Effective strategies: Secondary case studies

West Calder High School is a secondary school in West Lothian. The current school roll is 1135 with 18% young people registered for free school meals. 

Why was the action required? 

On returning to school following the second period of Covid-19 lockdown, the school recognised it was experiencing lower levels of school attendance than before the pandemic, particularly for those young people who faced barriers. The school quickly realised that the educational landscape had changed and to make their school a place where every young person belonged, felt valued and included, they had to change the culture.  

What action was taken? 

The views of young people who experienced significant barriers to school attendance were sought and it was very clear that these young people did not feel as valued or included as those young people who were able to attend school every day. 

The school changed their approach and an ‘Equity and Inclusion’ strategy was developed. This was a whole school approach which shifted the culture in the school to one where every young person has the right to an educational provision which meets their needs by providing the right support at the right time, regardless of the barriers they face.

Through the work of the depute headteacher colleagues last year, it was clear that overall school attendance would only improve with a range of marginal gain improvements across the full range of school attendance.  

Data analysis was undertaken weekly to track the movement of young people between incremental levels of attendance. This allowed the depute head teacher and the team to identify individual improvements with young people and celebrate these whilst at the same time, intervening when attendance dropped. 

Not every young person is able to achieve 100% attendance due to health, family or other circumstance. However, this method of analysis enabled the school to monitor gains made, allowing young people to see their improvements and set themselves targets in small, achievable chunks. It also enabled the school to adapt their provisions and resource to where it was most needed. 

What was the impact of this action? 

This action has led to: 

• a broadening of the curriculum to ensure that every young person can continue their learning pathway in the curricular areas of their choice; 
• continual development and improvement of school systems and processes to monitor, track and improve attendance;
• expansion of targeted provisions and partnerships ranging from online learning for those young people suffering from chronic anxiety to intensive provisions both off site in the communities, and within the school; and 
• all of this is part of a staged intervention approach designed to support young people to attend, attain and achieve the best they are capable of at any given time. This has led to 1132 out of 1135 of our young people engaging with us as much are they are able. 

The relentless focus on finding out why young people’s attendance is as it is, followed by appropriate supports to improve, has seen the school start this session showing attendance 1.5% above where it was at the same point last session. The school is already using last year’s data to inform actions for this session in order to avoid, for example, the ‘December dip’.

Millburn Academy is in Inverness. The school roll is approximately 1255 pupils. The current school roll has 21.5% of learners living in SIMD quintile 1, 19.3% in quintile 2, 18.4% in quintile 3, 20.8% in quintile 4 and 19.9% in quintile 5.  

Why was the action required? 

Attendance is always a focus for the support team at Millburn. However, the negative impact of the pandemic and lockdown has unquestionably seen a rise in school refusal and concerning attendance habits. The school has made several changes to practice which has resulted in a positive trend in attendance data.  

What action was taken? 

The school has implemented the amended ‘Highland Council’s Attendance Policy’ and alerted all parents/carers of the most significant features of this. As per the policy, staff have started the process of sending standardised letters every four weeks to the parents/carers of young people whose attendance has hit the stated trigger points. These letters are sent only after the pastoral team has reviewed the list of pupils to ensure that full consideration of any extenuating circumstances is taken. They also operate a rigorous three-day absence process whereby a daily report is extracted to identify pupils who have been absent for three days without reason. This report is shared with the pastoral team each day to establish contact with home and ascertain reasons for absence or trigger the child missing from education process. Additionally, attendance is a standing item in fortnightly pupil support meetings. A data dashboard is used and allows for a very quick overview of attendance information by caseload. The pastoral team review this fortnightly which ensures regular engagement with the attendance data of pupils per caseload and considering appropriate interventions, as necessary. 

 School staff work closely with an array of in-house and external providers so that a range of interventions are available to support young people with the challenges which negatively impact on attendance. The range of partners include; Growing 2gether, Mikey’s Line, Rowan Counselling, KOOTH (online counselling), Distress Brief Intervention, Season’s for Growth, Primary Mental Health as well as in-school support for learning interventions and nurture. Furthermore, the pastoral team works in partnership with Skills Development Scotland/ Developing the Young Workforce, the Bridge, Highland Virtual Academy, University of the Highlands and Islands and Inverness Kart Race Way to create alternative education packages for those whose attendance in school is very low.   

Finally, in-house nurture provision plays a key role in improving attendance. As well as having well-established nurture groups which help young people have an affiliation with the school, the nurture lead offers ‘safe spaces’ over break times, runs the breakfast club and provides training around adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed practice for teaching and support staff. 

What was the impact of this action? 

This intervention (although not exclusively) targets pupils impacted by poverty with attendance improvement of 8% in the last year. Whole school attendance has also increased by 2% within the last academic school because of work with targeted individuals. 

Why was the action required?  

It was recognised there was a need to provide further support for young people coming towards the end of statutory schooling. The identified group were keen to leave, but too young, but also school had become a disincentive. 

We already had a successful provision, in collaboration with Dundee and Angus College, called ‘Pupil Access to College and Employability’ (PACE). This provided support for transition for young people in their last six months of statutory education, your typical S5 ‘Christmas leaver’. However, this also included those in S4 who had disengaged from school prior to Christmas in fourth year. PACE provided a fresh start of a supported transition into college. ‘Raising Interpersonal Skills for Employment’ (RISE) was an extension of this programme. This was aimed at young people in their last twelve months of education, either summer May leavers in S4, or Christmas leavers in S5.

Typically, the young people we work with are disengaging/disengaged in school and are unlikely to leave with qualifications or a positive destination – often particularly due to absence. Recognising the impact of deprivation, mental health and experiencing care, the purpose of PACE & RISE is to prevent this decline. Instead, we provided a supported transition into college; provided a fresh start, a protected and supportive space, opportunities for further qualifications, and vocational tasters of full-time college options. As a result, we hope that young people feel confident and excited about moving onto college on a full-time basis at the end of the course.

What action was taken?  

PACE and RISE are led by a Senior Education Resource Worker for Dundee City Council and have designated support staff in each project. PACE (24 young people supported by five support staff) and RISE (12 young people supported by three support staff) are partnership programmes from a collaboration between Dundee & Angus College and Dundee City Councils Offsite Education Service (OES). The strength of these college options is the true partnership approach. The college has two campuses and provides a protected space for the young people (‘home zone’) on each campus.  Dundee and Angus College provide the curriculum and lecturers, while the Offsite Education Service provides a team of support staff. They engage and support young people when accessing the project. A supported transition is provided by a wrap-around service from the OES team. This includes providing in class support, home visits, pastoral support, leading the personal and social development programme and providing social activities. This makes up the full programme that the young people enjoy.  Young people are engaged by staff at break times, and at lunchtime in their ‘home zone’ – an area they access at the start the day and where they can return throughout the day, should a difficulty arise. This is a crucial aspect of the programmes which is missing for the mainstream student. Having this ‘safe space’ allows the staff to support young people at key moments, resulting in the de-escalation of situations that can lead to disengagement.

Both projects run programmes from August to December and January to May. In PACE a new group is inducted every six months, while the RISE programme can have young people moving in and out as they require. Young people can begin their college journey in RISE and move onto PACE, or stay in RISE for the full duration, with the aim of both being a successful, sustained transition onto a mainstream full-time course. 

Given the nature of the cohort, whose mainstream school experience may have been a challenge, the support staff team’s ability to quickly engage and build positive relationships and a cohesive group of young people is critical. The strong partnership approach with Dundee and Angus College underpins the project and is evident in the joint selection panel, collaborative approach to curriculum design and delivery, and integrated approach to managing and responding to behaviour. 

The partnership with the college has been amazing and the Director of Curriculum and Partnership at Dundee and Angus (D&A) College also agrees, commenting that, “D&As partnership work is remarkable for changing lives by re-engaging young people in education. RISE and PACE are known for their personalised approach to develop skills through vocational experiences.

What was the impact of the action?  

The success of RISE and PACE over the last few years has seen increases in attendance and attainment, as well as young people achieving and maintaining positive destinations.  However, there are other important, measurable successes. As one support staff member said, 'PACE helps young people achieve when they have lost hope of attaining at school. We show them there are lots of paths to reaching their full potential. We help them believe in themselves and their abilities.'

Attendance at both RISE and PACE is positive for the majority young people with some seeing significant increases in attendance from their mainstream schools.   

Where attendance is not positive, this can be due to many different factors. The main one is when the young person does not engage in the projects initially.  We have found that this can be due to significant traumas they have faced, high levels of anxiety and poor mental health or not having a support network around them to encourage taking part in something new.  Despite the best efforts from staff to engage these young people, some will still really struggle to make the transition from mainstream school into college. Parents also recognise the impact on attendance. One parent expanded “I can’t thank PACE staff enough. The change in my son has been amazing. He has wanted to get up every morning to attend which is a huge improvement from school.” At school while some had experienced at least one exclusion; RISE and PACE have zero exclusions. 

Before attending RISE or PACE most of our young people have little or no qualifications. On completion of RISE and PACE, almost all young people leave with at least one qualification at Level 4 and above. One young person noted that 'RISE made sure I was getting qualifications that I wouldn’t have got if I had stayed at school.'   

The opportunities that RISE and PACE provide, supports transitions into further education and training through a supported college course. This supported taster of life at college, supports many young people to a positive destination with the majority choosing further education or other training opportunities. Those attending RISE exceed this number with almost all young people sustaining positive destinations.  Staff find that if a young person leaves RISE without a positive destination in place, their positive experience within the college environment, often means they will re-engage with college at a later date.  

The young people also gain confidence and belief in themselves.  One parent commented,  

'RISE was 100% the best thing to happen to my child. It’s for the kids who just need a nudge in the right direction. Last year I would never have believed my child could have achieved what they have and is now ready and excited to further their education.'

Why was the action required?  

Like many other secondary schools post pandemic, St Columba’s High School observed a decline in attendance and engagement with school, particularly for young people who are most impacted by poverty.  The school decided to revisit their culture, systems and practice around attendance with a view to further develop rigorous, robust approaches to measure the impact of interventions.  

What action was taken?  

Depute head teacher, Iain McLean discusses how systems and practice in the school have been strengthened, including the effective use of data.  

What is the impact?  

As well as increasing attendance at school, pupils are more engaged. Listen to some young people discussing the support provided and the impact this had on them.

Improving Engagement and Attendance at Greenwood Academy 

Attendance initiative with a multi-level approach focused on root cause of attendance issues. The project requires a whole school approach to supporting attendance and does not focus on one individual activity.

Why was the action required?