Improving School Attendance project - Dundee City Council: What did you learn?
This section contains observations and reflections from the partner’s involved in delivering the project, specifically detailing advice and guidance, challenges and solutions and lessons learned from their perspective.
Relationships between the school and practitioners are key to making this work. Having a consistent presence in the school bring about credibility and trust, allowing the project to be more successful.
Relationships also take time to develop and persistence is key. Don’t give up in delivering this work if it isn’t successful right away. When children, young people and families see you are a stable and consistent person looking to provide support it earns trust. Having regular and consistent communication channels between the school and also individuals involved is vital.
Absences in the group can impact it’s running significantly. Dynamics of the group are difficult to maintain if only three are there when there should be eight. Also when it’s know that children are absent but the reason being given isn’t authentic, this can create a challenge in expectations as challenging parents can be difficult.
Wouldn’t change anything however it is important to stipulate that the 'hook' to initially engage children and young people is one of the most important things. The group content needs to be interesting and engaging otherwise it won’t be successful.
Greater awareness that attendance is on everyone’s radar to improve and we should all be working together to improve it. Need to also reinforce messaging around the importance of attendance and what this looks like in the contexts so it’s easier to understand for families.
