Published Date: Mar 14th, 2025
Fife Council’s Education Scrutiny Committee is set to be updated on 18 March 2025 on progress in building pupils' school attendance across Fife.
Schools across Fife recognise that pupils' school attendance can be affected by many factors, requiring a wide range of approaches from schools, families, and partners to promote and support attendance.
School absenteeism is a national challenge. In Fife, attendance for 2023-24 stood at 89.6%, similar to the previous year and in line with the national trend. Primary schools recorded 91.5%, while secondary attendance was 87.1%.
Fife’s focus on chronic absence, through nurturing support and multi-agency family approaches, is starting to impact, with persistent pupil absence dropping from 34.7% in 2022-23 to 34.2% in 2023-24.
Cllr Kathleen Leslie, Convener – Education, Scrutiny Committee, Fife Council, said: “We want every child and young person in Fife to have the best start in life, and education is a huge part of this. We continue to work to address non-attendance, and for our children and young people to be motivated to attend school, so that they can benefit from their education. Fife is taking steps to tackle school attendance with increased pupil support, a more engaging curriculum, and tailored interventions to help every learner succeed. The launch of our Transforming Learning strategy over the next year will provide a 1-1 device for all P6-S6 pupils and has the potential to remove barriers to attendance through promoting educational equity."
Schools throughout Fife are actioning initiatives to tackle low attendance. Pathhead Primary School, Kirkcaldy, is working with its families to successfully turn around low attendance with a quality improvement approach that includes targeted interventions and strong parent-school partnerships. Jillian Mellis, Head Teacher, said: “Our Attendance Team (A-Team) involving leadership, administration and family workers was established to build positive relationships with families and to support every child facing attendance challenges.
“We work to understand families’ barriers to attendance through a variety of methods. Our clear, consistent approach to tackling attendance has been shared across our school and its community. Members of our team reach out to every absent child’s family daily, to build a picture of absences and make sure we step in early. Our priority is to change the culture and attitude around attendance to provide the best and consistent education for our learners.
“Practical support includes books and assistance with school routines as well as helping parents manage anxiety and promoting positive parenting. Engagement includes adult learning and support for numeracy, literacy and parenting strategies. Strong parent-school partnerships highlight all the benefits of attendance, such as social interactions, gym, and school meals.”
Donald Macleod, Executive Director, Education, Fife Council, added: “A variety of circumstances can affect school attendance. Head teachers and education staff across Fife are working hard to re-engage children and young people. We are committed to working with families to support children to attend school. This is about support, inclusion and making sure we have all the tools in place to help schools, parents and pupils. We want our pupils to benefit from all that school has to offer, and for that to happen pupils need to attend.”
Initiatives to increase pupil attendance include:
- Professional development: Staff have access to additional training and resources, including tools to plan targeted interventions.
- Relevant and engaging curriculum: Fife is committed to developing a vibrant, dynamic and relevant curriculum that resonates with all learners, ensuring that learning is interesting, challenging and supportive.
- Smooth transitions: Both nationally and in Fife, S2 and S3 are the lowest attending year groups. In turn, the focus is on strengthening the alignment of the curriculum to support seamless transitions, as pupils move from S1 to S3.
- Additional support for learning: There are a growing number of children with identified ASN (Additional Support Needs) in Fife, and ASN pupils have lower attendance at 85.7%, with both emotional and family issues significantly impacting attendance. Schools are providing support through nurturing hubs and initiatives such as breakfast clubs. There is also increased support in place for pupils with ASN during transfers between schools.
- Online learning: The development of online learning is underway for secondary pupils with low attendance to boost engagement, provide qualifications, and open up post-school opportunities.
- Quality Improvement projects: Examples like the attendance initiative at Pathhead Primary demonstrate a team-based approach that promotes daily planning and consistent proactive engagement with pupils.
- Mental health support: Fife Education Service continues to focus on tailored support, mental health initiatives, and reducing barriers for vulnerable students. Our Minds Matter Framework targets mental, emotional, social, and physical wellbeing through promoting positive relationships among staff and pupils and supporting families with wellbeing activities.
- Family engagement: A dedicated Family Engagement Team works with schools to support pupils (from P6 to S3) and their families to improve attendance. Pupil Equity Funding is helping schools to employ Family Support Workers who liaise directly with families to encourage re-engagement.
