The instability experienced in the States secondary school sector is partly responsible for a decline in attendance among some pupils, the ESC President has admitted.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen also acknowledged that problems stemming from the covid pandemic and anxiety and sleep issues caused by mobile phone usage and social media, have also played a part in the increase in absences being seen in some classrooms across the island.
During the 2018/19 school year, the average attendance level in States run primary schools was 95.7%, with a 4.3% absence level. In the secondary sector it was 93.2% and 6.8% while in the island’s specialist schools attendance was 91.2% with an 8.8% absence level.
In 2023/24, attendance was 94% in primary schools, but down to 86% across the secondaries and special schools.
The Education, Sport, and Culture President faced questions about attendance figures from numerous deputies during yesterday’s States sitting.
Deputy Gavin St Pier wanted to find out more about the detail behind the attendance figures, which were released in ESC’s Education Strategy Annual Report for 2024.
In particular he was keen to find out why school attendance levels remain below pre-covid
levels.
Deputy Dudley-Owen gave multiple reasons in her reply to him.
“What we do know is that the instability of our secondary phase has likely played a part,” acknowledged Deputy Dudley-Owen. “But we also know that in the Guernsey context, some of the parents of today’s students left school at 15 in to very different employment market, and we also know that it’s very easy to walk out of school without qualifications into employment in Guernsey, and that is unusual, so the draw to get the high stakes qualifications at Level Two is less potentially than in other jurisdictions.
“We know that the scourge of the social media and internet not only leads to sleep deprivation but also anxiety, and that that has led to an increasing amount of school refusal.
“We know that the impact of covid has, for some students, led to a real struggle to get back into the routine of school, because it was a significant disruption to the everyday schedule. Without strong parental support or services support these type of absences can be particularly challenging. We know that a breakdown in nuclear family can leave some homes without those strong role models, and blended families, so higher attendance in our primary school may also reflects that parents in that phase need to take time off work to look after their children, and in the secondary phase, they don’t have to take so much time. But we also know that the prevalence of working from home now for adults leads more parents to possibly think that it’s acceptable for their children to work at home online, which absolutely is not acceptable because of the face to face and social aspects.
“We know how important it is for predictable routines and good habits and this is an area that the Committee takes a great deal of time focusing on and receives regular updates from officers in this regard.”
Deputy St Pier wanted to know why rates of ‘authorised absences’ which can include for medical appointments, has grown more than rates of ‘unauthorised absences’, such as for holidays, in the post-covid era.
Deputy Dudley-Owen did not have that information to hand and said she will circulate it when it’s been confirmed.
Deputy Neil Inder pushed Deputy Dudley-Owen further on the instability aspect of her answer – asking her to confirm if she agreed that the difficulties ESC has experienced in recruiting and retaining teachers has impacted pupil attendance.
“There is now a stable and consistent application of policies across all settings, which is having a positive impact, not least of all the workforce strategy that has been put in place with greater levels of retention and certainly massive concerted efforts to recruit high performing staff into these roles in order to retain them,” said Deputy Dudley-Owen.
“So yes, absolutely, there’s a mass, broad, complex area to study within this particular subject, and we realise that the delivery of education needs to be high quality in order to ensure that we are playing our part.”
Deputy Inder asked specifically around maths teachers after a pupil at the Sixth Form Cente recently went public with her concerns around the subject teachers during her own secondary education.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said that ESC are taking that matter in hand and that she is seeing “recovery” in this subject.
“The Committee has just received a review of the maths situation in schools and also an update on recruitment in that area, and we’re pleased to say that we are starting to see that we are actually having multiple maths teachers applying for senior jobs, and high quality ones at that,” she said.
In trying to tackle the wider issues around attendance across all education levels, Deputy Dudley-Owen said ESC is ‘going back to the classroom’ with its targeted policies.
“We have rolled out a new high quality, inclusive, practice program for staff, ensuring that teaching practice is adapted to the needs of every learner in every classroom,” she explained.
“Specific interventions include the appointment of two family support workers in each secondary school, supporting our most vulnerable learners and families, and in collaboration with HSC, appointing an early help coordinator, working with identified families. They sit alongside our well established school based attendance leads and school attendance team.”