By Jaya Carrier
I hope you’re all having a good week so far. We are all aware of the important connection that attendance has with student academic achievement, and as a result we’ve all been doing lots of work on ensuring excellent attendance, particularly in the post-Covid landscape. Therefore I was interested to come across a recent study that looked at attendance, and specifically the reasons for student absence.
Objectives: To understand whether the reasons for student absence make a difference to the link between absenteeism and academic performance.
Summary:
The researchers used data in Scotland, which requires schools to note the reasons for student absences.
They looked to examine whether or not the reasons for absence made a difference to student achievement.
For all different reasons of absence, there was a negative impact on student achievement. The impact of some, however, was greater than others - truancy or sickness-related absence was highest, then absence due to holidays, then family emergencies.
The authors of the study suggest in their recommendations that schools build support plans that target the specific reasons for absences, and therefore help students make up their academic learning, feel a sense of connection to school and then get additional support outside of school where required.
How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
How do I support the attendance of my tutees and students?
What are some of the individual reasons for absence?
What support do some of my students need to help them?
What support do I need to help with improving student attendance?
Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!
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