Secondary School Attendance Scrutiny Task Group

Membership

Councillor Bob King (Chair), Councillor Geoff Acton and Mark Williams (Co-opted Member)

Purpose of the review

• To understand the main reasons for absence, particularly unauthorised absence in secondary schools.
• To encourage a Borough debate amongst parents, teachers and governors about the impact of non-attendance.
• To draw together some examples of national and local best practice in tackling low school attendance with particular focus on secondary schools.
• To encourage debate regarding the distinction between truancy and unauthorised absence.

View the Project Definition Statement here(pdf, 44KB).

Meetings

The minutes of meetings and other relevant documentation can be found below.

Meetings 6 and 7: 9 May and 4 June 2007

These were discussions to consider and approve the content of the final report and were not minuted.

Meeting 5: 12 March 2007

• A meeting was held with Jean Gunning from the DfES and she was questioned by Members.

Meeting 4: 12 February 2007

• Agenda(pdf, 16KB)
• Item 2a - Members Briefing(pdf, 47KB)
• Item 2b - LPSA Target 2(pdf, 19KB)
• Item 2c - Meeting between AR/WW/DS(pdf, 23KB)
• Item 2d - EWS Efficiency Comparisons(pdf, 29KB)
• Item 3a - Governor's questionnaire(pdf, 32KB)
• Item 3b - Focus Group Topic Guide(pdf, 22KB)
• Minutes(pdf, 24KB)

Meeting 3: 15 December 2006

• Agenda(pdf, 15KB)
• Item 4a - Cumilative absence by HT(pdf, 263KB)
• Item 4b - Auth-unauth absence by HT(pdf, 271KB)
• Item 4d - Absence and attendance codes (from the Department for Children, Schools and Families website)
• Item 4e - Keeping pupil registers (from the Department for Children, Schools and Families website)
• Minutes(pdf, 15KB)

Meeting 2: 10 November 2006

• Minutes only(pdf, 31KB)

Meeting 1: 3 November 2006

• Minutes only(pdf, 26KB)