Pupil Absences in Dundee Schools - Education Committee Monday 27 January 2014

I placed Pupil Absences in Dundee Schools on the Agenda of the Education Committee held on Monday 27 January because I think the thousands of missed school days in Dundee matters. 

The statistics published by the Scottish Government in December indicated the extent of pupil absences in Dundee Schools. Their table of results indicated that Dundee was the bottom of the league table of 32 education authorities on these measures.

These statistics showed that in 2012/13 the percentage attendance in Scottish local authority schools ranged from the highest 95.5 per cent (East Renfrewshire) to the lowest 92.3 per cent (Dundee City). This means Dundee has the highest pupil absence rate in Scotland in the last complete school year. A 3.2 per cent difference may not seem much but translated into days missed over a year it stacks up. In fact it means that on average, every pupil in Dundee misses more than one week more than pupils in East Renfrewshire. No wonder the exam results are better in East Renfrewshire.

Looking more closely at the figures for Dundee, it means that on average each pupil in Dundee misses fifteen days or three weeks of schooling a year. This adds up to almost one year of schooling lost by every pupil during their 5-16 compulsory school years. Of course I know that averages like this mask wide variations between schools and pupils. Some pupils will have perfect attendance and so by implication some pupils must be absent for lengthy periods of time.

Any day of absence from school is a day of missed learning opportunities. If we want to increase the attainment of our pupils, we need to reduce the number of days at school that are lost through absence for reasons that are avoidable.

This was reinforced by the publication of OECD international research about truancy. This report said that higher truancy rates in schools throughout Britain are leaving pupils lagging behind their peers in top-performing nations across Europe and the Far East. More specifically the research showed that a fifth of pupils in UK secondary schools admitted to skipping a least a day of lessons over a two week period period to the survey.

Right now we need some detailed explanation of what is going wrong and why the absence rate has apparently been creeping up in Dundee but decreasing elsewhere. I think we need to hear from the Director of Education about a way forward. We need to hear more how our schools, working with pupils and parents and carers, are tackling this issue. It surely needs to be much more than the Education Convener’s advocacy of taking some secondary pupils on visits to meet offenders in prison.

Judging by the avoidance of detail about Absences, apart from ‘Exclusions’ in the annual Standards and Quality Report also on the Agenda last Monday, it looks as though, if I hadn’t raised this there would not have been an opportunity for the Education Committee to engage with this important issue.

At the end of this item the Education Committee approved my motion:
which:

• instructs the Education Director to include absence issues including but not exclusively exclusions in the annual standards and quality report to the Education Committee and 
• recommends that strategies for absence reduction are given higher emphasis in the process of Annual Reviews and Extended School Reviews.

Commenting on Dundee Schools Having the Highest Absence Rate in Scotland

Official statistics published last week by the Scottish Government include figures for the attendance and absence of school pupils. 

In 2012/13 the percentage attendance in Scottish local authority schools ranged from the highest 95.5 per cent (East Renfrewshire) to the lowest 92.3 per cent (Dundee City). This means Dundee has the highest pupil absence rate in Scotland in the last complete school year. A 3.2% difference may not seem much but translated into days missed over a year it stacks up. In fact it means that on average, every pupil in Dundee misses more than one week more than pupils in East Renfrewshire. No wonder the exam results are better in East Renfrewshire.

Looking more closely at the figures for Dundee, it means that on average each pupil in Dundee misses fifteen days or three weeks of schooling a year. This adds up to almost one year of schooling lost by every pupil during their 5-16 compulsory school years.

It is very disappointing that Dundee Schools are at the bottom of the national league table for their absence rate. Any day of absence from school is a day of missed learning opportunities. If we want to increase the attainment of our pupils, we need to reduce the number of days at school that are lost through absence for reasons that are avoidable.

Right now we need some explanation of what is going wrong and why the absence rate has been increasing in Dundee but decreasing elsewhere.

I have written to the Council's Committee Clerk to ask that this issue is discussed at the next meeting of the Education Committee. This can't be allowed to be brushed under the carpet. The Education Directorate need to explain how they intend to bring down the number of lost days of learning in our schools.

Unexplained Absences in our Schools Need Explanation and Action

The publication of statistics about 'unexplained absences' of pupils in Dundee schools reveals a very varied picture. 

While the total number of these absences across the city has apparently reduced from previous years there are still huge differences between schools. But the total number of unexplained absences in our schools remains unacceptable.

I notice that Barnhill Primary School in The Ferry, has the lowest rate of unexplained absences. With 415 pupils it had 126 in the year.  This works out on average at much less than one unexplained absence per pupil per year. 

On the other hand, I notice that Rowantree Primary School, with 258 pupils and 4920 unexplained absences would appear to have the highest rate in the city. That works out on average at 19 unexplained absences per pupil per year - nearly two weeks schooling a year. 

Rowantree Primary School's rate of unexplained absences is 63 times the rate at Barnhill Primary School. Now how can differences like this be explained or tolerated?

It would be too easy to jump to the conclusion that this is all down to parents and carers and their attentiveness to notifying their child's primary school for their reason for an absence. Perhaps there are more reasons for such wide differences which I think merit some thorough investigation.

Since unexplained absences involve both teachers and administrative staff using a computer programme to record information about attendance, perhaps there are differences in how this is undertaken between staff and between schools? Have some of our schools had significant absences in their administrative staff that has affected their ability to accurately record what is going on? 

Whatever the explanation, every day of unexplained absence is a day of learning at school which is lost. When children return to school after an absence, their return may often mean that their teacher's time is diverted from the rest of the class so that they can bring the returning pupil up to speed. Of course no one minds if this absence is for a reason that is essential or could not be prevented. In the case of unexplained absences there is a suspicion that many of these may be unnecessary.

I hope these statistics will be raised with Head Teachers and also with Parent Councils to see how they think we can reduce the number of unexplained absences in all our schools to a more acceptable level.