When staff at Downfield Primary School in Dundee first looked at their overall pupil attendance rate, there was no real cause for concern.
But when they looked further they discovered the school had one of the highest rates in the city of children who had 20 or more ad-hoc absences.
Eager to find ways of addressing the issue, the school is taking part in the Every Dundee Learner Matters project – a city-wide initiative aimed at improving the quality of education for all pupils.
But how has this helped pupils at Downfield Primary and has the approach made a difference?
Attendance a ‘complex issue’
The Every Dundee Learner Matters strategy has been running in the city for a little over a year.
At Downfield, staff opted to focus on pupils’ attendance and came together find out how they could help pupils.
Head teacher Karen Emmett explained: “We were given autonomy to chose the area of work that would make the biggest difference to our school.”
“We looked at a couple of things, the first being attendance. Attendance is a complex issue because for every child and family the barriers can be quite different.
“So it’s difficult to say ‘right, we are going to do this for everybody and it will have an effect’.”
What has been done?
Ms Emmett worked alongside family development officers at the school to come up with initiatives that would benefit the school community.
“Some of the universal things we have done for example is to put snack boxes at the doors of all the classrooms”, Ms Emmett said.
“So in the morning you might have kids who haven’t had time to have breakfast and were getting a snack on the way to school.
“The kids know if they are going to be late, they don’t have to go via the shops to get a snack – they can come straight to school.”
Asking the children
But far from just creating a universal approach to improving attendance, the school also worked with pupils and families to find out what could be improved – including creating a Downfield attendance buddies club.
Family development officer Kirsten Brownlie said: “This is about taking it back to the children and asking them what are the barriers to them attending school and we can help support them.”
“We targeted our P5 to P7 pupils and it was a voluntary thing, I went in to speak to the classes and they volunteered.
“So there are children with poor attendance and others who are here every day. It’s been an opportunity to share experiences.
“They’ve spoken about why some don’t attend so they’ve got a good understanding that sometimes it’s through no fault of their own.”
‘It’s been really positive’
Downfield Primary has already seen great success through the project, with some pupils’ attendance rising from around 50% to over 90% in the last 12 months.
And it’s this “huge improvement” that’s encouraging the school to continue working with pupils and families to ensure that continues.
Ms Emmett added: “It’s been really positive. A big focus of our attendance project is making sure the kids are aware of the attendance issues.
“It’s taken a lot of time but we have seen great improvement and moving forward we want to sustain that and widen it out.
“It’s the families doing the hard work themselves.”
Conversation