Best Practice

The ABC of equity: A three-pronged approach to school attendance

Continuing his focus on attendance as part of his series on equity in schools, Matt Bromley considers a three-pronged approach to reducing absence and offers self-evaluation questions to help you assess current practice and actionable next steps
Image: Adobe Stock

In part two of this series last week, I explained that disadvantaged learners are more than twice as likely to be absent from school as their non-disadvantaged peers. I also shared five factors that lead to lower attendance among disadvantaged learners:

To narrow the attendance gap – that is to say, to break the link between disadvantage and absenteeism, I suggested adopting two core mantras in school: Everyday counts and Attendance is everybody’s business.

Next, I suggested we “flip the conversation” and promote the benefits of good attendance – avoiding the deficit model and instead talking positively about the significant advantages afforded to learners who attend regularly.

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