Recording, monitoring and shared responsibility

Schools select one attendance code from a list of more than 50 to record each pupil’s attendance status. Many schools have procedures for assigning these codes and quality-assuring their use. However, across Scotland, approaches to coding for approved educational activity vary widely, particularly in secondary schools. At times, attendance data is not coded appropriately. This limits staff’s ability to monitor attendance accurately and is particularly evident in secondary schools.

Where practice is strong, senior leaders review attendance information regularly at whole-school, cohort, group and individual pupil levels. They use this analysis to identify patterns, respond to emerging issues and target action for individual pupils and across the whole school. In these schools, leaders also quality assure how attendance is recorded and coded.

In a few schools, attendance data is not tracked or monitored effectively. Some schools also lack clear policies that set out roles and responsibilities for those supporting attendance. Where this is the case, staff need clearer expectations for monitoring and tracking attendance, understanding and identifying the factors affecting absence and planning responses that reflect the school’s context.

Many schools set their own attendance thresholds and agree responses when a pupil’s attendance falls below these expectations. However, there is wide variation in how schools set and apply these thresholds, which leads to inconsistency across Scotland. Regular monitoring of individual patterns of attendance and absence should be a minimum expectation for all schools and should help staff, pupils, parents and carers identify support needs and understand the reasons for concern.

In the strongest schools, senior leaders make clear that attendance is everyone’s responsibility. They ensure that all staff understand their role in promoting and supporting good attendance. Ambitious attendance targets are communicated clearly and understood across the school.

Senior leaders and staff understand that good attendance does not happen in isolation. It is closely linked to the quality of the curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment, as well as to inclusion and the wider ethos of the school. In the strongest examples, staff use nurturing approaches and positive relationships to motivate children and young people and strengthen their sense of belonging. They work with pupils to create welcoming and calm environments and support them to develop approaches to emotional regulation and wellbeing. This helps build positive relationships and improve engagement in school.

In a few schools, staff do not yet have a sufficiently detailed understanding of the issues affecting some pupils, such as caring responsibilities. As a result, support is not always tailored well enough to pupils’ needs and circumstances.