West Coats Primary School is a non-denominational school situated in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire. The school has just under 400 children across 15 classes. The school’s attendance figures are above the 2023/24 national average of 90.3%. The majority of children live in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation areas 7 to 10. Just over 25% live in decile 10.

The improvement issue

Senior leaders analysed school data and identified a link between children with low attendance rates and children who were identified for attainment interventions in literacy and numeracy. Senior leaders recognised the need to focus on regular, sustained attendance at school to support attainment and achievement. Children with low levels of attendance required support to engage with learning, sustain friendships and participate in achievement opportunities.

What West Coats Primary did

The headteacher established a rigorous approach to monitoring attendance and following up poor attendance:

• The headteacher audits attendance for all children on a monthly basis.
• If a child’s attendance falls below 95%, the link depute headteacher makes a supportive call to the parents/carers. The depute headteachers discuss the child’s attendance with the parents/carers and notes any contributing factors. At this point, the child is placed on an attendance monitoring group.
• If the child’s attendance does not improve or decreases further over the next month, a letter is issued to formally alert the parents/carers of their child’s attendance rates. If the child’s attendance improves, a letter is issued acknowledging the improvement.
• If a child’s attendance falls below 90%, a meeting is arranged with parents/carers in school with the headteacher. This meeting is to explore factors impacting on the child’s attendance. The headteacher discusses with parents/carers any supports that can be provided to help improve their child’s attendance.
• If a child’s attendance falls below 85%, senior leaders create an attendance support plan with the parents/carers. The attendance support plan identifies factors contributing to low levels of attendance and agrees short term targets to help address these factors.
• Attendance support planning includes a risk matrix which helps to identify the adverse outcomes of non-attendance.
• If a child has an attendance support plan, their attendance is monitored daily. The headteacher is informed if the child is absent from school. Attendance support plans are reviewed every six weeks.

Interventions are specific to each family and may include:

• reducing identified barriers to attendance through shared additional support planning
• support to ensure that the child has a safe walking route to school and/or can access public transport
• training for all staff to ensure that late arrival is welcomed as an alternative to non-attendance
• targeted online learning for a child to complete whilst absent from school
• targeted intervention from teaching staff to cover missed learning on return to school
• access to targeted literacy and/or numeracy interventions
• individualised timetable
• access to health and wellbeing interventions including, nurture talks and family support from a partner agency
• extra-curricular activities offered during breaks and at the end of the school day. Staff meet with targeted children to find out about their interests and as far as possible, develop extra-curricular activities (pupil and adult led) that responds to their needs and interests. This has included sports, dance, art, reading, guitar and ego clubs

The impact of interventions is measured every 6-8 weeks. The types of data used to measure if interventions have been successful includes:

• monthly tracking of children’s attendance
• learner conversations to gather qualitative data about readiness to engage, peer relationships and progress in learning
• participation in learning measured using an engagement scale

What the sustained impact has been

The average attendance at West Coats Primary School continues to be significantly above the national average. The majority of children have an attendance rate of over 95%.

School staff have worked in partnership with families successfully to support and improve the attendance of 34 children. 83% of identified children have increased attendance at school and now participate in extra-curricular activities. 

School staff regularly monitor the targeted group of children, which shows evidence of their increased engagement in learning, progress in learning, and strengthened relationships with their peers and other adults. This is measured through attendance, participation in extra-curricular activities, the Leuven scale of engagement in class, observations and learner conversations. 

Attendance support plans are used effectively with families to identify the underlying barriers, which may be leading to low attendance. These barriers include travel and transport issues, health needs, barriers to learning, peer relationships, caring responsibilities and feeling safe in school. School staff now have a shared understanding of the underlying factors that impact on each family. Individual attendance support plans also support safeguarding procedures by identifying and addressing any risk factors associated with non-attendance. 

Relationships between parents and staff have been strengthened through more regular communication. This is leading to a shared understanding of the needs of each child. 

School staff are more confident in working with, and signposting families to, partnership agencies. These agencies are providing additional support for families to help improve children’s attendance at school. Interventions include: 

• parenting advice and tips
• support for families parenting children with additional support needs
• opportunities for parents to positively engage with school in a less formal setting, for example brew and blethers sessions.

The children identified in October 2023 as having low levels of attendance have improved from a baseline average of 83% to 92% in January 2024.