Improving attendance: a test of change

Published 23/04/2024.  Last updated 08/08/2024

Background 

South Lanarkshire is the fifth largest council area in Scotland with a mix of urban and rural areas. There are 20 high schools and 128 primaries. 22.8% of children and young people live in relative poverty. 

Rationale 

Attendance is a national area of focus as well as being a local priority. It was identified as a core health and wellbeing (HWB) aim and is supported by the Strategic Equity Fund for South Lanarkshire since 2022-23. The authority aspires to regain ground lost and return to figures in line with pre-COVID averages. 

A test of change aimed to improve attendance for those schools involved with a focus on overall attendance; for SIMD Q1; Free School Meal learners; and for SIMD Q2-5 learners without Free school meals. Eleven primary and five secondary schools participated in 2022-23. All participating primary schools made positive progress in 2022-23 and collectively narrowed the gap more significantly when compared to all other schools.  

Attainment Scotland Funding 

Strategic Equity Funding: Under £5000 

What South Lanarkshire did

A group of eleven primary schools and five secondary schools agreed to continue to be part of an attendance ‘Test of Change’ (ToC) group for 2023-24. The groups are sector-specific groups and meet to develop the implementation of their attendance ‘ToC’ activities. This group of focus schools also now includes those participating in the West Partnership Collaborative Action Research programme.

The quality lead officer (QLO) for equity is the project lead and is supported by Education Scotland’s attainment advisor and educational psychological services. In addition, a further nine primary schools have agreed to be part of the cohort two group, supported by cohort one schools. The team outlined four half-day sessions and one showcase event between October 2023 and June 2024 to support participating schools.  

Three themes for improvement addressed as part of the sessions are:  

  • an inclusive ethos 
  • practice which builds motivation and recognises agency 
  • effective processes that reduce barriers and make learning accessible

Further coaching support is being provided between sessions as required. 

Stretch aim data was checked at a baseline point against locally held data in August 2023, mid-point in January 2024 and will again against local submissions in June 2024. School aims were reviewed in November 2023, January, March and will again in May and June 2024. The local attendance tool has been shared and they are being encouraged to use this regularly to track progress, using the evidence to plan appropriate next steps on attendance. Assistance is provided to interpret monthly attendance data for all participating schools via input from the linked data officer. 

Impact 

Feedback has helped to refine the authority approach to the development of the attendance tool, helping to tailor this to school specific needs. This has streamlined the way schools access attendance data and is working well in-line with a broader data support system on tracking and monitoring.  

In 2022-23: 

  • primary schools increased overall attendance by an average of 1.3pp, narrowing the gap to all other authority schools to just 0.5pp  
  • ‘ToC’ schools increased attendance for Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) deciles one and two.  
  • those on free school meals attendance rose to 90.2%, an increase of 1.6pp and twice as fast as all other primary schools  
  • project schools’ SIMD deciles three to ten, with no FSM young people increased attendance in line with all other authority schools 
  • the gap in targeted schools closed to 3.5pp and 1.7pp, narrower than in all other schools 

This encouraged a further nine schools to engage in 2023-24, and by February 2024 the 17 schools now engaged have improved their overall attendance since the start of the academic year by 1.43pp to 92.66% (one school withdrew from the programme).

The project group is showing accelerated improvement compared with the 0.77pp improvement of all other mainstream primary schools. The participating schools are now collectively outperforming all other primary schools in the equity learner category by 0.59pp, from being 0.27pp behind other schools at the end of session 2022-23.

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Improving attendance: a test of change

Published 23/04/2024.  Last updated 08/08/2024

Background 

South Lanarkshire is the fifth largest council area in Scotland with a mix of urban and rural areas. There are 20 high schools and 128 primaries. 22.8% of children and young people live in relative poverty. 

Rationale 

Attendance is a national area of focus as well as being a local priority. It was identified as a core health and wellbeing (HWB) aim and is supported by the Strategic Equity Fund for South Lanarkshire since 2022-23. The authority aspires to regain ground lost and return to figures in line with pre-COVID averages. 

A test of change aimed to improve attendance for those schools involved with a focus on overall attendance; for SIMD Q1; Free School Meal learners; and for SIMD Q2-5 learners without Free school meals. Eleven primary and five secondary schools participated in 2022-23. All participating primary schools made positive progress in 2022-23 and collectively narrowed the gap more significantly when compared to all other schools.  

Attainment Scotland Funding 

Strategic Equity Funding: Under £5000 

What South Lanarkshire did

A group of eleven primary schools and five secondary schools agreed to continue to be part of an attendance ‘Test of Change’ (ToC) group for 2023-24. The groups are sector-specific groups and meet to develop the implementation of their attendance ‘ToC’ activities. This group of focus schools also now includes those participating in the West Partnership Collaborative Action Research programme.

The quality lead officer (QLO) for equity is the project lead and is supported by Education Scotland’s attainment advisor and educational psychological services. In addition, a further nine primary schools have agreed to be part of the cohort two group, supported by cohort one schools. The team outlined four half-day sessions and one showcase event between October 2023 and June 2024 to support participating schools.  

Three themes for improvement addressed as part of the sessions are:  

  • an inclusive ethos 
  • practice which builds motivation and recognises agency 
  • effective processes that reduce barriers and make learning accessible

Further coaching support is being provided between sessions as required. 

Stretch aim data was checked at a baseline point against locally held data in August 2023, mid-point in January 2024 and will again against local submissions in June 2024. School aims were reviewed in November 2023, January, March and will again in May and June 2024. The local attendance tool has been shared and they are being encouraged to use this regularly to track progress, using the evidence to plan appropriate next steps on attendance. Assistance is provided to interpret monthly attendance data for all participating schools via input from the linked data officer. 

Impact 

Feedback has helped to refine the authority approach to the development of the attendance tool, helping to tailor this to school specific needs. This has streamlined the way schools access attendance data and is working well in-line with a broader data support system on tracking and monitoring.  

In 2022-23: 

  • primary schools increased overall attendance by an average of 1.3pp, narrowing the gap to all other authority schools to just 0.5pp  
  • ‘ToC’ schools increased attendance for Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) deciles one and two.  
  • those on free school meals attendance rose to 90.2%, an increase of 1.6pp and twice as fast as all other primary schools  
  • project schools’ SIMD deciles three to ten, with no FSM young people increased attendance in line with all other authority schools 
  • the gap in targeted schools closed to 3.5pp and 1.7pp, narrower than in all other schools 

This encouraged a further nine schools to engage in 2023-24, and by February 2024 the 17 schools now engaged have improved their overall attendance since the start of the academic year by 1.43pp to 92.66% (one school withdrew from the programme).

The project group is showing accelerated improvement compared with the 0.77pp improvement of all other mainstream primary schools. The participating schools are now collectively outperforming all other primary schools in the equity learner category by 0.59pp, from being 0.27pp behind other schools at the end of session 2022-23.

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