views of head teachers and teachers on attendance issues in primary schools, The

Research in Education, Nov 2004 by Reid, Ken

Background

This is the first article of its kind to analyse and evaluate primary head teachers' and teachers' attitudes towards attendance issues within primary schools. Comparatively little published work on attendance issues within primary school exists (Reid, 2002a).

The Chief Inspector's annual report for 2002/03 found:

1 The level of attendance for primary schools was about the same as the previous year at 94.2 per cent (para. 84).

2 Attendance in secondary schools had improved slightly, with total absences of 8.3 per cent compared with 8.7 per cent in 2001/02 (para. 116).

3 Unauthorised absence rates averaged fifteen days per pupil (para. 116).

4 Procedures for monitoring and improving attendance are better than they were in secondary schools, but remain unsatisfactory in one school in twelve, often despite the best efforts of many schools. The Chief Inspector believes that a minority of parents, often with poor experience of education and low expectations of their children, do not do enough to ensure that their children attend school regularly or to support the school in taking action on truancy (OfStEd, 2004a, para. 159).

On out-of-school provision, the report (para. 294) considers that:

1 Overall attendance in many of the units is below that in mainstream schools.

2 For a majority of pupils in pupil referral units (PRUs), their attendance is better than it was before admission to the units.

3 Overall attendance figures in many units are reduced by a small number of persistent absentees.

4 Attendance is unsatisfactory in a majority of units.

5 Procedures for monitoring and improving attendance are either good or better in most PRUs (OfStEd, 2004a).

Attendance is a key part of the government's school improvement, Fresh Start, Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances and special measures strategies. It is also a significant feature of many DfES or government-led initiatives, including Education Action Zones, Excellence in Cities clusters and Connexions endeavours (paras 329, 335, 339-49).

Finally, LEAs are doing more to promote good attendance (p. 89), including the use of better social inclusion strategies (p. 95). However, despite highquality support and the use of a wide range of initiatives, attendance rates remain low in many LEAs (p. 95; see also para. 473).

Recent British and international research

Most recent research on truancy and absenteeism from school has focused upon individual facets of the phenomena and upon the associated consequences of the behaviour. Osier et al. (2002), for example, suggest that truancy is a form of 'self-exclusion' on the part of girls. Truancy and/or school absenteeism has been found to be closely linked with a number of childhood pathologies (Woodward and Fergusson, 2000), including poverty (Zhang, 2003), running away (de Man, 2000), disaffection and young offending (Ball and Connolly, 2000), alcoholism (Wichstrom, 1998; Miller and Plant, 1999), disturbed adolescent development (Baer, 1999), parenting styles (McNeal, 1999), pre-court sentencing information (Ball and Connolly, 1999), gang membership (Fritsch et al., 1999), drug use (Lloyd, 1998), early conduct disorders (Fergusson and Horwood, 1998), exclusion from school (Bratby, 1998; Audit Commission, 1998), health factors (Michaud et al., 1998), pupils' personalities (Jones and Francis, 1995) and attitudes (Lewis, 1995), aspects of adverse behaviour and lower levels of self-esteem and academic self-concepts as well as less favourable attitudes to parents and teachers (Reid, 1999), and curriculum arrangements in the compulsory phase of schooling (O'Keefe et al, 1993).

Previously, much research activity was related to the link between deprivation, social class, parental attitudes and socio-economic factors with poorer school attendance. Reid (1999), for example, has reported on the clear links between the causes of non-attendance and truancy with a range of social indices. These include pupils at risk, pupils' home backgrounds, family lifestyles, disruptive behaviour, young offending, pupils' academic ability, educational failure and personality aspects. He has posted a catalogue of early warning signs and highlighted factors which appear to affect pupils' decisions to miss school. These symptoms are especially important in primary schools, as research clearly shows that early detection of initial truancy often lies undetected (Reid, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1999). Moreover, an increasing number of pupils are beginning their histories of non-attendance in primary school and the age of onset is becoming lower and lower (Reid, 1999). Furthermore, the progression between initial absence and the persistent stage seems to be shortening, possibly due to curricular aspects within schools (Reid, 1982, 1999, 2002b).

Unfortunately, much less research has been undertaken into attendance issues in primary schools than in their secondary counterparts. One recent area of work which is providing some useful leads is the reports undertaken for the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) by Kay Kinder and her colleagues. For example, some of their research reports (Kinder, Kendall et al., 1999; Kinder, Wilkin et al., 1999) on behaviour and exclusion include evidence on attendance issues. Furthermore, the current debate between the DfES and the education welfare service is attempting to classify and reclassify how education welfare officers should relate to schools over attendance issues (TAG, 2004). This development needs to be seen in the context of two recent national developments. First, the attempt to devolve more education welfare time to schools (NFER, 2002). second, the growth of para-professional support within secondary schools, not least the growth in classroom assistants, home-school liaison officers, learning mentors, attendance officers and attendance secretaries (Reid, 2002c). At present, however, it is too soon to be certain of the impact these staff are making on schools' attendance rates (Muijs and Reynolds, 2003; Reid, 2004k, 1).