BUILDING A CULTURE OF ATTENDANCE

1
BUILDING A CULTUREOF ATTENDANCEEffective
schools monitor, communicate and implement
strategies to improve regular school attendance,
as this is fundamental to improving educational
outcomes.
2

ATTENDANCE ISEVERYONES BUSINESS

• The development of anAttendance Improvement
  Plan focuses attention onimproving attendance
  rates by encouraging partnershipsbetween
  communities and schoolsto support attendance.

3
Attendance Tackling the Issues Together

• Consider
• What is the real situation?
• Sharing good practice
• Identification of issues and risks
• Agreements for working together
• Implications for the Better Pathways role.

4
Why is attendance important?

• Every day that children and young people from
  high risk or vulnerable circumstances attend
  (school) they are

• At the core of school improvement and education
  reform is an assumption so widely understood that
  it is rarely invoked students have to be present
  and engaged in order to learn.
• Present, Engaged and Accounted For - September
  2008

• protected from adverse home circumstances and
  risk
• observing and learning about positive life skills
• increasing the chance that their needs and their
  familys will be recognised and responded to
• Responding to Abuse and Neglect Education
• and Care 2012-2014 on-line training module

5

• Education Act1972
• Compulsory Education Legislation
• Education Regulations 1997

6
What data is available?

• UNVERIFIED DATA
• Analysis/Planning
• EDSAS/Dux
• Student Attendance Behaviour Management (SABM)
  Datamart
• Student Support System (SSS)

• VERIFIED DATA
• Reporting
• School/Preschool Performance Reporting System
  (SPerS)

7
DECD SABM Semester 1 2011 Attendance Rates
COHORT DECD Attendance DECD Absence
Active/All 90.2 9.8
Primary 92.1 7.9
Secondary 87.1 12.9
GOM 88.8 11.2
ATSI 79.0 21
SWD 86.9 13.1
School Card 87.4 12.6
8
2010 Semester 1 (Term 1 2)Attendance Data (all
students)

• Attendance Rate 90
• Absence Rate 10
• Authorised 6.6
• Unauthorised 3.4
• Around 18,000 students missed the equivalent of 4
  weeks or more
• Around 9,000 students missed the equivalent of 6
  weeks or more
• Around 5,000 students missed the equivalent of 8
  weeks or more

9
2011 Semester 1 (Term 1 2)Attendance Data (all
students)

• Attendance Rate 89.9
• Absence Rate 10.1
• Authorised 6.6
• Unauthorised 3.5
• Around 10,000 students missed the equivalent of 4
  weeks or more
• Around 4,500 students missed the equivalent of 6
  weeks or more
• Around 5,500 students missed the equivalent of 8
  weeks or more

10
Chronic Non-Attenders2011 Census Attendance Data
- Semester 1
  ALL SEC PRIM ATSI SWD SC
Total of students 167,339 61,689 105,650 9,965 15,436 46,196
0 days absent 7.4 6.8 7.8 4.8 6.3 5.2
OF STUDENTS 12,383 4,195 8,241 478 972 2,402

10-15 days 12.1 13.0 11.5 13.7 13.2 13.9
OF STUDENTS 20,248 8,020 12,150 1,365 2,038 6,421

gt40 days 3.2 6.3 1.3 12.0 5.9 5.4
OF STUDENTS 5,355 3,886 1,373 1,196 911 2,495
11
Chronic Non-Attenders

• Apart from the obvious concerns in regard to
  learning and child protection, in terms of data
• Chronic non-attender/s can skew site data
  significantly
• Chronic non-attender/s can fly under the radar
  in the data as they are not always identified by
  absence alerts as these pick up consecutive
  absences.
• The SABM Datamart provides a reminder, via the
  alert system, that a student has been absent
  unauthorised for 10 days

12
ALL SCHOOL ABSENCES REDUCE LEARNING AND NEED
DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS
13
Establish Baseline Data Reporting mean
average attendance rates masks individual
patterns of attendance An attendance rate of
84 for ten students in one schoolcould mean

• each of the ten students was away for 32 days -
  in which case 84 is very descriptive of the
  attendance patterns of those students

• two students were away for 160 days each while
  the remaining eight students attended every
  single day - in which case the modal average,
  the most common pattern, would be closer to 100
  attendance.

OR
14
How does data support improvement?

• A strong culture of data use means that people
  frequently engage in conversations about how well
  the site is doing, and what are the areas for
  improvement.
• This requires knowledge of what data and related
  performance indicators measure, the patterns they
  reveal and their uses and limitations.

15
Improving the Attendance of Students at Risk

• Effective strategies are best developed from the
  context of a well-considered school approach..
• Schools may work in partnership with community
  agencies to develop a case- management approach.
• Individual attendance issues can be underpinned
  by more complex and ingrained social and
  emotional factors. These may be associated with
  other behaviours and waning attendance may be an
  early warning sign.
•  
• The school plan should be based on a
  case-management approach which
• is underpinned by a student-centred program that
  matches a students needs and interests provides
  ongoing monitoring
• utilises programs and scaffolds of support from
  across the school and community provides a key
  relationship which facilitates other supports.

16
Understand current performance patternsBreak
the data down to analyse it!
17
Attendance Improvement Plan

• Ensures that schools fulfil their obligations in
  terms of departmental requirements and
  accountability.
• Is developed through a collaborative information
  sharing and planning process involving the
  school, parents/carers and other relevant
  agencies and services
• Is a flexible working document, which informs the
  recording, monitoring and follow-up of attendance
  at sites using accurate, meaningful data.
• Supports the development of individual plans and
  provides a framework for case management for
  those students identified as having attendance
  concerns.
• Is a document which is reviewed and monitored
  regularly.

18

• Combineuniversal strategieswith
• targeted interventions
• to build aculture of attendance

19
CAUSES OF ABSENCE The issues of student
engagement and attendance are complex and there
are no simple solutions.
Health issues
Language
Family Finance
Access/ Transportation
Family expectations
Cultural Issues
Bullying/ Harrassment
Family mobility
Student expectations
ATTENDANCE
Out of school responsibilities
Teacher Student Relationships
Engagement in School
Educational Relevance
Peers
School/ teacher expectations
Teacher Training
Past Performance
Support staff
School Suspension Policy
School Atmosphere
20
Schools need to be placeswhere students want to
be.

• Dropping out of school is not a sudden act, but
  a slow process of disengagement. . . .These
  students had long periods of absences and were
  sometimes referred to the attendance counsellor,
  only to be brought back to the same environment
  that led them to become disengaged
• Opportunities for Review/Research/Restoration

21
The way forward..

• What questions does the data raise for you?
• What do you need further clarification on?
• What do you need to discuss with sites?
• What should be the priorities for our sites and
  our region?
• What support or information do we need?

22

2011 Semester 1 SABM Datamart Analysis SABM Datamart Analysis SABM Datamart Analysis
Attendance Rate All Years All Prim All Sec GoM All GoM Prim GoM Sec ATSI SWD School Card
Adelaide Hills 90.7 93.0 86.1 90.0 94.1 83.3 83.8 88.7 87.8
Barossa 90.1 92.6 85.6 91.3 91.9 87.4 86.1 88.5 88.1
Eastern Adelaide 93.6 94.3 92.8 92.8 93.3 92.2 87.9 90.7 92.6
Eyre and Western 86.9 89.7 81.8 85.4 91.1 73.3 73.6 83.1 82.2
Far North 80.7 84.1 73.7 81.9 86.9 67.3 71.9 78.3 73.3
Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island 88.7 91.2 84.7 83.7 86.3 80.3 83.3 85.5 87.0
Limestone Coast 91.9 93.3 89.7 91.6 93.5 89.4 85.6 89.3 89.3
Murray and Mallee 88.9 91.4 85.6 90.5 93.7 84.2 80.1 86.1 86.3
Northern Adelaide 89.2 91.6 84.8 89.4 90.7 86.7 80.2 86.8 87.4
Southern Adelaide 90.8 92.9 87.8 90.5 92.7 87.0 84.0 88.6 88.4
Western Adelaide 90.7 92.0 89.0 86.1 90.7 82.3 78.4 86.4 88.6
Yorke and Mid North 89.6 91.6 86.9 88.8 92.3 83.0 81.5 86.5 86.2
DECD 90.2 92.1 87.1 88.8 91.5 84.3 79.0 86.9 87.4
12/09/2012 Report run 12/09/2012 Report run 12/09/2012 Report run