Fife schools: concern over ‘alarming’ absence rates worse than before pandemic

Their comments came at Tuesday's meeting of the education scrutiny committee where a report revealed school attendance is worse than before the pandemic.

Attendance rates dropped significantly following lockdown, and although they have recovered slightly in the past year, they are still suppressed.

In 2022-23, Fife’s primary schools reported 91% attendance, with secondaries lower at 87%. Prior to the pandemic, Fife reported 94% attendance rates for primaries and 90.2% for secondary schools.

"There have always been a wide range of factors that negatively affect pupils’ attendance,” Angela Logue, head of service, education and children’s services said in a report to councillors.

“These include poverty, disadvantage and learners eligible for free school meals; pupils with special and additional learning needs; parental influence and families with complex and multiple needs; and anxiety, mental health and wellbeing and disengagement issues.”

The report continued: “The disruption to education caused by the pandemic has exacerbated some of the issues that resulted in pupils missing school.”

Education Scrutiny convener Councillor Kathleen Leslie (Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy, Conservative) called the primary school figures “alarming.”

Councillor Colin Davidson (Leven, Kennoway and Largo, Labour) was particularly concerned with absenteeism amongst the S3 cohort.

He said: “I think it’s probably the biggest challenge we’ve had to our education system post Covid. As a teacher, my biggest concern is the S3 cohort. If they’re not engaged, they won’t come back for their qualifications.”

He continued: “Anti-social behaviour in Levenmouth has been linked directly to young people not going to school. The damage being caused by these children through fire raising in the last 18 months is the wrong side of £7 million. There’s lots of evidence that young people not going to school are causing huge amounts of damage to themselves and their communities.”

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to miss school than their more affluent peers, according to research from the University of Strathclyde. Fife’s attendance record supports the research. Local students receiving free school meal entitlements are the most vulnerable pupils who are most likely to be disengaged from school.

In secondary schools, attendance amongst Fife’s free school meal recipients sat at just 78.6% compared to 89.5% of their peers who did not receive school meals. Young Carers is the second most vulnerable group for absenteeism in Fife.

Fife Council is working hard to reverse school attendance trends. Some progress has been made since last year, but the Kingdom is still significantly under its targets. Ms Logue told the committee that absenteeism is a societal issue that will require an attitude and behaviour change. In other words, there’s not a quick fix.

“It will take a number of years to build momentum and motivation to get kids back in schools,” she said.

Scotland has a statutory requirement for children to attend school, but Ms Logue said that authorities are learning “that sanctions don’t work.”

Instead, Fife Council is looking to build relationships with children and families in an effort to see better outcomes.

“We recognise that relationships are key to being able to support a child and their family and ask that schools identify a link person, within the school setting for individual families,” the committee report said. “Through use of Pupil Equity Funding many schools have identified family support workers and other support staff to liaise directly with families to support reengagement. This has shown to have a direct and positive impact on family and learner engagement and improved attendance.”

The council also has central family support workers and pupil support officers who are working with schools to support identified pupils from P6 to S2 and their families re-engage with school. Fife is also focusing on early intervention to improve attendance and learning outcomes.

The report said: “As poor attendance is often habitual, prevention and early intervention is crucial. The key to this is regular data analysis to both identify and provide immediate additional support to pupils or pupil cohorts that need it, and to look at historic and emerging patterns across the school and develop strategies to address them.”