Scotland

We welcome colleagues in Scotland to INSA's website. The menus below were updated in February 2023.

• Dr Markus Klein and Dr Edward Sosu (University of Strathclyde) are leading two research projects on school absenteeism funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Nuffield Foundation. You can contact them directly ( klein@strath.ac.uk; edward.sosu@strath.ac.uk) find more information on their work here: https://schoolattendance.org/
• Excluded Lives is a multi-disciplinary project across the four jurisdictions of the UK. The overarching aim of this project is to provide a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary view of the different policies, practices and costs of formal, informal and illegal school exclusions across the UK. Scotland lead is Prof Gillean McCluskey at the University of Edinburgh
• The Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative has created an Interactive Attendance Guide to support settings with their improving attendance work:
• The East Lothian Council aims to provide the best education service in Scotland and has stated its ambition for improving school attendance. The East Lothian Council also devises policies on attendance and often provides the opportunity for feedback on its website.
• Enquire is a Scottish advice service which provides additional support for learning. The service provides advice on multiple school-related factors including attendance and exclusion.
• Children in Scotland is a national network of people working with/for children and children themselves, to provide support and advice across all areas affecting children. One of the areas noted is school absenteeism in Scotland.
• CELCIS aim to improve children’s lives by supporting people and organisations to inform long-lasting changes in the relevant services. The organisation attempts to influence policy through innovative and data-driven evidence. The organisation has a blog which highlights the different challenges for children, for example, the importance of attendance.
• Together Scotland is a collective of children’s charities which aim to enhance the implementation and understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). One of the rights included is the child’s Right to Education and topics related include school attendance.

• 2022, May 19, ‘School Absences and the Poverty-related Attainment Gap’, University of Strathclyde in collaboration with Poverty Alliance and General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS)
• 2022, June: West Lothian Council. Attendance and Engagement at School: Policy and Operational Procedures.
• 2022, June 7, NAIT Anxiety Related Absence Webinar 2022, published by Education Scotland
• 2022, November 17, ‘Let’s Talk Scottish Education’, published by Scottish Government
• 2023, January 20, ‘National School Attendance Conference’, a conference hosted by NSM Training and Consultancy

• Borbely, D., Gehrsitz, M., McIntyre, S., & Rossi, G. (2022). Does the Provision of Universal Free School Meals Improve School Attendance and Behaviour? Preprint (June, 29, 2022)
• Klein, M., Sosu, E. M., & Dare, S. (2022). School Absenteeism and Academic Achievement: Does the Reason for Absence Matter? AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211071115
• Klein, M., Sosu, E., & Lillywhite, E. (2022). School absenteeism and educational attainment-Evidence from the Scottish Longitudinal Study. University of Strathclyde. https://doi.org/10.17868/80713

• 2021, January: Covid-19 and school absenteeism - Klein, M., Sosu, E. M. (2021) Socioeconomic Disparities in School Absenteeism after the First Wave of COVID-19 School Closures in Scotland.
• 2021, March: Podcast Spotlight: Socioeconomic Inequalities in School Absenteeism
• 2021, May: University of Strathclyde Engage Event “Data Can Tell Us ‘What Works’ in Education: Insights from Quantitative Education Research”.
• 2021, May: Discussion of attendance and offending outcomes - Henderson, G., Rogon, P., Kurlus, I., Henderson, S. And Woods, R. (2021). Educational Attendance and Offending Outcomes. Home Compulsory Supervision Orders: Effectiveness of Decision Making and Outcomes. Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
• 2021, August: Systematic review of family SES and school absenteeism - Sosu, E. M., Dare, S., Goodfellow, C., & Klein, M. (2021). Socioeconomic status and school absenteeism: A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Review of Education, 9(3), e3291. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3291
• 2021, September: Relationship between school attendance and missed GP appointments - McQueenie, R., Ellis, D. A., Fleming, M., Wilson, P., & Williamson, A. E. (2021). Educational associations with missed GP appointments for patients under 35 years old: administrative data linkage study. BMC medicine, 19(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02100-7
• 2021, December: Government statistics on Scotland school attendance – Scottish Government (2021). Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland 2021.

2020

• 2020, March: University of Strathclyde, School of Education Blog: School Attendance and the Poverty-related Attainment Gap.
• 2020, November: Socioeconomic inequalities in school absenteeism - Klein, M., Sosu, E. M., & Dare, S. (2020). Mapping inequalities in school attendance: The relationship between dimensions of socioeconomic status and forms of school absence. Children and Youth Services Review, 118, 105432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105432
• 2020, November: Report on attendance across the UK - Sibieta, L. (2020). School attendance rates across the UK since full reopening.

2019

• 2019, June: Government advice on school attendance - Scottish Government (2019). Included, engaged and involved part 1: A Positive Approach to the Promotion and Management of Attendance in Scottish Schools.
• 2019, June: Publication on exclusion - Cole, T., McCluskey, G., Daniels, H., Thompson, I., & Tawell, A. (2019). Factors associated with high and low levels of school exclusions: Comparing the English and wider UK experience. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 24(4), 374-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2019.1628340
• 2019, July: Exclusion across the UK - McCluskey, G., Cole, T., Daniels, H., Thompson, I., & Tawell, A. (2019). Exclusion from school in Scotland and across the UK: Contrasts and questions. British Educational Research journal, 45(6), 1140-1159. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3555
• 2019, August: Crieff High School (2019). Attendance Strategy Report.

2018

• 2018, June: Publication providing data on school exclusions and attendance on attainment - Scottish Government (2018). Education outcomes for looked after children: 2016 to 2017.

2017

• 2017, March: Publication which discusses exclusion as a factor of the attainment gap - McCluskey, G. (2017). Closing the attainment gap in Scottish schools: Three challenges in an unequal society. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 12(1), 24-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197916683468
• 2017, June: Government advice on school exclusions - Scottish Government (2017). Included, engaged and involved part 2: preventing and managing school exclusions.

2015

• 2015, September: OECD report discusses school attendance in Scotland - OECD. (2015). Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective.

• Scottish Government: School attendance: a Guide for Parents
• East Lothian Council: A Positive Approach to Promoting School Attendance
• East Lothian Council: Attendance Guidance
• Govan Law Centre: A guide for Parents about School Attendance
• West Lothian Council: Attendance and Engagement at school: Policy and Operational Procedures
• The School Run: The parents’ Guide to School Attendance

Media attention about school attendance

• Over 100,000 schoolchildren missing day of lessons every two weeks (STV, November 2022)
• SNP urged to act after numbers of pupils missing school sky-rockets in Scotland (Scottish Daily Express, November 2022)
• Growing number of children with a learning disability deregistering from school (Learning Disability Today, October 2022)
• Authorised absences ‘equally detrimental’ to pupils (TES, May 2022)
• Truancy on the rise in the SNP's Scotland as one in 10 pupils skips school every day (Scottish Daily Express, May 2022)
• Scale of Covid pupil absences in Scotland revealed (TES, January 2022)
• Pupils lost a third of their expected learning during COVID, with Wales and Scotland even further behind (LSE Blog, July 2021)