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

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:

1. Socio-economic factors.
2. Health issues.
3. Unstable homes.
4. Transportation issues.
5. Family issues.

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.

SecEd Series: Equity in schools

• Article 1: An ABC for building equity and addressing disadvantage in your school: Published September 2
• Article 2: The ABC of equity in schools: A is for attendance: Published September 11
• Article 3: The ABC of equity in schools: A three-pronged approach to attendance: This article
• Article 4: The ABC of equity in schools: B is for behaviour: Published September 23
• Article 5: The ABC of equity in schools: C is for community: Published October 2

A three-pronged approach

My three-pronged approach starts by exploring in-school factors – the push and pull of school life. In other words, what aspects of our school push some learners away and what aspects might pull them back in?

Only when we have explored ways of improving the school experience can and should we explore factors outside of school. This mindset should also govern the way we communicate with parents and families – rather than blaming parents for their child’s absence from school or asking parents what they can and should do to address attendance issues, we should ask what we can do to support parents in getting their child into school.

The three prongs are as follows:

1. School: Curriculum content; curriculum coverage; social and emotional environment; routines and expectations.
2. Home: Parental understanding and engagement; household routines and logistics; parental presence and support; socio-economic factors/environment.
3. Learner: Academic barriers; social and emotional barriers; SEND and mental health; illness.

Here are some self-evaluation questions for each of the above factors to help you assess your current practice and identify your actionable next steps.

1, School-based factors

Curriculum content

• To what extent do your curriculum content choices reflect your learners’ lived experiences? Do they see themselves reflected in what you teach?
• To what extent do the examples you use to teach the curriculum – the case studies, models, illustrations, texts, etc – represent your learners? Do they see themselves reflected in how you teach?
• Does your curriculum act as both a mirror – reflecting your learners’ own lives and experiences to make it accessible – and a window – showing learners a world beyond their own lives and experiences to foster greater understanding?

Curriculum coverage

• Do you plan an ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum that gives learners access to the best that has been thought and said, and that represents excellence in each subject discipline?
• Do you give equal access to every learner to the same ambitious curriculum, regardless of starting point and additional and different needs, rather than dumbing down?
• Do you ensure that all learners can access the same ambitious curriculum by diagnosing additional needs and converting the causes of disadvantage into tangible classroom consequences? Do you then help learners to overcome those barriers through adaptive teaching and interventions?

Social and emotional environment

• Do you foster a culture of inclusivity, of respect and tolerance? Do you understand the difficulties some learners might have with navigating your school environment and do you make reasonable adjustments for them?
• Do you explicitly teach social and emotional development as part of your PSHE programme, and across the curriculum, in order to equip learners with the skills needed to engage positively with others and manage their emotional responses? Do all the adults who work in your school model healthy social and emotional skills?
• Do you have robust systems in place for preventing bullying and harassment and for tackling incidences of bullying when they do occur? Do learners feel safe and supported?

Routines and expectations

• Have you agreed a set of social norms for your school: “The way we do things around here?” Do you communicate and practise these daily routines so that they become automatic for all learners all the time?
• Are your expectations of learners’ behaviour clear and consistent, and do you repeatedly reinforce them? Are those expectations achievable for all learners including disadvantaged learners and learners with additional needs? If not, do you make reasonable adjustments to them?
• Do you have an effective system of consequences which recognises learners who routinely meet your expectations and sanctions those who repeatedly and avoidably flout your rules and routines?

2, Home-based factors

Parental understanding and engagement

• Do you provide parent information sessions and share other forms of information to help parents and families understand the importance of education and the part they can play in supporting their child’s education? Do you repeatedly signpost the value of education and offer practical suggestions to help parents engage with their child’s learning, including helping with homework?
• Do you engage with parents as partners in the process of educating their child, involving them and not just informing them? Is parental communication a two-way process? Do you report back to parents on the actions you have taken in response to their feedback so that they know they have an important voice?
• Do you think innovatively about engaging parents who are harder to reach, including by meeting parents off-site at a neutral community venue and by enlisting other parents or community leaders to act as conduits of information for those parents who are reluctant to liaise with school staff?

Household routines and logistics

• Do you seek to understand what logistical barriers some families face to securing good attendance for their child? Do you explore practical solutions to overcome these barriers, such as sharing with all parents proven morning habits?
• Do you seek to understand issues around transportation and use funding to help those in need access suitable transport? Do you work with your local authority and transport companies to find long-term solutions, including for those learners who are moved into accommodation farther from school?
• Do you mitigate the problems some learners face at home in relation to their morning and after-school routines? For example, do you provide a breakfast club for those who would benefit from not only being fed but also from accessing help with uniform and equipment before school starts? Do you provide homework clubs after school staffed by trained colleagues which provide access to a warm, safe environment and IT equipment to help those learners who do not have these advantages at home? Do you provide food and water at homework clubs? Do you ensure learners can access transport home afterwards?

Parental presence and support

• Do you make sure parents know about their legal obligations with regards their child’s attendance at school and do you support them to make good decisions about their children? Do you promote the benefit of attendance in every interaction and ensure parents know where to go for help?
• Do you run – or signpost to – parent education classes which help equip families with the skills and strategies they need to provide a suitable home for their children? Does this include modelling healthy morning routines? Do you help parents to have difficult conversations with their children and to challenge inappropriate behaviours? Do you, for example, educate parents about ensuring their child stays safe online and managing screen-time effectively?
• Do you talk about the value of education and encourage respected community figures to do likewise? Do you link educational outcomes to future life chances and to better health and wellbeing?

Socio-economic factors

• Do you “poverty-proof” your school, including by reducing the cost of school uniform and running a used uniform service, and by providing funded access to educational trips and extra-curricular activities?
• Do you provide access to resources such as food, clothing and stationery for learners who live in poverty? Do you provide a safe and supportive environment in which learners who lack resources at home can complete homework and access help?
• Do you work with parents in a non-judgemental way to understand the impact poverty has on their ability to support their child’s education and do you provide access to help, including signposting external agencies? Do you help provide affordable transport? Do you ensure funding such as the Pupil Premium is spent where there is greatest need and where it will have the biggest impact rather than only spending it on children who are eligible?

3, Learner-based factors

Academic barriers

• Do you diagnose learner starting points, including levels of literacy and numeracy, and put in place effective adaptations and interventions to help fill gaps in prior knowledge, including in vocabulary?
• Do you audit access to extra-curricular activities to ensure those in most need of opportunities to build their cultural capital are prioritised, targeted and funded?
• Do you run a planned programme of professional development for teachers and teaching assistants that ensures all staff understand learners’ needs and have a raft of strategies at their disposal to help scaffold those needs? Do you then monitor the impact of such strategies and ensure gaps are closing?

Social and emotional barriers

• Do you provide an effective programme of personal development which actively teaches learners social and emotional skills, including how to stay mentally healthy and cope with difficult situations?
• Do you have systems in place to ensure learners with social and emotional difficulties are identified in a timely manner and are offered support? Do you have a range of support strategies in place including mentoring, access to specialist services, and robust systems for tackling bullying and harassment?
• Does your approach to behaviour management make learners feel safe and supported? Do you foster a collaborative environment and actively teach learners how to manage their emotions and work with others? Do you make reasonable adjustments for learners with social, emotional and mental health needs to ensure they feel included and able to navigate friendships and make positive contributions to school life?

SEND and mental health

• Do you explicitly build a safe, calm and supportive school culture, and repeatedly reinforce social norms? Do you ensure your environment is not a barrier to learners with SEND by making reasonable adjustments? Do all learners feel they belong?
• Do you ensure your curriculum talks to learners’ lived experiences, including reflecting the lives of learners with SEND and those with mental health issues? Do you actively teach tolerance and empathy and ensure other learners are respectful towards learners with SEND and to learners with mental health issues?
• Do all staff model resilience and self-regulation? Do all staff have high expectations of learners with SEND and avoid perpetuating learned helplessness?

Illness

• Do you educate parents about what is “too ill for school”, including by sharing the NHS resource? Do you help parents make informed decisions including by encouraging them to send their child to school if in doubt? Do all staff understand what is and is not “ill enough” to warrant an absence from school? Do they challenge absences for the more minor illnesses?
• Do you monitor trends in school-level illnesses and compare these to regional and national data? Do you promote good health including by teaching learners how to stay physically and mentally healthy and by teaching learners about healthy eating?
• Do you educate learners and parents about mental health, making clear the difference between anxiety as a medical diagnosis and being generally apprehensive about school? Do you “normalise” worrying about stressful or unfamiliar situations as a natural – and sometimes welcome – part of life?

Next time

Next week, in part four of this five-part series, I will turn to the B in my ABC – behaviours. This article is now live and you can find it here.

• Matt Bromley is an education journalist, author, and advisor with 25 years’ experience in teaching and leadership including as a secondary school headteacher. He remains a practising teacher. Matt is the author of numerous books on education and co-host of the award-winning SecEd Podcast. Find him on X @mj_bromley. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/matt-bromley