BKA (2012) Evaluation of Ballymun School Attendance Community Action Initiative

1. Connecting Strengths of School, Family and Community and Implementation of Recommendations of the Evaluation of the Report of the InitiativeDr Paul DownesDirector, Educational Disadvantage CentreSenior Lecturer (Psychology)St. Patrick’s CollegeDrumcondraMonday 26th March 2012

2. BKA (2012) Evaluation of Ballymun School Attendance Community Action Initiative • Over the course of the two years of the initiative, there were 1.3% less children (34 less children) falling into this category. In other words, the initiative was successful in almost halving the number of children in this chronic non-attendance group, with 44.7% less in this group in year 2 compared with the baseline group (BKA 2012).

3. The major success was in the school with the lowest baseline figure, which achieved a two year change of 4.8%, which amounts to in excess of two and a half more days attendance per year on average per child (BKA 2012).

4. Previously it was almost one in three children in Ballymun with poor school attendance, now it is closer to one in four, and the initiative is likely to continue to decrease this in the years to come, with the supports in place, as the decreases have not yet levelled off (BKA 2012).

5. Poor attendance rates in Ballymun after two years of the initiative 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 (30.5% compared with 24.3%) (BKA 2012).

6. In terms of reductions in the number of children falling into a pattern of chronic school non-attendance, the initiative was successful in almost halving the number of children in this chronic non-attendance group (BKA 2012).

7. It is noted however that improvement in attendance from year 1 to year 2 in the case of children from Traveller backgrounds was very high (3.9 percentage points) (BKA 2012).

8. There was considerable progress between years 1 and 2 of the initiative relating to boys from Traveller backgrounds with the poor attendance rate reducing from 58.3% to 34.9%, which was lower than the rate for boys from overseas backgrounds for that year (BKA 2012).

9. It was evident from on-site visits to the schools that the initiative is very much alive. Charts mapping attendance, posters, photographs of class of the month were visible in all of the schools visited (BKA 2012).

10. The two way supporting relationship between school attendance and other positive behavioural change initiatives at primary level such as Incredible Years was expressed. For example, 70% of teachers surveyed assessed other classroom programmes such as behaviour management initiatives as having a high impact on school attendance (BKA 2012)

11. Many teachers acknowledged that the big impact has been the sense of loyalty that children now feel towards their class attendance record. This was expressed by teachers, principals and other support services to schools on several occasions (BKA 2012).

12. One of the challenges mentioned was the reintegration of children who have missed significant amounts of school. They can sometimes find that the other children in the class have established friendship groups and they can feel excluded. This can then negatively impact their experience of school and their willingness to return. The role of teachers in identifying and supporting these children is seen as critical (BKA 2012).

13. The negative impact of bullying on school attendance at both primary and post primary level was expressed as a potential challenge to attendance. Also at post primary level, complex issues for some chronic non-attenders from very marginalised backgrounds were mentioned, including cycles of low self esteem, alcohol and drug misuse and mental health difficulties (BKA 2012).

14. This sense of belonging was important and the children highlighted difficulties in ‘fitting in’ if school absence is regular (BKA 2012). Some of the catchy communication messages displayed on the initiative’s posters had very high positive impact with children, particularly ‘Hip, hip, hooray...’ (BKA 2012).

15. Late bed times appears to be one of the major challenges with fostering consistent school attendance at primary level (and possibly also at post primary level). There were significant numbers of children interviewed aged eight years of age and older who stated in focus groups that they regularly stayed up until after midnight on school nights, watching TV, playing games. Many share bedrooms with older siblings. This late bedtime was validated separately with classroom teachers. It allows an approximate average of seven hours sleep, which is low. It is well known from numerous international research studies and also from teachers’ direct classroom experience, that children who consistently get less than the required amount of sleep experience concentration (BKA 2012).

16. A further block to consistent school attendance at the post primary level is the experience of bullying in school. Fear of or avoidance of bullying was mentioned in the interviews with young people as a reason why they miss school (BKA 2012).

17. Parents’ assessments of the poster campaign were mixed, with not all parents comfortable with what they regarded as an association of Ballymun and poverty conveyed in the image on the ‘Ask Why!’ poster, and not all in favour of acting on the message of the ‘Ask WHY!’ poster. Discussion highlighted that only a small minority would take any proactive steps if they saw a young person out of school on a school day. However they also acknowledged that the posters can be positive in triggering discussion and debate about the issues of attendance which they wouldn’t have engaged in previously (BKA 2012).

18. Other parents spoke of the negative ‘rut’ that can arise when a child becomes unhappy at school, either resulting from bullying, from difficulties in the child/teacher relationship or their ability to keep up with class work. The negative impact of undiagnosed learning difficulties or mental health issues were also highlighted through interviews (BKA 2012).

19. Principals of schools involved in the initiative spoke about how children now have a different attitude towards school attendance and how “they are putting pressure on their parents to bring them to school every day and on time so that their class can win”. The children interviewed were very aware of the initiative and were fully engaged in the processes to support attendance (BKA 2012).

20. Parents of children who have certificates for attendance noted their pride. This was very evident amongst Traveller parents who displayed the certificates in their home (BKA 2012).

21. Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership should work with stakeholders to consider the impact of cuts in public expenditure on progress relating to improving educational outcomes, and in particular to explore mechanisms to reinstate a Visiting Teacher for Traveller role within Ballymun on the basis of the high proportion of Travellers in the area, successes in school retention to date and the extreme level of disadvantage in Ballymun (BKA 2012).

22. Bullying - the schools and the community need to consider the level of peer bullying in schools and resulting impact on school attendance (BKA 2012).

23. A further concern was that “the law only covers you from the age of 6 and the pattern of non-attendance is established from Junior Infants. The Education Welfare Officer cannot intervene realistically until First Class” (Downes & Maunsell 2007).

24. Council of the European Union COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION on policies to reduce early school leaving. Brussels, 7 June 2011

25. Enhancing the involvement of parents, reinforcing their cooperation with the school and creating partnerships between schools and parents can increase learning motivation among pupils (EU 2011) INTERVENTION POLICIES (EU 2011)

26. Developing schools into learning communities based on a common vision for school development shared by all stakeholders, using the experience and knowledge of all, and providing an open-minded, inspiring and comfortable environment to encourage young people to continue in education and training. Developing early-warning systems for pupils at risk, which can help to take effective measures before problems become manifest, pupils start to alienate from school, play truant or drop out (EU 2011).

27. Networking with parents and other actors outside school, such as local community services, organisations representing migrants or minorities, sports and culture associations, or employers and civil society organisations, which allows for holistic solutions to help pupils at risk and eases the access to external support such as psychologists, social and youth workers, cultural and community services. This can be facilitated by mediators from the local community who are able to support communication and to reduce distrust (EU 2011).

28. "transformation is only relevant if it is carried out with the people not for them" (Freire 1970 p.43) Parents were to be at the heart of a new emancipatory way forward (Mulkerrins 2007).

29. The rhetoric of HSCL suggests that one aim was to empower 'disadvantaged‘ parents by nurturing their capacity to engage as partners in the education of their children. Therefore, in effect the central focus of HSCL is to ensure parents have a voice in the exercise of power in the school (Mulkerrins 2007).

30. Deficit view of Parents Principals and teachers believed that parents do not appreciate the value of education for their children. One principal spoke of parents shedding responsibility for their children's education on to schools. Teachers said that many parents may be reluctant to commit themselves to involvement in school activities during school time, as they want a break from their children or may have other commitments (Mulkerrins 2007).

31. Teachers and principals understood HSCL work as being mainly focused on changing parents, not empowering them (Mulkerrins).

32. An analysis based on the themes that emerged in this section of the study would suggest that the lack of recognition of working-class parents within the school system, the issue of power relations in schools, idiosyncratic understandings both of the HSCL scheme and the role of the HSCL co-ordinator all constrain possibilities for transformative change (Mulkerrins).

33. Alternatives to suspension Downes (2011): Lithuania: “According to management and the teacher interviewed approximately 10 percent of students are expelled from school in each year. The reasons are usually behaviour problems, bullying, harassment, aggressiveness i.e. non-academic reasons prevail. The teacher mentioned that there were no expelled students for not attending classes. The statistics, according to the management can be collected, but this will not solve the problem” (Taljunaite et al 2010) The Irish post-primary figure of 5% for suspension, applied to the total population of 332,407 students equates to well over 16,000 students suspended from post-primary schools in 2005/6 (ERC/NEWB 2010).

34. Downes (2011): Russia: A multidisciplinary team plays a key role in devising alternative strategies to suspension in this example from a Russian school: “The school doesn’t practice expulsion or suspension of students. Instead, the psychological support service team regularly conducts preventive meetings and conversations with students who have discipline or study problems. Each school has a Preventive Council aimed at dealing with ‘problem’ students…The psychologist and social teacher conduct conversations and meetings with adult students in case their discipline or studying practices are improper. Use of preventive measures as an alternative to expulsion shows that the school staff aims to keep as many students at risk of early leaving at school as possible, which proves how much they are indeed interested in students and care for them” (Kozlovskiy, Khokhlova & Veits, 2010).

35. Downes & Maunsell (2007): -“Suspension is stupid, just gives them a break” -“If you swing on a chair that’s enough for a suspension” -“About 8 out of 17 suspended, she suspended 7 people in one day” - Worst thing about school “getting suspended” -“He says if you do that boy you’ll be out of the school in a second and you’ll never come back” -“He threatens you, I’ll suspend you, I’ll expel you and you’ll never come back” One service provider suggests that: “suspension used a lot, need to put something in place if suspended, not much endeavour to keep them in school”. -“Need suspension only for serious things” - “getting sent home for 3 days isn’t punishment” “sit outside the door for hours” Priority needs of some of the schools emphasised: -“Individual discipline programme for disruptive boys” -“Teacher to work with children with challenging behaviour in small groups above quota” • -“Permanent in-school counselling service”

36. Early school leaving is a mental health issue! Kaplan et al’s (1994) North American study of 4,141 young people tested in 7th grade and once again as young adults which found a significant damaging effect of dropping out of high school on mental health functioning as measured by a 10- item self-derogation scale, a 9-item anxiety scale, a 6-item depression scale and a 6-item scale designed to measure coping. This effect was also evident when controls were applied for psychological mental health as measured at 7th grade. The significant damaging effect of dropping out of school was also evident even when controls were applied for gender, father’s occupational status, and ethnicity Though early school leaving can have different effects across countries (Van Alphen 2009)

37. Outreach Gap Ballymun Study 2009

39. Table 2.8: Extent to Which ‘A Large Amount’ of Emotional Support in relation to raising their child is received by Parents from Different People

40. Public Spaces Professor Roger Hart (2006) has observed: “it’s more important than ever that there are spaces where children can come together with other children in an open and free way, rather than in a programmed way”. He argues that too much of children’s time is “programmed” whether spent in crèches, music lessons or sports classes “they’re not playing with their peers out on the street and therefore not building a democratic culture”.(Roger Hart was speaking at the annual lecture of the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin 26th October 2006 Professor Hart is the Co-Director of the Children's Environments Research Group, Center for Human Environments and the Environmental Psychology Program, City University of New York.)

41. As those most at risk of early school leaving may lead particularly unstructured lives, there is a need for services that provide not simply “programmed space” and “programmed” time (Hart 2006). This need for more “drop-in” spaces is even greater due to the distinct lack of public space available for people in local area32. This is a public planning issue, namely, to increase the range of public space available in the area, for example, for a shopping centre, bowling alley, and cinema – in other words space that local youth can access without significant planning in advance. (See also Downes and Maunsell 2007)

42. Systems changes slow! Foster-Fishman & Behrens (2007); Tseng et al. (2002); Tseng & Seidman (2007)

43. One significant limitation to Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) framework of concentric nested systems of interrelation was that it tended to omit a dynamic focus on change over time. In order to address this temporal issue of bringing change to a dynamic system, Downes & Downes (2007) developed a framework in the context of social exclusion in education which is described as organic systems theory.

44. Unsuccessful Transition as a Systemic Shift from Concentric Relation of Assumed Connection to Diametric Relation of Assumed Separation (Downes 2003) (Downes 2009)

45. Bystander Effect For Early School Leaving prevention McLaughlin, Arnold & Boyd (2005); Manning, Levine & Collins (2007); Steuve et al. (2006)

46. DES White Paper on Education (2000) • Consciousness Raising: to realise full potential; self-discovery; personal and collective development • Citizenship: to grow in self-confidence, social awareness and social responsibility and to take a proactive role in shaping the overall direction at societal and community decision-making. • Cohesion: to enhance social capital and empower those particularly disadvantaged. • Cultural Development: the role of adult education in enriching the cultural fabric of society. • Community Development: the role of adult education in the development of community with a collective sense of purpose

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