Swansea schools leading the way in Wales with record attendance

SWANSEA primary schools are enjoying record results after working with parents and the community to improve attendance every day.

St Helen’s Primary School in the city centre has gone from being one of the worst schools in Swansea for attendance to being one of the best.

Since 2010 absenteeism has more than halved. The school has moved from the bottom 25% when compared with schools with a similar proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, to the top 25% in 2013 and 2014.

The transformation, which is having a positive impact on pupils’ test results, has come about through the school working alongside the Council and parents to improve understanding of the importance of attendance.

And the community has pitched in too with local dentists and opticians, for example, helping out by making space in their appointments registers so children can have routine appointments outside the normal school day.

Now the school’s success has been highlighted as best practice in Wales by education inspectors Estyn in a new report out this week.

Parkland Primary in the city has also hailed as best practice in Wales for its innovative work with parents to improve too including providing them regular updates of their individual child’s attendance.

The cases are reflections of work across the city which has seen the Council, schools, parents and partner agencies teaming up to make sure pupils get the best possible education to achieve their full potential by attending school for every possible session. Latest figures show primary school attendance across Swansea is now up to 95.1% (last academic year it was 94.4% overall).

Cllr Jen Raynor, Cabinet Member for Education, said: “Pupil attainment is a top priority for the Council and attendance at school is the key to that. Like all parents we know that if our children don’t go to school they can’t learn and they will struggle to achieve their full potential.

“That’s why the Council puts so much effort into working with schools and parents to improve attendance. I’m especially pleased to see the simple but innovative ideas being introduced at St Helen’s and Parkland which Estyn says others can learn from.

“I would like to congratulate the education service, schools and parents on the improvements so far and hope that we can continue to work together to keep things on an upward trend.”

Mark Thompson, Headteacher at St Helen’s Primary, said: “I am so proud of the children and their parents who have really taken on what we are trying to do as a school to get the best possible education for children.

“We now have a school where pupils want to come and learn and their parents do everything they can to make sure they are here to get the high-quality education they deserve.

“Improved attendance is already having an impact on how well children are learning and we are having record results in tests.”

Anne Lloyd, Headteacher at Parkland, said: “We are delighted to be featured as best practice within this report.

“We place a great deal of emphasis on the partnership between home and school to enable children to get the most out of their education.

“The improvement in attendance is a result of parents receiving regular information regarding their child’s attendance and working with the school to improve it.

“Increased attendance is reflected in improved educational outcomes for pupils which is what parents want for their child.

“We will continue to work on attendance because children need to be in school to learn.”