Attendance and Absence in Scottish Schools 1995/96 to 1997/98

Guide to the Report

About the report

This report: has been prepared by the Audit Unit of HM Inspectors of Schools; provides information on attendance and absence in Scottish schools during sessions 1995/96, 1996/97 and 1997/98 and exclusions in 1997/98; is based on the information supplied by education authorities and the managers of grantaided and selfgoverning schools; is intended for parents, School Board members and others with an interest in education.

Format of the report

The report is in three parts.

Part 1: Attendance and Absence in Scottish Schools (pages 4-81) gives: information on attendance and absence for primary and secondary schools grouped by education authority; education authority averages; information on attendance and absence for grantaided and selfgoverning schools.

Part 2: National and Education Authority Information (pages 82-89) provides: information about attendance and absence and exclusions nationally; graphs allowing comparisons between education authorities.

Part 3: Reference (pages 90-93) provides: background information about the law on attendance and absence; technical information about how figures are derived and how to interpret them.

Getting information from this report

FINDING OUT ABOUT EDUCATION AUTHORITY SCHOOLS You should look in Part 1. The schools are listed alphabetically within each education authority, primary schools first and then secondary schools. You might find it interesting to look for the school information in Part 1 and then compare that with the appropriate national or education authority averages printed below each list. You might wish to make wider comparisons by referring to the data in Part 2, such as the table and graphs of education authority averages.

FINDING OUT ABOUT OTHER SCHOOLS You should look at the last page in Part 1 for information on grantaided and selfgoverning schools.

FINDING OUT ABOUT NATIONAL OR EDUCATION AUTHORITY INFORMATION If you are mainly interested in finding out how the attendance and absence of pupils in a particular education authority compares to the national average, you should look at the table on the first page of the information for the relevant authority's schools in Part 1. If you wish to find out about the attendance and absence of pupils in the country as a whole or across all education authorities, you should look at Part 2.

Interpreting statistics The statistics in this report should be interpreted with caution. Often there are strong reasons to avoid drawing conclusions and it is better to let the statistics raise questions. Attendance/absence is an important indicator of school performance but not one which gives the full picture of a school. In making judgements, this information should be laid alongside other indicators on, for example, pupil progress, the quality of learning and teaching, the ethos of the school, school costs, examination results and leaver destinations.

What this year's report covers This report contains three years' information on attendance and absence and one year's information on exclusions in education authority, grant-aided and self-governing schools in Scotland. The report contains national and education authority information and information for individual schools but does not provide detailed information about individual pupils. For example, the figure for unauthorised absence could be caused by a large number of pupils who were absent for a few days each. On the other hand, it might result from a small number of pupils who were each absent for many days. The attendance and absence of adults attending day-school classes and of S6 pupils have been excluded from the figures as they are beyond the age of compulsory schooling. Absence is categorised as authorised or unauthorised. For more details, see Part 3.

INFORMATION NOT COVERED IN THE REPORT The report does not include any information on independent or special schools.

Absence and performance

Going to school every day is important for every pupil's education. Absence from school means reduced opportunity for learning and can lead to poorer attainment, including examination results; where this happens, the impact will be felt long after the pupil has left school.

The information in this report gives average figures for attendance and absence in schools across the country but it cannot answer all of the questions which are of interest. The same average figures may result from quite different patterns of absence which have different effects on pupils. For example, if a few pupils have a large number of absences, that will have a great deal of effect on their own learning but may affect the school/class in a fairly small way. If a large number of pupils has a pattern of occasional and irregular absence, this may have a significant effect on the way that classes can build on their learning from day to day; in other words, everyone may be affected.

Absence by a minority of pupils can also have a serious effect on the progress of other pupils. It can disrupt teachers' lesson planning and require material to be repeated for the benefit of absentees but to the cost of those who attend regularly. Pupils who truant may also become involved in delinquent and other criminal activities or put themselves at risk from accidents.

Each morning and afternoon of each school day counts as a separate possible attendance. All attendance and absence percentages in this report are percentages of the total number of possible attendances in the school year, which is taken as the period from 1 August to 31 July inclusive. This is regarded as totalling 380 half days.

Finding out more

It is important to remember that your local school and education authority have complete information on attendance and absence and will be able to set the information in its local context. From December 1994, individual school handbooks have contained information about absence in the school in a standard format. Local interpretation of national guidance may influence the figures reported by schools or education authorities. To find out more, therefore, you should make enquiries locally.

Points to remember Part1 has information on individual schools. Part2 has national information and comparative information on education authorities. Part3 has general background information. Go carefully in drawing conclusions from statistics. You can find out more from your local school or education authority. Regulations require the separate recording in school registers of authorised and unauthorised absence for all pupils other than pupils in S6 (although this should not prevent any school collecting such information for S6 pupils if it so chooses). Independent schools and special schools are not included in the school information