By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Members of a board overseeing improvements to low attendance in Nottingham schools have outlined plans to tackle the problem – including expanding a taskforce and employing more family support workers.
In 2022 Nottingham was designated one of 24 ‘Priority Education Investment Areas’ by the Government’s Department for Education (DfE).
These areas are also among 55 ‘Education Investment Areas’ (EIAs) announced by the DfE in the Levelling Up White Paper the same year, due to them having particularly low attainment and high rates of disadvantage.
A Local Partnership Board, featuring Nottingham City Council, experts and academy trusts in the city, has now been set up to help improve poor literacy and low attendance rates in the city.
During a Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee on November 30, councillors were told attendance “has to be the biggest priority” because Nottingham has some of the highest absence rates in the country.
Up to £1.6m, from the DfE, will be invested to improve attendance and persistent absence at primary and secondary schools.
The Nottingham wards with the lowest attendance include Aspley, Bestwood, Bulwell and Clifton East.
In total 551 pupils from schools in these wards, who have attendance records between 40 and 70 per cent, will be worked with at first.
Of these children 114 are of primary age, 407 are secondary school children, 302 are boys and 226 have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Former Djanogly Learning Trust chief officer Liz Anderson, who stepped down in August, now sits as the strategic leadership and monitoring lead for attendance on the Local Partnership Board.
“We know attendance is a problem,” she said.
“If it makes anyone feel any better it is not just Nottingham, in fact it is not just the UK, but actually all the developed world, having huge problems with getting children back into school post-Covid.
“Nottingham is not massively different from national in terms of overall absence, but our persistent absentees is worse than national.”
Pilot schemes have been taking place in some schools across the city, including Djanogly City Academy and Heathfield Primary School in a bid to increase attendance.
At Djanogly City Academy, around 20 per cent of pupils belong to Gypsy, Roma and traveller communities.
Experts are therefore being brought in to assist in identifying what works for specific communities where there is disproportionately low attendance.
A team of six family support workers have also been recruited with a focus on attendance.
“There is no magic bullet for attendance sadly,” Ms Anderson said.
“But I did not want schools to feel we were imposing something on them. This needed to be we need to know what you are doing.
“Nottingham, the local authority, did two pilots last year, one with Djanogly City Academy and the other with Heathfield Primary School.
“I can absolutely tell you we put 1.5 per cent on attendance at Djanogly City Academy and 1.5 per cent does not sound a lot in some ways, but in attendance it is huge.
“So we knew we had got something there we wanted to share, but it is very much a part of the project is building this best practice tool kit.”
Work has also included the creation of an ‘attendance taskforce’, to support children in alternative provision and those who may fall victim to crime, and the employment of an education welfare specialist and an attendance data analyst.
The taskforce is to be doubled in size.
A further £900,000 will also be spent across both Nottingham and Derby to deliver a literacy programme to support improvements in reading and writing.
It comes as Nottingham currently ranks 117th out of 152 councils nationally for writing at Key Stage 2, or children age 11.
It is currently 141st out of 152 councils nationally for reading at KS2.
Carl Pattison, English Hub strategic lead and independent literacy advisor, said there would be a “really exciting project” of targeted support to boost the literacy skills of children in Nottingham.
