Analysis from Impetus states that children from a disadvantaged background are nearly four times more likely to be severely absent compared to their peers.
And the DfE says the work on turning around severe absence “isn’t going to happen overnight” when speaking to Schools Week – something the team at Meon Way Federation know all too well.
The three schools - comprising of Meon Infant School, Moorings Way Infant School, and Meon Junior School in Portsmouth – are working innovatively and proactively with their whole school community to ensure children are in the classroom.
We caught up with Charlotte Osborne, the Attendance Improvement Coordinator at the federation which belongs to Thinking Schools Academy Trust, to learn more about her work.
“Attendance is a whole-school objective, so everybody works really hard and together to make sure that attendance and punctuality is a top priority” says Charlotte.
She believes engaging and consistent communications helps to ensure pupils and their families understand good attendance is critical for success by “staying in close contact with each other, really promoting attendance to the children. Whether that is through assemblies, competitions, creating conversations or more, everyone needs to talk about attendance and belonging at school to emphasise its importance.”
The schools have attendance and punctuality mascots, Attendance Audrey and Punctuality Pablo, who are toy bears that enable all staff to have child-like conversations – especially with the younger children – about the importance of them being surrounded by friends and learning.
Ms Osborne says: “The excitement that comes about with the fact that we have these mascots enables the children to actually want to make a difference to their attendance and punctuality.
“Especially for the ‘cuspy children’ [a local term used by the school for children just below the national average of 95%] they will try even harder, because they actually want to be with those with 96% plus category, they want to be star of the week for attendance.
“But even for the 90% to 91% children, the excitement they get when they see the bears coming makes them want to get their chance to have the bear. This initiative helps them to describe attendance, such as why Attendance Audrey really like it when you come to school everyday, because you can do you learning and spend time with your friends in a happy place.”
These mascots are just one of several methods that Meon Way Federation follow to strengthen a sense of belonging and community, all while reminding pupils and their families of why strong attendance matters to help transform the life chances of everyone.
Speaking about being an attendance improvement coordinator, Charlotte says that to work on improving positive attendance isn’t just about what’s happening within her school but working through challenges with others alike beyond the four walls.
She added: “Each school has attendance improvement coordinators and within Portsmouth we meet as part of what we call as our Attendance Improvement Coordinator Forum. We meet every half term and during those meetings we share best practice, discuss anynew policies, good ideas, and even talking about using Arbor to help improve parental engagement and drive good engagement.
“It’s great to know that I am part of a wider family of schools too. Recently, Sandra from Penbridge Schools and Tanya from New Horizons Primary School [both belonging to Thinking Schools Academy Trust] have been teaching me on how to use Arbor to make the work I’m doing with parental engagement easier.”