School attendance is in crisis. Right now, children miss 11 extra days more of school per year than before the pandemic. Experts are concerned attendance won’t fully recover until 2034.
The research is clear. Children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are worst affected. At Oasis, 53% of our students are eligible for free school meals. This means 1 in 2 students are from households earning less than £7,400 per year.
Yet severe absence — defined as missing 50% or more of possible school sessions — is four times more likely to affect children on free school meals. The impact on educational attainment is devastating. Just 1 in 20 severely absent children achieve five good GCSEs.
Absence from school is one of the biggest obstacles to building stronger communities. So, what are we doing about it?
A new pilot
In November, we launched a pilot in our hub at South Bristol — where we have six academies — to tackle this crisis head on.
We know from 40 years of community work that attendance is not just about children or school but entire communities. Therefore, our pilot brings together our academy, youth, community and family support teams to create an eco-system of care around families supporting them both within and outside of school.
This looks like providing 1-to-1 mentoring with dedicated Oasis youth workers, offering young people a ‘soft start’ to the school day rather than diving immediately into formal academic work, running lunch clubs with trusted adults for regular check-ins, and offering open access youth work giving young people the opportunity to cook, craft, and enjoy formal learning in an alternative environment.
Our pilot also supports families outside of school with emergency food, signposting, financial provision, and mental health support through Oasis Encounter — our in-house mental health programme designed to enhance the emotional and psychological wellbeing of families through non-violent resistance tools.
Even though the pilot has only been running since November the results have already been transformational.
What’s the impact?
Jasmine and Sophie (names changed) struggled with attendance and behavioural issues. With a mother facing severe mental illness, they faced the impossible choice of going into school where it was difficult to focus and learn because of the trauma of a suffering loved one or staying at home face-to-face with the trauma.
In our experience, low attendance is almost never because young people find school ‘boring’ or because parents are ‘lazy’ but because of real, often overwhelmingly painful, challenges — increased anxiety and mental health struggles being one of the most significant post-pandemic.
Since we launched the pilot, our academy attendance officer collects Jasmine and Sophie from home to take them to school for a soft-start, followed by lunch-club, and after-school support. Our community and youth work teams have also taken Jasmine and Sophie home on occasion to cook so mum can get some respite.
In just two weeks, Jasmine and Sophie’s attendance increased by over 6%, showing what’s possible when attendance is treated as a community issue not just a school issue.
James (name changed) struggled with the debilitating effect of Cohn’s disease. This made going to school extremely difficult. However, through our pilot, one of our youth and community team members – who also happens to have a bowel disease – was able to mentor James and help him feel understood, offering practical tips on how to manage his condition. Now James is better able to deal with his Crohn’s and his attendance is near 100%.
In fact, James’ family are big time Bristol City Football Fans and have a season ticket that James was unable to use for three months because he struggled to leave the house. But over Christmas, they all went as a family which was “a massive win,” says Sarah Harding, leader of Oasis South Bristol.
Overall, the average attendance of our students increased 6-7% in just three weeks.
We’re so glad you’re here!
One of the reasons for the pilot’s success so far has been working with families from a place of belonging rather than judgement. Families in our communities already face so many challenges so when a young person arrives at school, we don’t say “Why are you late?!” but “We’re so glad you are here!”.
“I’ve loved doing this pilot. It’s meant such a lot,” says Sarah. “For me, the biggest learning is we need to be adaptable and flexible for all our communities. And each individual child has a different story, so we need to be able to listen to those stories.”
Attendance is a symptom of a deeper problem affecting the unique lives of young people, families and local communities. The only way we can tackle this crisis long-term is through a joined-up, integrated, and holistic approach that supports the lives of children and parents both within and outside of school so that every person in our local neighbourhoods feels safe and empowered.
Learn more about our hub model here.
