Attendance matters campaign launches to give every child the best start to the school year
- Education settings across Guernsey and Alderney are launching 'Attendance Matters', a campaign to build strong attendance habits from September
- Research shows attendance patterns formed in the first few weeks of the academic year tend to stick throughout the year
- Primary pupils with 95% attendance are 30% more likely to meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths
- Schools are introducing measures including 'Back to School' guidance, clearer signposting for support, and improved staff training
- The campaign focuses on partnership between schools, families and support services rather than rules or penalties
A new campaign to support families and schools in building strong attendance habits from the start of the academic year has been launched.
The 'Attendance Matters' initiative focuses on pre-empting patterns of persistent absence through encouragement and signposting support where required.
Research shows that attendance patterns formed in the first few weeks of the academic year tend to stick, with a positive, consistent start building routines that continue throughout the year, while early absences can be harder to turn around.
School attendance has become a growing challenge both nationally and internationally, with many jurisdictions reporting a marked rise in absence, particularly persistent absence, since the Covid-19 pandemic. Guernsey and Alderney are not immune to these trends, and the reasons behind them are complex and wide-ranging.
Last year, a School Attendance Working Group was formed, bringing together headteachers, principals, teachers, education staff and other partners.
The group has worked to understand and address the underlying drivers of absence, tracking and building a clearer picture of the different barriers that can lead to persistent absence of 95% and below.
A key approach has been ensuring that the support in place responds to the underlying reasons children are missing school.
The campaign does not focus on rules or penalties. Instead, 'Attendance Matters' highlights how schools, families and local services can work together to remove barriers to attendance, whether that involves building confidence, supporting wellbeing or additional needs, or making the morning routine easier.
The evidence for consistent attendance in education is compelling. Primary pupils with attendance of 95% and above are 30% more likely to meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths, according to the Department for Education. A Year 11 pupil with 95% attendance has almost double the chances of achieving a Grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSE.
Students in Year 12 and 13 with attendance above 95% tend to outperform their peers who achieved similar GCSEs, while those with attendance below 90% tend to underperform significantly, according to the SFCA Six Dimensions report.
The campaign highlights that 90% attendance equates to approximately 20 days missed per year. If repeated year on year in primary school, by the end of Year 2, a child will have missed approximately half a term. If that continues to the end of Year 6, that amounts to over half a year of their education missed.
If a student is only achieving 80% attendance, they are missing one day of school each week. Across five years of their secondary education, they will have missed a whole year of school. Persistent lateness works in the same way, with arriving just 15 minutes late each day adding up to around two weeks of lost learning across a whole school year.
Schools and colleges are introducing a range of measures as part of the campaign, including 'Back to School' guidance for families on how to have the best start to the academic year, clearer signposting on how and where to get support if needed for families and pupils, and an awareness campaign to highlight how patterns of lateness or school weeks missed add up significantly.
The measures also include improved training and support for education staff on supporting with attendance, and better partnerships with local health, wellbeing and family support services to ensure a joined-up approach.
Nick Hynes, Director for Education, said: "Like many jurisdictions, we're working to tackle persistent absence across our schools, and we want to be clear from the outset that this is about partnership.
"Our message to families is simple: we can only deliver opportunities to our island's children if they're in school. Incredible things happen in our schools every day, from learning and enrichment activities, to unique experiences and those special breakthrough moments that can shape a child's future, but children have to be there to be part of them."
He added: "Regular attendance is about much more than academic attainment. It's about belonging, friendship building and wellbeing, and it's part of how we keep children safe and supported.
"A huge amount of work has been happening behind the scenes over the past year to better join up our services, to understand reasons a child might regularly miss school, and to treat attendance as something we all share responsibility for, not something schools face alone.
"The evidence is striking: how consistently a child attends in the first couple of weeks of term can shape their whole year. So, this is the beginning of a conversation. If your family is finding attendance difficult, for whatever reason, please talk to us early, because the sooner we understand the problem, the sooner we can help."
Alison Elliott, Headteacher of La Mare de Carteret Primary School, said: "Attending primary school every day is one of the most vital foundations for a child's learning, social development and overall well-being.
"Primary education moves quickly, and building consistent daily routines early on helps children feel secure, stay connected with friends and reach their full potential. While we know that balancing family life and school commitments can sometimes be challenging, we want to ensure children are successful at school."
She highlighted the issue of term-time holidays: "In particular, we completely understand how expensive family holidays have become and how tempting it can be to travel during term-time when the savings are so significant.
"But in primary school especially, learning builds on itself day by day, so even short absences - two weeks here, a week there - can leave gaps that are hard to close, particularly if it happens several times across the year. We're not trying to make that decision harder for families; we just want parents to have the full picture before they book, and to know we're always happy to talk it through with them."
Vicky Godley, Principal of St Sampson's High School, said: "We're looking forward to launching 'Attendance Matters' and working alongside our students to continue building on our attendance levels.
"We want every family to know that if something is getting in the way of their child being in school, we want to help solve it, together. We know there are many reasons why a young person might want to start skipping school, and sometimes the parents might not even know that's happening.
"We are committed to communicating with families, and in return we'd ask families to have early conversations with us if they notice attendance start to dip. If we have a conversation early, we can often find a solution before it's become a pattern."
Kieran James, Principal of The Sixth Form Centre, said: "Attendance remains crucial in post-16 education, not only to academic success, but also to self-confidence, social connection and keeping future pathways open.
"The qualifications and skills learners gain during the post-16 phase shape the choices ahead of them - whether at university, in an apprenticeship or in their first job. 'Attendance Matters' is our commitment to supporting learners through this key phase, as our students take on greater responsibility for their future success, wellbeing and employability."
Dr Louise Misselke, Executive Principal of The Guernsey Institute, said: "Every person's education matters, whatever path they are on.
"Whether a TGI learner is studying technical, business related, vocational, skills based supported learning, higher education or learning professional qualifications through an apprenticeship, we know that being present is what turns opportunity into achievement, and so we are working hard to ensure that each learner has the support they need to do so."
More information is available at gov.gg/attendance.
Q&A
Q: What is the 'Attendance Matters' campaign?
A: It is a unified campaign being launched across Guernsey and Alderney education settings to support families and schools in building strong attendance habits with children and young people from September. The campaign focuses on encouragement and signposting support rather than rules or penalties.
Q: How does attendance affect academic achievement?
A: Primary pupils with attendance of 95% and above are 30% more likely to meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths. A Year 11 pupil with 95% attendance has almost double the chances of achieving a Grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSE. Students in Year 12 and 13 with attendance above 95% tend to outperform their peers who achieved similar GCSEs.
Q: What measures are schools introducing as part of the campaign?
A: Schools are introducing 'Back to School' guidance for families, clearer signposting on how and where to get support, an awareness campaign highlighting how patterns of lateness or missed weeks add up, improved training and support for education staff on supporting with attendance, and better partnerships with local health, wellbeing and family support services.
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