Absenteeism is among the greatest challenges facing modern schools in the UK.

But in no way is this a 'new' problem. Steve Warburton, one of our consultants, was Headteacher of a school in an 'Excellence in Cities' cluster in 2004 where attendance was a key focus.

The latest figures from the Department for Education suggest school absence is at a record high in England, with more than 170,000 children being “severely absent” and missing for at least half their lessons last year.

The reasons behind rising absence rates range from illness and mental health challenges to term-time holidays, meaning there’s no quick fix when it comes to solving the problem.

To tackle absenteeism at its root causes and develop preventative strategies, staff need to delve deeper into what’s going on. Through the power of data, school leaders can gain insight into why children are missing school, intervene before non-attendance escalates, and implement targeted solutions to keep students in school.

Read on to discover how the power of data-driven insights can help reduce attendance issues in your school or MAT.

Spotting patterns and trends 

Data can help draw correlations between student profiles and attendance patterns, allowing for early intervention before a student progresses from unauthorised absences to severe and persistent absenteeism. 

Understanding attendance variations by age, gender, socio-economic background, or special educational needs can help target interventions. For example, recent data has shown that 33.6% of pupils receiving FSM (Free School Meals) are persistently absent as compared to 20% not in receipt of FSM. In fact, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) calculated that if disadvantaged pupils had the same attendance record as other pupils, the attainment gap at age 11 would be almost 10% smaller, and the gap at age 16 would be 20% lower.

Studies also show that some demographics are at a higher risk of exiting the English education system permanently, including 75% of traveller pupils and approximately 1 in 8 care-experienced pupils.

Identifying these patterns through school data can help develop policies and initiatives to keep children in school, improving attendance levels across your school or trust.

Early intervention and predictive analytics 

A robust school data strategy allows schools to intervene before a child’s absence problem escalates. 

AI-driven data management systems can predict students at risk of poor attendance based on historical data, taking into account factors such as socioeconomic background, unmet special needs, mental and physical health issues, family circumstances, trauma and bereavement.

They can also flag early warning signs, which can include:

  • Poor academic performance
  • Low levels of classroom engagement
  • Experiencing bullying or social isolation

Through automated alerts, teachers and staff can be notified when a student’s attendance drops below a certain threshold. This makes it easier for schools to draw up tailored intervention plans to support struggling students.

Parental communication 

When it comes to students missing school, it’s important for educational institutions to establish strong communication with parents to reduce absences. 

In some cases, parents may even be unaware their child is absent from education - which is why schools need to ensure they can track how actively parents are involved in their child’s learning and formulate strategies to boost engagement.

Data-driven insights grant staff the means to be able to do this, through:

  • Real-time dashboards - these provide parents with real-time insights into their child’s attendance through apps or SMS notifications.
  • Targeted messaging - automated tech can send personalised messages to parents whose children are at risk of poor attendance, highlighting the importance of regular school attendance.
  • Enhanced engagement strategies - data analytics will be able to identify which communication methods are most effective in improving attendance (e.g., phone calls, text reminders, home visits).

Through a collaborative parent-teacher approach, schools can provide better support to struggling students and reduce attendance issues.

Comparison across different schools

For MATs who manage multiple schools, it can be tricky to get a sense of the bigger picture. 

By embracing the benefits of data-driven insights, trusts are able to compare absence rates across different schools under their management, helping to identify disparities and best practices. Through analysis of attendance data, MAT leaders can spot trends, such as whether certain schools struggle more with persistent absenteeism, specific year groups face higher absence rates, or if external factors like location and socio-economic conditions play a role.

The ability to do this largely depends on the quality and scalability of a MAT’s data management system. If a MAT has multiple systems and databases, it becomes difficult to integrate data from different sources. This can result in fragmented and inconsistent data, making analysis and interpretation more challenging. This problem also often scales as a MAT grows; a small problem with a small trust can develop into a big problem in a big trust.

By implementing a unified data management system, MATs can streamline data collection, analysis, and reporting processes. Centralised systems ultimately serve as hubs that enable better collaboration between schools, standardise data practices, and provide a holistic view of performance metrics across the trust.

If you’re unsure whether your current data strategy can tackle the magnitude of this problem, it might be time for a data audit. This will ensure you can move forward with a confident data strategy and can guarantee data integrity, reliability, and usability for informed decision-making and continuous improvement efforts.

Developing targeted solutions

When a student stops attending school, it’s not always immediately clear why. Data-driven insights can be used to reveal the root causes of school attendance issues and tackle them accordingly.

For example, if a child is missing school because of persistent bullying issues, staff can implement necessary safeguarding measures and provide wellbeing support. Similarly, if a number of students from a rural area are missing school due to transport inaccessibility, schools or MATs can introduce school transport schemes to ensure location doesn’t affect children’s learning.

If you’re noticing problems with absenteeism in your school or MAT but need assistance with data management and strategy, Novatia can help you. We’re reliable education ICT experts with the knowledge and experience to help your school or MAT thrive in the digital age. 

We have a proven track record of delivering reliable data-driven solutions to help educational institutions maximise their success - to find out more about how we can reduce attendance issues in your school, get in touch today for more information.
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