PA0023
Written evidence submitted by Willow Dene School
Introduction
92% ATTENDANCE
| Overall attendance in 2018-19 was 92%. This remained unchanged from Willow Dene’s overall attendance last year. National attendance data for 2018-19 is not published until March 2020, but national absence for special schools in 2016-17 was 89.8%. We have reason to believe that our attendance figures will be favourable when compared to similar good and outstanding special schools, based on 2017-18 figures published by the DfE (see p.7). |
In common with many special schools, we cater for children with complex medical needs, which has a notable impact on attendance. As a school we have a range of measures which enable us to minimise absences and respond rapidly and appropriately when these are unavoidable. These include in-school clinics for everything from continence, sleep, dietetics, orthotics and ophthalmology to specialist services such as neurology consultants and CAMHS. Holding these clinics in school means that children only have to miss a half an hour of their school day rather than a half or full-day’s absence to attend these in hospital or clinic settings. It makes it easier for parents to attend and reduces the need for specialist transport to tertiary settings, which in turn decreases the number of DNAs at these appointments.
When medical-related absence is unavoidable, such as when children undergo planned surgery or an emergency hospital admission, the school has established systems to assist both families and hospital settings to support the child, according to individual circumstances. This includes sharing targets and providing planning and learning resources to a hospital school in the instance of a long-term in-patient stay, to Willow Dene staff visiting and working with the child in hospital, or providing families with practical support and attending provision or discharge meetings. We are also willing to accommodate children with complex and clinical medical needs in school as long as it is safe for them and we are able to arrange for staff to have the appropriate medical training to support their needs. This is evident in Willow Dene’s medical needs training plan.
We follow up every incidence of absence and in cases where there are concerns, discuss these with parents and professionals involved.
Attendance analysis by cohort
The analysis of Willow Dene’s attendance data by cohort is provided below. All figures given relate to overall attendance for each cohort of children in Year 1 to Year 10 inclusive. Children in Reception are excluded as many are not of statutory school age.
| An analysis by primary need unsurprisingly shows that children with complex needs, which are often characterised by medical and physical needs, have a lower rate of attendance than children whose primary need is autism. These figures are broadly similar to last years. There has been a very slight decrease in attendance (- 0.2%) for the cohort of children with autism, and slightly more so (-0.7%) for children with complex needs. The attendance of children with autism is almost in line with the national average of 95.8% in mainstream primary schools.[1] |
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Analysis of the attendance of children eligible for Pupil Premium (PP) Funding and those that are not reveals that, as suggested by our Pupil Premium strategy statement 2019-20, Willow Dene is highly effective at closing the gap.[2] This can be attributed in part to the successful work of the school’s Family Support Worker. The percentage point difference between the two cohorts is only seen when these figures are rounded, in reality there is a 0.2% between children eligible for Pupil Premium and their non-eligible counterparts. |
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The difference in attendance rates between boys and girls is not as high as anticipated. The majority of girls at Willow Dene have a complex needs profile, so as this cohort have a lower overall attendance rate, we would expect this to be reflected in the attendance figures for girls. There is a much higher number of boys overall and attendance for this cohort is closer to average for the school. The gender difference in attendance has remained largely unchanged since last year, with a slight overall drop in boys’ attendance. |
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Analysis of attendance by key stage reveals broadly similar rates of absence across all the primary key stages, with a higher rate of absence at the secondary phase. The DfE do not report on differences in special school attendance at primary and secondary, but for mainstream schools, the national average is +1.3% greater absence in secondary schools. Ratios of children with complex needs to children with autism as a primary need are broadly similar across KS1 and KS2 (approximately 30:70), but there is a higher proportion of children with complex needs in KS3 and KS4 (50:50). We know this ratio influences attendance figures, as outlined above. Many children with complex needs in KS3 and KS4 have had planned orthopaedic and other surgeries, also causing an increase in absence for this cohort. | |||
Persistent and Pervasive absence
Persistent absence is a measure used by the DfE to define attendance of lower than 90%. Willow Dene recognises the health challenges faced by many children who attend, particularly those with complex needs. For this cohort of children, Willow Dene also uses its own measure of pervasive absence, where attendance is below 80%. The chart below shows the rates of persistent and pervasive absence by key stage.
This indicates that rates of persistent absence (<90%) are higher in younger children, although broadly similar across KS1, KS2 and KS3. Rates of pervasive absence (<80%) are higher further up the school, particularly in KS3 and KS4. A possible explanation for this is that there is a higher proportion of children with complex needs in KS3 - a 1:1 ratio of autism to complex needs as a primary need, compared with a 7:3 ratio in KS1 and KS2.
Willow Dene recognises the challenges that many of our children face with attendance at school, many of which are unavoidable and related to long-term health conditions. We therefore define our own category of ‘Pervasive absence’ as less than 80% attendance (or 20% or more missed sessions) which enables us to examine the circumstances of this group of children in more detail. This analysis can be seen on p.9 – p.11.
Willow Dene has a range of highly effective strategies for supporting children and families when their absence is higher than expected, whatever the cause. Some of these are outlined above, but additionally the school attempts to both address the cause and mitigate the effect that absence has on outcomes. One of the mechanisms we have in place is progress meetings, which identify children who are at risk of underachieving or have significant and complex barriers to learning. Progress meetings tackle persistent or crisis-related barriers to learning in a focused way and ensure that this is solution-focused. The data on the children with less than 80% attendance below shows that almost all children with this level of absence have been supported through progress meetings. In those instances where they have not, there is a good reason, either because children are making good progress despite poor attendance, or because their low attendance is unavoidable and limits the impact progress meetings could make.
This year we have also analysed instances where the attendance for children with autism fell below 90%, as the average attendance for this cohort is roughly in line with the national average for children without SEND.
Comparative data on overall and persistent absence 2017 -18[3]
Comparisons of attendance and persistent absence rates are with similar schools, whereas national figures are for all special schools, which include those for children who have far less complex health and other needs. National data is published a year behind, so this data is for 2017-18. Willow Dene’s overall rate of absence and persistent absence are favourable in this context, as can be seen by comparison by like schools. Good attendance is supported by a range of measures outlined above.
Positively, Willow Dene’s persistent absence decreased by 2.5% from 2016-17 to 2017-18, against a national picture of increasing persistent absence. This increased across all special schools by +1.1% from the previous year. Willow Dene’s persistent absence figures are well below that of similar specials schools.
| In 2018-19 there were 17 children whose attendance was lower than 80%, which amounts to 8% of all children. This represents a 1.4% fall in the number of children who had lower than 80% attendance last academic year, despite a growing roll and higher proportion of children with complex needs. When we examine this data, sixteen of these children have complex medical needs which impacted on their attendance and ten of these incidences involved a considerable period of hospitalisation. |
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In all instances where children’s attendance has dropped below 80%, this has been discussed with the Attendance Officer. The table below (p.9) illustrates the circumstances that have caused low attendance and how the school has supported children and their families in these situations.
Exclusions
| Willow Dene has had no permanent or fixed term exclusions in 2018-19. This compares with a national rate of 0.07% permanent exclusions and 12.34% fixed term exclusions across all special schools in 2017-18[4], which is the latest national data available. The national data suggests that the long-term trend is a decline in both permanent and fixed-term exclusions in special schools, against a picture of increasing rates in mainstream primary and secondary schools. Nationally, the exclusion rates for children with an identified special educational need account are much higher than for those without SEN. The 0% exclusion rate at Willow Dene has been sustained for over 10 years. |
In-year attendance data analysis
Complementing our rigorous annual attendance analysis, we carefully monitor in-year attendance data, at a whole school, key stage and individual level, to enable us to address issues as they arise. This may include support from the nursing team to address medical issues, safeguarding interventions or working with the local authority attendance officer, to minimise absences and address the underlying causes of these. In-year data for 2019-20 is showing a fall in overall attendance (89% in March 2020) and similar data trends across key stages. However, we are aware of specific largely health-related issues with a small number of children this year, which is having a disproportionate impact on overall attendance. This has the potential to improve as we know the winter months are most challenging health-wise for our most vulnerable children.
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