Attendance 2019/2020 School Year

The school has a Three Year Attendance Plan that aims to improve pupil attendance over the course of the three years 2018 – 2021. We have a number of initiatives in the school to assist with improving attendance – monthly rewards for pupils and classes at assembly, pupil rewards for full attendance each term, text alerts to parents after 5 and 10 days absence and letters from the principal to parents after 15 and 20 days as absence reminders. Our targets for this year were:

1. Improvement of 1% on baseline data (overall attendance for the year 2017/2018 which was 90.7%) in annual attendance level
2. Every School Day Counts – November 2019 – 20 Day Challenge an initiative of TESS (Tusla Educational Support Service)
3. Special Initiative – Improvement of 2% in the attendance levels for the month of June 2020, (baseline data in June 2018 was 85.7%).
4. Reduce the number of pupils missing 40 days or more by 25% (baseline data school year 2017/2018 was 9.1%)

Target 1

We thank all our parents for their support in encouraging attendance and in supporting the implementation of this plan. At the end of term this June, 24 pupils were presented with a certificate for FULL ATTENDANCE (120 school days) via our online Class Dojo platform in the current school year from the beginning of the school year on 29^th August to 12 March when all schools closed due to Covid 19. We have been working hard all year at each monthly assembly in encouraging pupils on attendance, picking three winners each month from each class who have been making a great effort with school attendance and having an award for the best class/grade during the previous month. We also had a presentation of a certificate to pupils who had full attendance in November 2019 and for each term as detailed in the table below.

Every School Day Counts – 20 Day Challenge – November 2019		Christmas – Term 1
Class	Full Attendance	Class	Full Attendance
Third	24	Third	10
Fourth	21	Fourth	11
Fifth	35	Fifth	11
Sixth	25	Sixth	9
Total	105	Total	41

 

Easter – Term 2		End of Year – Whole Year (120 Days)
Class	Full Attendance	Class	Full Attendance
Third	16	Third	6
Fourth	12	Fourth	6
Fifth	21	Fifth	6
Sixth	12	Sixth	6
Total	61	Total	24

 

We didn’t make any progress in improving attendance in the current year and did well to maintain the 91.3% achieved last year. A number of factors contributed:

• Attendance in December 2019 at 87.4% is by far the lowest for the month of December in the last five years. We experienced very high levels of pupils absent (44 or 45 pupils) on the three Fridays
• Attendance in March 2020 at 88.5 is down significantly on previous years. Fears around the Covid 19 pandemic played a significant role.

Target 2

Every School Day Counts – 20 Day Challenge – November 2019

This initiative from TESS (Tusla Educational Support Service) got off to a great start in our school with a very successful Poster Competition which no doubt got the 20 Day Challenge off to a great start. 105 pupils were presented with their Full Attendance certificate and a ticket for a raffle for a small prize at our December assembly. More details in the table above.

 

Target 3

Special Initiative – Improvement of 2% in the attendance levels for the month of June 2020, (baseline data in June 2018 was 85.7%) didn’t go ahead this year due to the school closures due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Target 4

Reduce the number of pupils missing 40 days or more by 25% (baseline data school year 2017/2018 was 9.1%). It is not possible to make a direct comparison with previous years in the light of the School Closures due to Covid 19. However, we did have 6 pupils who had reached or exceeded 40 stays absent when the school closed after 120 days on 12 March 2020.

Finally, we wish to thank all parents/guardians for all their support this year on improving our attendances and look forward to working in partnership with them again into the future.