Skip to main content
English | Cymraeg
Contact

The Maelor School Penley

Attendance Systems and Case Study Material

Details for this case study have been provided by Mrs Lisa Steen, Head of Year 9, The Maelor School Penley. This focus study forms part of a consortia leadership programme. As a school the initiative is to consider approaches to improve school attendance working together with pupils and parents.

AIM To improving learner engagement and attendance.

Objectives
  1. To create a greater awareness of the impact good attendance can have on academic achievement with pupils and parents.
  2. To initiate targeted learner led proposals for improving, reporting, and rewarding positive attendance through student voice and the PASS survey.
  3. To develop systems to record, report and reward more frequent attendance figures for pastoral leads, learners, and parents.
  4. To design supporting literature to outline future developments initiated by research outlined above
  5. Strategically, consider a more user-friendly attendance alert system.
Action

To create a greater awareness of the impact good attendance can have on academic achievement with pupils and parents.

An assembly was shared with learners and pastoral support to raise the profile of attendance. The impact of positive attendance was the focus of the message.

b) To initiate targeted learner led proposals for improving, reporting, and rewarding positive attendance through student voice and the PASS survey

Designated Learner Voice sessions are utilised to ensure this body have a sense of ownership for offering a perception of;

  • the success of the current systems in communicating individual statistics and targets for attendance.
  • Offering new ideas to support lower attenders and rewarding more positive attenders.

More specific outcomes were to;

  • Increase the frequency of rewards to half termly rather than annually.
  • For rewards to be more inclusive and responsive to individual targets rather than those above 96% to motivate and encourage all learners

The PASS data has served to identify targeted intervention with groups or individuals to unlock any potential barriers/challenges to attendance with agreed achievable targets set. Timescales for reviews and rewards are also outlined. However, not all the PASS data could be utilised due to a lack of correlation between a range or statistics and percentage satisfaction outcomes.

c) To develop systems to record, report and reward more frequent attendance figures for pastoral leads, learners, and parents

Systems created within SIMS provided more frequent attendance reports shared with learners, pastoral support, and parents. The user-friendly colour coding system provides a report that clearly defines changes in attendance patterns and reports that can be sorted to rank or establish percentage changes across year or form groups.

A year 9 pilot using ‘an attendance alert letter’ has been trialled and communicated on a more frequent basis to raise the profile and awareness of (and impact of falling) figures. It was well received by parents, who would have otherwise had these figures reported on an annual basis, at various times across the academic year, according to the year group. This will now be rolled out to years 7 and 8, progressing to a report received three times within the academic year. The aim is to raise awareness of attendance data and to foster a sense of ownership within families that will lead to better practice as learners move into years 10 to 13.

Rewards systems are being embedded to recognise positive changes in figures each half term. Currently a pilot group are trialling how to record more personalised targets with a view to roll out to all form tutors when the systems to reporting these can be centralised.

d) To design supporting literature to outline future developments initiated by research outlined above

Visual literature is being designed, by the Head of Year and leadership link to issue to visitors/staff/prospective parents to continue to raise the profile of attendance. This literature will also be accessible through the school’s website.

e) Strategically, consider a more user-friendly attendance alert system.

Discussions are focussing on a centralised system, like the ‘Bully button,’ to report an absence online with a tab for ‘Attendance’. The information provided through this system will be consistent with the visual literature distributed to parents and with the information on the website. This will promote a consistent message about the importance of good attendance to both learners and parents.

Impact
  • Increased awareness of personal attendance statistic and more informed decisions regarding future absences are being made by parents and learners.
  • Further conversations to support Children’s wellbeing and attendance have been actioned through initial parental contact in follow up Pastoral Meetings.
  • Group of leaners are displaying improved motivation to increase personal attendance and obtain relevant rewards.
  • A more robust and consistent attendance tracking system is in place for HOY’s. This is enabling in depth scrutiny and adherence to the school’s attendance policy. This data is easily shared in senior link meetings and liaison with the school ESW.
All case studies