Rating description:
- Fully met: Records of pupil absence are recorded and if there are incidents of school absence due to bullying this is also recorded and action is taken to support those pupils.
- Partially met: Records of pupil absence are recorded and but it is not recorded if school absence is due to bullying and /or action is not taken to support those pupils.
- Not yet met: We do not monitor school absence for an indication of bullying.
Tips:
- Research shows that at any one time 16,000 pupils ages 11-16 miss school primarily due to bullying. This is a significant number of days lost and is likely to have a significant impact on pupil attainment.
- It is important as a school that you monitor these absences. Have you got a way of recording absence due to bullying? Can you monitor these levels via your anti-bullying staff lead and governor lead? Are there any cases of pupil absence where you suspect bullying might be a contributing factor?
Resources and examples:
Schools who took part in our programme said:
All absence is closely monitored and explored including consideration of peer relationships and their impact on attendance. We have an attendence officer in school, who contacts parents of persistent absentees, to check their reasons for absence.
Regular conversations with parents identify any concerns around well-being. Quiet spaces offered at play / lunch and a range of quieter clubs i.e. yoga / IT / drawing - well attended and targetted for vulnerable children or children prone to absence / illness.
Our attendance officer and heads of keystage make daily phone calls home to absentees and as part of this process parents and students are asked about the causes behind their absence. If parents/students indicate that bullying may be a cause of the absence then this is logged on CPOMS which is then picked up by heads of keystage and the extended senior leader for behaviour.
Our attendance improvement works are our pastoral leaders, who have received a clear directive to assess for bullying on all unexplained absences. Our attendance first line responder flags up all absence issues, that parents are reporting as linking to bullying, to the Pastoral Leader and via our safeguarding system. This is now reported on half termly to AP for Pastoral and forms part of the welfare agenda at our governors meetings.
An example from a United Against Bullying School who used attendance data to improve their anti-bullying practices can be seen in this video , including the impact this had on the school.