The role of whole-school wellbeing in bolstering student attendance.
As educators, we know that student attendance is positively related to learning outcomes. A review of historical attendance data shows that disparities in attendance starting in primary school have a significant impact on an increase of absenteeism into secondary school.
It may be worth considering the potential long-term consequences for adult life?
(AITSL, 2019; Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, 2013).
Even more concerning are the negative effects of absenteeism on academic performance accumulated over time (AITSL, 2019). Therefore, it is important to develop positive attendance patterns in the primary years.
The question is how do we build these positive patterns, particularly when working with high-risk children and their families?
Building emotional wellbeing in students leads to positive attendance data.
A whole-school focus on student wellbeing plays a significant role in negating the challenges from long-term patterns of absenteeism. Wellbeing in education aims to build students’ social, emotional and physical literacy (SEL) including key skills of self-regulation and self-awareness.
Research shows that students need to be explicitly taught how to build self-regulation skills. This self-awareness gives them the skills and resilience to face challenging situations which can cause absenteeism. While the immediate challenge is increasing attendance, the best strategy focuses on building students' social-emotional learning skills to regulate and make positive decisions about their learning.
A deliberate whole-school approach to teaching social and emotional skills and wellbeing science is essential to building student capability and improving learning outcomes. Empirical research on the effectiveness of wellbeing practices at schools shows that a planned, strategic whole-school approach with regular assessment and evaluation of progress leads to the most effective wellbeing implementation.
We have developed a practical, in-depth guide to implementing an effective, whole-school wellbeing strategy you can review HERE.
How to implement Social Emotional Learning effectively.
Social-emotional learning teaches social skills, such as building positive relationships and a sense of belonging, and emotional skills, including self-awareness and self-regulation.
We have been collecting program impact data from teachers, students and parents for over fifteen years. This collected data shows the aggregate positive effects of teaching social-emotional skills combined with neuroscience when taught consistently throughout their primary school education.
Students who are high-risk in terms of low attendance often struggle with wellbeing and mental health challenges. While attendance plans and contracts are a legal requirement, they do not teach a child or their family how to manage particular circumstances they can find themselves in.
All children should be given opportunities to experientially practice and learn how to use self-awareness and self-regulation to make positive choices and not find themselves in situations where absenteeism seems like the only option.
Life Skills GO (GO) is an easy-to-use emotion and wellbeing data collection tool that measures student readiness to learn. It analyses student data in real time at an individual, class, stage and school level providing succinct analysis in simple reports and customisable dashboards.
GO supports educators make data-informed decisions about wellbeing programs across the school, assess support in place for individual students and to triangulate readiness to learn data with attendance, behaviour and academic outcomes.
GO is designed to be an incredibly low-touch data collection tool that, through integrations with SIS providers, can collect student data as part of marking attendance, resulting in no teaching and learning time lost.
GO generates whole school and stage reports weekly, fortnightly, and 5 weekly providing actionable insights and individual learner profiles that can be used to support differentiated learning, reasonable adjustments, support access requests, evaluate the impact of strategies in place and draw on data for formative evaluation of programs.
In addition, GO encompasses a library of over 500 digital evidence-based, trauma-informed and curriculum-aligned digital lessons, resources, lesson plans, interactive videos and games to supplement school wellbeing programs. Activities can be targeted to individual students, cohorts, classes, or the whole school.
Life Skills Group provides evidence-based, curriculum-aligned, trauma-informed and measurable social, emotional and physical education solutions which enable young people to thrive in their academic, personal and professional lives.
As our world continues to become more complicated, the role of education is changing. Schools are no longer just places for children to learn; schools have a larger role in contributing to the social, emotional and physical development of children to ensure they can succeed in all aspects of their lives.
Equipping children with fundamental employability skills such as 21st Century Skills is becoming an increasing priority in education. Therefore, it is essential to take a whole-school strategic approach to wellbeing to be able to successfully deliver the core business of teaching and learning.
Increased absenteeism has a significant impact on academic performance. If we are not looking at how we build emotional wellbeing in students, we cannot expect to see positive patterns of attendance; therefore, teachers will struggle to optimise learning outcomes for students. Schools must take a whole school strategic approach to wellbeing to ensure their students can thrive in their academic, personal and professional lives.
Life Skills Group programs are tailored to the individual school's needs, as well as the individual needs of each classroom. Teachers find that applying the experiential learning through Life Skills GO and implementing a whole-school wellbeing program consistently allows the school staff, students and parents to have a whole-school common wellbeing language. The results have shown a correlation in increased attendance, reduced disruptive behaviours and incidents, and improved academic outcomes; along with students who are thriving personally and academically as they build their SEL skills.
At Life Skills Group, It is our vision that every child has access to an effective, measurable and affordable social, emotional and physical education. Educators have a great opportunity to equip young people with the skills they need to not only negate challenges like attendance and absenteeism but also enable children to thrive in their academic, personal and professional lives. Children are our future and with the consistent delivery of an effective whole-school wellbeing program, we are best placed to support their learning journey within school and beyond.
References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2019). Spotlight: Attendance matters. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/research-evidence/spotlight/11319-aitsl_spotlight_attendance_web-fa.pdf?sfvrsn=5bb0ff3c_6
Cook, P. J. , Dodge, K. A. , Gifford, E. J. , & Schulting, A. B. (2017). A new program to prevent primary school absenteeism: Results of a pilot study in five schools. Children and Youth Services Review, 82 , 262– 270.
Hancock, K. J., Shepherd, C. C. J., Lawrence, D & Zubrick, S. R. (2013). Student attendance and educational outcomes: every day counts. Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. https://www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/research-topics/student-attendance-and-educational-outcomes-2015.pdf
