeted pupils, offering a calm and supportive start to the school day
• access to alternative small group provision where appropriate – young people can choose to continue their education in an alternative environment, should they feel overwhelmed
• access to a ‘school re-engagement’ programme – a small-group teaching programme for young people who have missed a lot of education with a view to getting them back into mainstream classes
• learning materials sent home or accessed via digital platforms – for a few young people, access to these materials allowed them to maintain progress until they re-engaged in the classroom
• referral to external agencies such as the local authority attendance support service

The Pupil Equity Funded Principal Teacher, support worker and project officer supported the interventions above for those young people with attendance concerns and in receipt of free school meals

What the sustained impact has been

Attendance awareness

• Attendance is a focus in communication between staff, pupils, and parents throughout the school.
• Parents are more informed about how attendance can positively impact on their child’s attainment and wellbeing.
• Young people have become more informed about their attendance and are now more motivated to improving it.
• PTPS feel more equipped to address attendance issues, with strong support from PTC and classroom teachers.

Tracking and monitoring

Tracking and monitoring approaches have become more rigorous and effective. There is more robust data on the attendance rates of individual pupils, as well as cohorts of pupils. For example, those pupils in receipt of free school meal entitlement, care-experienced young people and young carers. Tracking and monitoring data is informing interventions.

Increased attendance

• Attendance at Wallace Hall Academy is on an upward trend. They are above the secondary school national average by 1.9% in March 2025.
• The attendance of 4 out of 6 year groups has improved by an average of 1.8% since March 2024. There is also improving trend in attendance for the same group of young people progressing into S2, S4, S5 and S6.
• The number of pupils in S4 and S5 whose attendance was previously between 80% and 90% has reduced by half. These young people are now attending over 90% of the time.
• The attendance levels of most young people and cohorts who were tracked by specific characteristics such as free school meal entitlement, care experience, additional support needs and being a young carer have also increased.