Getting to the bottom of school absence

Newspapers and social media sites have been awash with comments and opinion around Charlie Taylor’s review on improving school attendance.

From docking the benefits of families that fail to ensure their children are in school to scrutinising the absence of under-fives as part of Ofsted inspections, Taylor’s recommendations have sparked a plethora of differing views on what needs to be done to tackle the issue.

This got me thinking about what schools and authorities can do to help get children into school more regularly. The introduction of electronic registration in schools can make a real difference. This technology allows teachers to record registration directly into the school’s computers every day, making it much easier for attendance data to be analysed to spot patterns of absence – such as a child who is frequently off on Fridays and Mondays.