Responding to Challenge

1. Responding to Challenge HSCL CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT December 2011

2. Little Zachary was doing very badly in maths.His parents had tried everything... Tutors,Mentors, flash cards, Special learning centres. In short, everything they could think of to help his maths. Finally, in a last ditch effort, they tookZachary down and enrolled himIn the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't even kiss his mother Hello.Instead, he went straight to his room andstarted studying. Books and papers were spreadout all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work.His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner.

3. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day, while the mothertried to understand what made all the difference. Finally, little Zachary brought home his report Card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to hisroom and hit the books. With great trepidation, his mother looked at it and to her absolute surprise, Little Zachary got an 'A' in maths. She could no Longer hold her curiosity.She went to his room and said, 'Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?' Little Zachary looked at her and Shook his head, no. 'Well, then,' she replied,Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the Uniforms? 'WHAT WAS IT ?'

4. Looking at Behaviour Little Zachary looked at her and said, 'Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around.'

5. EXTENDED REMIT OF NEWB • “developing a single, strategic approach reflecting equally the nature of and strengths of each of the services, including the National Educational Welfare Service to address school attendance, participation and retention”

7. Responding to Challenge HSCL CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT December 2011

8. OUTCOMES

9. The Truant Phoebe Hesketh • They call him a dunce, and yet he can discernEach mouse-brown bird,And call its name and whistle back its call.And spy among the fernDelicate movement of a furredFugitive creature hiding from the day.Discovered secrets magnify his playInto a vocation. • Laughing at education,He knows where the redshank hides her nest, perceivesA reed-patch tremble when a coot lays siegeTo water territory.Nothing escapes his eye: A ladybirdSlides like a blood-drop down a spear of grass;The sapphire sparkle of a dragon flyRedeems a waste of weeds.Collecting acorns, telling the beads of the yearOn yew tree berries, his mind’s too full for speech.Back in the classroom he can never findAnswers to dusty questions, yet could teach,Deeper than blackboard knowledge,Geometry of twigsScratched on a sunlit wall;History in stones, and seasonsTold by the field’s calendar-Living languages of spring and fall.

10. AAR 2009-2010: Some statistics • Over 56,000 students miss school each day, consisting of approximately 31,500 primary and 24,700 post-primary students • About 12% of primary school students and 18% of post-primary students were absent for 20 days or more during the school year.  • In the primary school sector non-attendance is substantially higher in special schools and in ordinary schools with special classes. • General non-attendance and twenty-day absences are higher in non-disadvantaged urban schools than they are in disadvantaged rural schools. 

11. AAR 2009-2010: Some Statistics • In post-primary schools all forms of non-attendance were higher in disadvantaged schools.  Just under 30% of students in disadvantaged schools were absent for twenty days or more in 2008/09.  In non-disadvantaged schools the figure was 15.2%. • Only 14 expulsions were reported in primary schools in 2008/09 and 10 in 2009/10.  The corresponding figures in post-primary schools were 128 and 148, accounting for less than 0.05% of students. • Just under 5% of post-primary students were suspended in 2009/10. This is the lowest % reported across a five-year period. The figure for primary schools was 0.2 %.

12. Poor attendance involves ‘casual or extended absence from school; is a specific form of non-attendance where unauthorised absence, for any period, results from premeditated action on the part of the pupil’ (The School Attendance/Truancy Report Government of Ireland, 1994, p.9). • Authorised – parentally condoned/ Unauthorised • Factors: Peer, educational, curriculum, contextual, health, sanctions (suspension/exclusion), parental value & support, age, gender, school climate, relationships • “Absenteeism levels are significantly lower where teachers have high expectations for students, an effect which operates over and above the student's own expectations” Smyth

13. RAISING EXPECTATION

14. Education Welfare Act Work in Progress • Broadening the Definition of Attendance • Enhancing profile • Guidance on Developing Attendance Strategies S22 Education (Welfare) Act: Clarity, Good Practice, Policy • Integrated Service: HSCL, SCP & EWS – Outcomes Framework • School returns • Case Management System – Referral • Attendance Awards • Promotional Campaign

15. I do not think that it is part of the teacher’s duty to convey to the children the false notion that life is devoid of malice, injury, ill-fortune, treachery, or injustice. Rather should he somehow convey the manner in which these traitors should be downfaced, dodged or overcome, But, somehow or other, he should never cease to promote in children the determination to say Yes to life, to the dark as well as to the bright of it, to its beauty and glory, to its lapses from grace into degradation, and its eventual restoration to serenity. Thus it is that, as a person, the teacher needs to be carefully selected, not for false piety or similar inferior motive, but above all for an infectious enthusiasm allied to knowledge in its widest sense.’ Bryan McMahon NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL WELFARE BOARD - IPPN 7 SEPTEMBER 2011 “