Contents

1. Highlights of Evaluation of Ballymun School AttendanceCommunity Action Initiative Carried out by Burtenshaw Kenny Associates March 2012

2. Contents • Introduction • Rationale for Considering School Attendance • Recognition of a School Attendance Problem in Ballymun • A Community Response • Seven Actions: Involving Stakeholders and Existing Structures • Implementation • Community Mobilisation: A Selection of Materials • Evaluation Approach: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis • Impact on School Attendance Figures: Top Line Results • Impact on School Attendance Figures: Highlights of Detailed Results • Insights into School Attendance Patterns • Change in Attitude • Success in Building Children’s Awareness: Selection of 3rd Class Views • Key Achievements • Key Challenges • Conclusions • Key points • Final thoughts

3. 1. Introduction • In April 2011, Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership commissioned Burtenshaw Kenny Associates to conduct an evaluation of the Ballymun School Attendance Community Action Initiative. • The aims of the evaluation were to: • Document the evolution and implementation of the initiative • Assess whether the initiative achieved its stated objectives, and • Provide evidence-based recommendations for the initiative in order to inform and shape future developments. • Scope covered: • September 2008 to August 2009: Development phase • September 2009 to June 2010: Year 1 implementation • September 2010 to June 2011: Year 2 implementation • The slides to follow present a summary of the evaluation report.

4. 2. Rationale for Considering School Attendance Research has demonstrated that consistent school attendance is required for positive educational outcomes and that poor school attendance can result in lower levels of health, employment and income. It is widely accepted that poor school attendance is a feature of social exclusion, with more frequent school absences in areas of social disadvantage than in areas of affluence. As a result, poor educational outcomes are symptomatic of areas that experience high levels of poverty and exclusion. This means that in disadvantaged areas of Ireland such as Ballymun, there is a greater risk of low school attendance which then contributes to the negative cycle of lower levels of education, health, employment and income. This represents a serious social inequality with long term individual, community and societal consequences.

5. 3. Recognition of a School Attendance Problem in Ballymun Primary school baseline figures pre-initiative 2008: Whole school attendance rate Ballymun: 90.3%, Whole school attendance rate Ireland: 93.7% Whole school attendance rate DEIS: 90.4% Poor school attendance rate (20+ day absences) Ballymun: 30.5% Poor school attendance rate (20+ day absences) Ireland: 11.8% Poor school attendance rate (20+day absences) DEIS: 24.3% School attendance levels in Ballymun had become a significant concern for schools and agencies working in the area.

6. 4. A Community Response • In 2008 Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership led a working group from across the community to develop a community action initiative to improve school attendance levels in Ballymun. • The working group included representatives of schools in the area, school completion programmes and a wide range of other community / voluntary and statutory agencies working in Ballymun. • All accepted that school attendance was a shared problem which required a collaborative response, it was wider than a school problem. • The Ballymun School Attendance Community Action Initiative commenced. • Objectives of the initiative were: • To increase school attendance / reduce levels of absenteeism • To involve all stakeholders • To facilitate a change in attitude to school attendance • To utilise a community awareness campaign for different parties using innovative communication strategies • To encourage young people to take responsibility for school attendance behaviour • To use structures already in place • To develop aligned policies and procedures. • The initiative adopted the BEST School Completion Programme / St. Joseph’s school model.

7. 5. Seven Actions: Involving Stakeholders and Existing Structures

8. 6. Implementation • Working groups with lead and support agencies • Overall management and coordination of the initiative by Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership • Use of existing structures - time focussed on delivery rather than establishing and supporting new structures: The Principals Network BEST and Whitehall SCP Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership • Funding was secured to resource a team of part time attendance promoters to work within each of the participating schools • Attendance promoters were employed by BEST and managed by one of the two school completion programmes in the area (BEST and Whitehall programmes). • An attendance ‘care team’, SCP worker, home school community liaison coordinator, visiting teacher for Travellers and NEWB officer • Schools adopted the same policies and procedures in relation to attendance • Funding was secured for attendance tracking software for all participating schools.

9. 7. Community Mobilisation:Selection of Materials • There was a substantial community awareness campaign which was very effective in mobilising the community around the issue of school attendance. • Positive and consistent messages and had considerable reach and impact. • Materials were widely distributed and used.

10. 8. Evaluation Approach: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis • Quantitative Analysis • Attendance data for 12 schools (11 primary schools, 1 post-primary data) • Changes in attendance patterns and differences in attendance levels by class group, gender and ethnic background were considered • Local attendance data was compared with national attendance data • Analysis of all information, sharing of information that doesn’t compromise anonymity, i.e. no identification of results by school. • Qualitative Analysis • Consultation interviews and focus groups involving 333 individuals: • 251 children / young people • 31 parents • 33 representatives of schools involved in the initiative • representatives of agencies directly involved in the initiative and representatives of other statutory and voluntary sector agencies in Ballymun • Also: 56 teacher responses to an online survey of teachers • Consultations covered perspectives relating to: • Awareness and involvement • Satisfaction and impact • Challenges and blocks, and • Future development.

11. 9. Impact on School Attendance Figures: Top Line Results • The initiative achieved very positive results across all school attendance measures: • Improvements in Whole School Attendance rates • Reductions in poor attendance rates (20+ absences • Reductions in chronic non-attendance rates 51+ absences)

12. 10. Impact on School Attendance Figures: Highlights of Detailed Results • Following two years of the initiative whole school attendance increased by 1.6%. Increasing from a baseline of 90.3% prior to the initiative increasing to 91.5% following year 1 and 91.9% following year 2. • More children in Ballymun are now attending school more often. This trend is likely to continue in the years to come, with the supports in place, as the increases have not yet levelled off. • Children in Ballymun are attending school more often than children in other disadvantaged areas. • Whole school attendance rates in primary schools in Ballymun are now between the rate for other comparative disadvantaged areas and the national rates (91.9% compared with the comparative rate of 90.4% and the national rate of 93.7%). • There has been significant improvement in Traveller girls attendance rates. Their attendance levels have increased significantly and are now higher than the overall national rate for children in disadvantaged schools (90.8%). • Year on year comparison shows that the 20+ day absence poor attendance rate, decreased from a baseline of 30.5% to 26.5% following year 1 and then to 24.7% following year 2. • Less children are falling into the poor attendance category

13. Impact on School Attendance Figures: Highlights of Detailed Results - continued • Poor attendance rates in Ballymun are almost comparable with the rate for other disadvantaged schools (24.7% compared with 24.3%), having previously been far in excess of other disadvantaged schools (the baseline was 30.5%). • The poor attendance rate for Traveller boys has reduced considerably over the past two years from a very high base of 58.3% of Traveller boys missing more than 20 days to 34.9% in year 2 of the initiative. • The number of children falling into a pattern of chronic non-attendance of 51 days absent or more, almost halved (76 of 2,397 prior to the initiative to 34 of 2,154 after two years of the initiative). • There are no national comparison figures for chronic non-attendance at primary school level only; however it is clear that the achievements at this level have been very positive. The 51 days or more absence rate was used as a measure by the Principals Network in the absence of a recognised definition or statistical threshold. • The school with the lowest attendance rate prior to the initiative achieved the biggest increase in overall attendance levels. This amounted to in excess of two and a half more school days per child per year.

14. 11. Insight Into School Attendance Patterns • Implementation of Databiz attendance tracking software in each school as part of the initiative also facilitated insight into school attendance patterns in Ballymun: • Children in support classes and junior infants classes had the lowest overall attendance levels and the highest levels of poor school attendance (i.e. 20+ days absences). • Attendance levels were higher amongst girls than boys across the overall sample and in four of five mixed gender schools in each of years 1 and 2. • Ethnic group had a strong impact on attendance, with Traveller children missing more school than each of children from settled Irish and overseas backgrounds. • The most frequently missed day was Monday and the least frequently missed day was Thursday. • December, June and November are the months with the lowest attendance rates.

15. 12. Change in Attitude • A key objective of the initiative was to bring about a change in attitude towards school attendance. This was achieved through: • Positive framing of the behaviour (school attendance rather than school missed) • Education of parents through information booklets, particularly the ‘Ready for School’ routine and the guidelines relating to attendance and childhood illnesses • Consistent and positive follow up with parents of children who miss school, and • Rewards for children attending school, at both individual and class levels, fostering a sense of pride and loyalty. • Views expressed during stakeholder consultations demonstrated that attitudes towards school attendance are changing: • Children are keen to attend school in order to support the class winning attendance prizes • Parents are becoming more aware of the links between attendance and educational achievements and the initiative recognised the key role of parents in getting their children to school each morning • The role of the attendance promoter is regarded by parents as a support in terms of linking with the school and in informing them if their child is “mitching”, and • Attending school was rated the second highest priority from a list of 14 choices about what matters in terms of education, during a recent survey as part of a recent planning process by Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. • Effort must be sustained: • “The main challenge we have here is changing the culture. We need long-term cultural change if we are to have attendance in school that is in line with national averages on a consistent basis. This type of change takes time, much longer than two years. It also means the continuation of the collaborative approaches that we are taking together, as no one of us can create this change on our own.” (stakeholder consultation)

16. 13. Success in Raising Children’s Awareness: Selection of 3rd Class Views

17. 14. Key Achievements • Increasing whole school attendance rates. In particular the schools that had the lowest attendance rate prior to the initiative achieved the biggest increase in overall attendance levels. • Reducing poor absence rates (20+ absences), particularly with Traveller children • Reducing chronic non-attendance rates (51+ absences) • Supporting the education focus of classroom time • Bringing about a broad community awareness of the importance of school attendance and the shared responsibility in promoting this • Involving a breadth of stakeholders in developing and implementing the initiative • Making excellent use of existing collaborative structures and school resources, with minimum additional resourcing • Linking of local experience with national practice through the involvement of the NEWB and SCP at national level in this unique initiative • Consistent gathering of comprehensive data relating to attendance patters by a number of factors though the Databiz software, resulting in an evidence-based approach for the initiative. • “The materials are great. We use them all the time; I am sitting across from the poster on the wall. I think for the first rime the mothers and grandmothers that we work with stopped and said attendance is all of our responsibility when they saw the poster. That was a great moment.”

18. 15. Key Challenges • Diminishing resources and reconfiguration of services due to the reductions in public expenditure which are likely to continue in the short –medium term • The insecure nature of funding employment of part-time attendance promoter roles • Lack of additional resourcing for addressing the more intensive needs of chronic non-attenders, which will be further compounded by the recent loss of the visiting teacher for Travellers for the Ballymun area • The differing and sometimes more complex factors underlying poor attendance at post-primary level including issues for teenagers around bullying, identity and mental health, and the need to consider different interventions at this level • The range of issues still impacting school attendance in Ballymun such as established norms around late bedtimes, missing school due to holidays or missing up to twenty days as an acceptable practice • The lack of a recognised national measure and statistics relating to chronic non-attendance for comparison purposes. • The challenge of change- embedded attitudes and practices are exceptionally challenging and slow to change.

19. 16. Conclusion • The evaluation demonstrated that : • The initiative has been an exceptionally positive. • It builds on previous work and structures and has facilitated a change in attitude about the value of school attendance across the Ballymun community. • It has also delivered year on year improvements in school attendance levels. • The work is still at a relatively early stage and embedding long term and sustainable change across the community is a complex challenge which requires an ongoing commitment to continuing work. • There is scope to extend the initiative to some other schools in the broader Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership catchment, in the context of presence of both need and interest. • Burtenshaw Kenny Associates concluded that: • The initiative should continue- all of the stakeholders in Ballymun should continue to prioritise school attendance and continue to work collaboratively to progress the initiative. A plan for the next phase of the initiatives development should be agreed by all stakeholders. • The initiative should inform national policy- opportunities to inform and influence national policy about this approach to attendance management should be actively pursued. • A number of recommendations relating to the development of the initiative have been proposed. These related to each of initiative leadership, planning and dissemination.

20. 17. Key points Whole School Attendance In just 2 years Ballymun has almost halved the gap in whole school attendance between Ballymun and the national average! Whole School Attendance Nat’l Baseline 2008/09 2007/8 2010/11 Ballymun 90.3% 91.9% Disadvantaged Areas latest baseline data 90.4% National average latest baseline data 93.7% The Gap for Ballymun to reach the national average 3.4% 1.8%

21. Key points continued Reductions in Poor Attendance In just 2 years the gap has almost closed between Ballymun and the average for other disadvantaged areas for the 20+ day absence rate. Poor School Attendance Nat’l Baseline 2008/09 2007/8 2010/11 Ballymun 30.5% 24.7% Disadvantaged Areas 24.3% National average 11.8% The Gap for Ballymun to reach the disadvantaged area average 6.2 % .4 %

22. Key points continued Reductions in Chronic Non-Attendance In just 2 years Ballymun has almost halved the number of children with chronic non- attendance. Chronic Non Attendance Nat’l Baseline 2007/8 2009/10 2010/11 Ballymun 3.2% 2.3% 1.9% Disadvantaged Areas: No Nat’l comparator National average: No Nat’l comparator

23. Key points continued Traveller Poor School Attendance In just 2 years Ballymun poor attendance for Traveller boys has dropped from 58.3% to 34.9% Traveller School Attendance 2009/10 2010/11 Change Girls 51.1% 35.2% 15.8% Boys 58.3% 34.9% 23.4%

24. 18. Final thoughts “ Children are one third of our population and all of our future” (Select panel for the promotion of health 1981) “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” (Frederick Douglass)