Attendance
Attendance – the hidden booster for student outcomes.
Last year, I had the privilege of spending 3 weeks travelling across the Holy Lands, Rome, and Marist territory in the south of France on the Marist Pilgrimage. It was a wonderful period, and one in which I was encouraged to “shut out” my real world and focus on living the experience to the full, without worrying too much about my day job. In fact, we were actively discouraged from even sneaking a little look at the emails. It was hard to disconnect, but ultimately, I knew it was a great experience. When I returned however, chaos. I had nearly 1000 unread emails, projects that I had been working on had faulted or stopped, momentum was lost, and it took me a very, very long time to feel like I was on solid ground again.
I am an adult (and I would like to think a competent one!) and the time away from work placed me under a significant amount of stress when I returned to the “real world”. I missed vital emails, meetings, lost continuity of work matters, and the world had rolled on in my absence. I am beyond certain that when I returned, my capacity was nowhere where it should have been.
So why am I telling you this? Over the past few years, the overall attendance figures at Marist have showed a telling decline. What was consistently over 95%, has now hit around 90% for our Senior students, and much the same story in our other years. Attendance is the hidden booster for student outcomes. Whilst the correlation between student achievement and attendance rates has long been known, I am not sure many parents and carers would appreciate the impact that any absence has on a student’s academic outcome, wellbeing, and stress levels. The figure above, 90%, would indicate that on average a Marist student would miss one day in every two-week cycle. 6 lessons every two weeks. Vital content that we know is incredibly difficult to catch up on. Our experience is that ANY absence can cause a student stress that can impact them for a much long period than the original absence.
Whilst the reason for absence can vary the impact on learning- sporting contests, family holidays, illness, anxiety, all contribute in varying amounts to lessening outcomes, one thing is clear- every absence is detrimental to the learning outcomes of students. One statistic I saw recently was that a student with an attendance of 85% on average would achieve a NAPLAN score 3 months lower than a student with above 95%. There are numerous studies which show that greater attendance leads to greater ATAR results, and greater growth in NAPLAN. A student who has great attendance (above 95%) has been shown to think more positively about school, achieve better results academically, has better wellbeing, and feels more connected to school. Simply put – the more time in school the better the outcomes for your son.
Cognitively, the learning process is significantly hampered with even a single day’s absence. If information is not processed, built upon, or followed up in the 24 hours following being introduced, we know the “memory decay” is heightened and increased. It is why we try and maintain as few interruptions as possible within the school week to ensure students have a consistent pattern and flow of the content. When a student returns after an absence, they have often missed parts of the puzzle which help them put it all together. They don’t have the knowledge for other pieces to stick to like Velcro.
What was the catalyst for this newsletter item? Well, several. Our swimming carnival had a large number of students who miraculously were “sick” for the day, returning the day after with no symptoms. This isn’t to shame students who were authentically sick – but statistically we know that the culture of the “sickie” starts early and does not help with a student feeling belonging or connection. I know of a student who travelled to see Taylor Swift last week and missed 3 days of school. His parents called him in sick, but his friends generously told his teachers where he really was! A great experience, but the student will now be significantly behind his peers and feel behind in the first few weeks of term. Last year a student signed himself out during lesson time to get a haircut with his parent’s permission! And part of my role is to approve “notified absences”, where the uptake of family holidays during term time is becoming a concern.
These examples may not be the norm, but we do need to address it. We want our students in classes in front of our teachers. I know there are many valid reasons for an absence that of course will be granted and justified. I know many have ill relatives, or a sporting carnival across the state, or have a family situation that needs to be attended to. I am only asking parents and carers to prioritise their child’s time at school and avoid placing your son under stress if it is unnecessary. If absence can be avoided, I know your son will be better off for it in the long run.
Liam Stakelum
Deputy Headmaster