Item 13 Appendix 2
West Dunbartonshire Council · 28 May 2025
Back to Educational Services Committee — 28 May 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 School Pupil Attendance Report–Session 2024-25 – All Data Shown Is For Session So Far As At End March Primary Attendance ranges from 89.4% at Renton Primary School up to 95.9% at St Stephen's Primary School. In secondary schools the range is from 87.7% at Our Lady and St Patrick's High School up to 88.9% at Dumbarton Academy. Appendix 2
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2 Month to Month Data for Context The average Attendance across all WDC schools for the month of March is 91.3%, up 0.2 percentage points on the February figure. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our March Attendance level was 88.2%. The session average Attendance figure (August to March) across all WDC schools has increased by 0.1 percentage points to 91% since the end of February. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our session average Attendance level was at 89.1%.
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3 Authorised Absence in Primary ranges from 7.9% at St Michael's Primary School down to 3% at St Stephen's Primary School. In secondary schools the range is from 7.7% at Our Lady and St Patrick's High School down to 5.6% at Vale of Leven Academy.
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4 Month to Month Data for Context The average Authorised Absence across all WDC schools for the month of March is 5.2%, down 0.3 percentage points on the February figure. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our March Authorised Absence level was 7.2%. The session average Authorised Absence figure (August to March) across all WDC schools has decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 5.5% since the end of February. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our session average Authorised Absence level was at 6.7%.
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5 Unauthorised Absence in Primary ranges from 6.1% at Dalreoch Primary School down to 0.7% at St Peter's Primary School. In secondary schools the range is from 6.6% at Vale of Leven Academy down to 4.4% at Dumbarton Academy.
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6 Month to Month Data for Context The average Unauthorised Absence across all WDC schools for the month of March is 3.5%, up 0.1 percentage points on the February figure. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our March Unauthorised Absence level was 4.6%. The session average Unauthorised Absence figure (August to March) across all WDC schools has stayed the same at 3.5% since the end of February. This is better than the position we were in at the same point in time last session when our session average Unauthorised Absence level was at 4.2%.
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8 April Focus Area: English as an Additional Language For Unauthorised Absence, the EAL cohort shows lower levels than the non-EAL cohort in the primary and secondary sectors and slightly higher in the special sector. For Authorised Absence, the EAL cohort shows similar levels as the non-EAL cohort in the primary sector. The EAL cohort shows lower levels than the non-EAL cohort in the secondary sector. The EAL cohort shows much higher levels than the non-EAL cohort in the special sector. The EAL cohort accounts for 4.5% of all possible attendance in primary, for 4.8% in secondary, 2.5% in special and 4.6% across all schools.
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9 March Focus Area: SIMD 2020 Quintiles Comparison For both Unauthorised and Authorised Absence in primary and secondary sectors there appears to be a trend of higher absence for the more deprived quintiles to lower absence for the least deprived quintiles. There is more variation in the special sector, but this is likely related to small numbers in the various cohorts. The extremely high level of unauthorised absence for “Quintile Not Known” is also due to this cohort being in single figures of pupils. Quintiles 1 and 2 account for 72% of all possible attendance, with Quintiles 3, 4 and 5 and unknowns all together accounting for just 28%.
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10 March Focus Area: Free Meal Entitlement (via Deprivation Criteria only) The FSM cohort shows higher levels of both Unauthorised and Authorised Absence than the non-FSM cohort in all sectors. The FSM cohort accounts for around 31% of possible attendance in the primary sector, around 26% in secondary, around 49% in the special sector and around 29% across all schools.
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11 February Focus Area: Percentage of Pupils With Less than 90% Attendance The measurement of pupils with less than 90% attendance is restricted to only those who have also been on the roll for more than 4 weeks. This is to prevent pupils who are new to the school and who have also had a period of sickness soon after joining, falling into this category unfairly. % Pupils With Less than 90% Attendance in Primary ranges from 36.6% at Dalreoch Primary School down to 5.8% at St Stephen's Primary School. In secondary schools the range is from 39.2% at Vale of Leven Academy down to 35.7% at Clydebank High School. The average level across all WDC schools is 28.4%.
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12 Looking at the primary school data by stage, it is generally increasing from P1 to P7, although P4 is lower than this trendline. In secondary it is lowest in S1, higher, and at very similar levels for S2, S3 and S4, then dropping back down a bit again in both S5 and S6. Special sector data is provided for information, but there are very small numbers in this sector and therefore individual pupils with specific issues are likely to be heavily influencing the percentages.
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13 Looking at the primary, secondary and all sectors data by SIMD 2020 Quintile, it is generally decreasing from Q1 to Q5. Special sector data is provided for information, but there are very small numbers in this sector and therefore individual pupils with specific issues are likely to be heavily influencing the percentages.
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14 February Focus Area: Percentage of Pupils With Less than 80% Attendance The measurement of pupils with less than 80% attendance is restricted to only those who have also been on the roll for more than 4 weeks. This is to prevent pupils who are new to the school and who have also had a period of sickness soon after joining, falling into this category unfairly. % Pupils With Less than 80% Attendance in Primary ranges from 13.4% at Dalreoch Primary School down to 0.9% at St Stephen's Primary School. In secondary schools the range is from 16.8% at Vale of Leven Academy down to 14.7% at St Peter the Apostle High School. The average level across all WDC schools is 10.1%.
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15 Looking at the primary school data by stage, it is lowest in P1, P2 & P4, higher but at similar levels for P3, P5 & P6 then slightly higher again in P7. In secondary it is lowest in S1, higher but at similar levels for S2 to S4 then dropping back down a bit again in both S5 and S6. Special sector data is provided for information, but there are very small numbers in this sector and therefore individual pupils with specific issues are likely to be heavily influencing the percentages.
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16 Looking at the primary, secondary and all sectors data by SIMD 2020 Quintile, it is generally decreasing from Q1 to Q5. Quintile 5 in primary is the exception to this, which has a slightly higher level than Quintile 4. Special sector data is provided for information, but there are very small numbers in this sector and therefore individual pupils with specific issues are likely to be heavily influencing the percentages.
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17 January Focus Area: Attendance of Stage S3 Pupils Looking across all stages, Unauthorised Absence shows a generally increasing trend by stage in the primary sector, although the increases between stages are pretty small. There is an anomaly at stage P6, which is more similar to P1-P3 levels than those at the upper stages. In secondary the increase is from around 3% of all possible attendance in S1 to around 6% in S2/S3 and then to around 7% in S4. S5 and S6 drop back to just over 5%.
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19 A request was made to see the year stage data also broken down by sex, so that has been provided here.
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20 Looking at S3, the cohort identified for specific focus in January, this year/stage is the one with the lowest level of attendance (86.4%). Its absence is mostly made up of authorised absence, which accounts for 7.8% of possible attendance (the highest of any stage), while the unauthorised portion (at 5.8%) is 2nd highest, behind S4 (at 7.2%).
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21 There is a little difference between female and male attendance in S3, with Female being at 86.0% and Male at 86.7%. Authorised Absence, for Females in S3 is at 8.0% and for Males is at 7.7%. For unauthorised, Females are at 6.0%, a little higher than S3 males at 5.5%.
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22 Across the secondary schools, the attendance rate for S3 pupils ranges from 87.5% at both Clydebank High School and Dumbarton Acdamemy down to 85.2% at Our Lady and St Patrick's High School. OLSP has a comparatively high level of Authorised Absence and comparatively low level (although no longer the lowest) of Unauthorised Absence. Curiously, VoLA shows the reverse of this, a comparatively high level of Unauthorised Absence and comparatively low level of Authorised Absence. SPTA, has the second highest levels of both Authorised and Unauthorised Absence.
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23 December Focus Area: Additional Support Needs The ASN cohort shows higher levels of both Authorised and Unauthorised Absence than the non-ASN cohort in both primary and secondary sectors. The ASN cohort accounts for 41% of possible attendance in the primary sector, 52% in secondary, 100% in the special sector and 47.6% across all schools.
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24 November Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Focus on Specific Codes: RFS/PTH/PTX RFS - Refusal to Attend In the primary sector, this has been used by 16 schools. The school with the highest rate being Carleith where it accounts for 2.8% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by all schools where the rate ranges from 0.4% at SPTA to 1.2% at OLSP, of possible attendance.
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25 PTH - Part Time TimeTable (health related) In the primary sector, this has been used by 9 schools. The school with the highest rate being St Eunan’s, where it accounts for 0.5% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by all schools where the rate ranges from less than 0.1% at SPTA, OLSP, Dumbarton & CHS to around 0.1% at VoLA, of possible attendance.
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26 PTX - Part Time TimeTable (exclusion related) In the primary sector, this has been used by 4 schools. At St Peter’s Aitkenbar, Dalreoch & St Martin’s Primaries, this code accounted for less than 0.1% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by 1 school, Dumbarton Academy, where it accounted for less than 0.1% of possible attendance.
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27 November Focus Area: Comparison of Attendance Levels by Sex The male cohort shows lower levels of Unauthorised Absence than the female cohort in the secondary sector. In primary and special sectors, the levels are very similar. The male cohort shows lower levels of Authorised Absence than the female cohort in the special sector. In primary males are slightly higher and in secondary slightly lower. There is a near 50/50 split between the two cohorts in primary and secondary, but the male cohort is larger in the special sector (the split being 70%/30%).
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28 October Focus Area: Care Experienced The care experienced cohort shows much higher levels of Unauthorised Absence than the non-care experienced cohort in the secondary sector. In the primary and special sectors it is slightly higher. The care experienced cohort shows much higher levels of Authorised Absence than the non-care experienced cohort in both the primary and secondary sectors. In the special sector it is lower. The care experienced cohort accounts for 3.8% of the possible attendance data across all WDC schools.
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29 October Focus Area: Care Experienced Young Carers Compared to non Care Experienced Young Carers For Unauthorised Absence, the Care Experienced Young Carer cohort shows much higher levels than the non-Care Experienced Young Carer cohort in the secondary and special sectors, and lower in the primary sector. For Authorised Absence, the Care Experienced Young Carer cohort shows much lower levels than the non-Care Experienced Young Carer cohort in primary, secondary and special sectors. The Care Experienced Young Carer cohort accounts for 2.8% of all possible Young Carer attendance across all WDC schools.
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30 October Focus Area: Child Protection Registered The Child Protection Registered cohort shows higher levels of Unauthorised Absence than the non-Child Protection Registered cohort in all sectors, but in secondary it is much higher. The Child Protection Registered cohort shows higher levels of Authorised Absence than the non-Child Protection Registered cohort in all sectors, but in special it is much higher. The Child Protection Registered cohort accounts for 0.9% of the possible attendance data across all WDC schools.
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31 October Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Focus on Specific Codes: OAT OAT - Other Attendance Out of School (e.g. pupil on a day release to a college). In the primary sector, this has been used by 17 schools. The school with the highest rate being Lennox where it accounts for 0.3% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by all schools where the rate ranges from 1.1% at CHS to 3.4% at VoLA, of possible attendance. The 2023-24 Local Authority working group on Attendance Coding provided additional guidance on circumstances where this code could be used and these suggestions are provided below to give a bit of context to the use of this code: Pupils on a day release to a College or other learning provider Interviews and visits relating to further and higher education or careers events Debates, sports, musical or drama activities in conjunction with the school Educational excursions, visits, or field trips organised by the school Day and residential visits to outdoor centres Pupils receiving tuition via outreach teaching services Activities in connection with psychological services, learning or behaviour support
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32 September Focus Area: % Attendance of P1/S1 Pupils % Attendance of P1 pupils in primary ranges from 96.9% at St Patrick's Primary School down to 89.3% at Dalreoch Primary School. In secondary schools the range for S1 pupils is from 92.7% at Our Lady and St Patrick's High School down to 88.4% at Clydebank High School. The average P1 level across all WDC primary schools is 93.9% and S1 level across all WDC secondary schools is 90.7%.
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33 September Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Focus on Specific Codes: ATF/FLX/VHL/SEP ATF - Adapted Timetable (Flexible Education) In the primary sector, this has been used by 10 schools. The school with the highest rate being St Martin’s where it accounts for 5.3% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by all schools where the rate ranges from 0.5% at OLSP to 2.0% at Dumbarton, of possible attendance.
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34 FLX - Flexible Learning In the primary sector, this has not been used this session. Previously, Our Lady of Loretto had used the code for 4 openings, but they have subsequently recoded these to something else. In the secondary sector, it has been used by 4 schools, OLSP, Dumbarton Academy & VoLA where the rate is less than 0.1%, and St Peter the Apostle High School, where the rate is 4.1% of possible attendance. VHL - Virtual Home Learning In the primary sector, this has not yet been used this session. In the secondary sector, it has been used by 4 schools, Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School, Vale of Leven Academy, St Peter the Apostle High School & Clydebank High School, where the rate is less 0.1% of possible attendance.
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35 SEP – Sickness With Educational Provision In the primary sector, this has been used by 4 schools. The highest being Lennox Primary, where the rate is 0.4% of possible attendance. In the secondary sector, it has been used by all schools and the rate ranges from less than 0.1% at CHS and OLSP to 1.0% at SPTA, of possible attendance.
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36 September Focus Area: Pupils with No, or Very Low, Attendance There were 5 primary school pupils with no attendance at all, August to March. There were 5 primary school pupils with 10% or less attendance, August to March.
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37 There were 22 secondary school pupils with no attendance at all, August to March. Nine of these individuals are of age to have already left school. Eight of those are now marked as leavers, but their leaving date, being during the current session, means they have possible attendance in this session and therefore must still be included in the attendance/absence statistics. One individual is still showing as a current WDC pupil. There were 22 secondary school pupils with 10% or less attendance, August to March. One of these individuals is of age to have already left school. They are now marked as a leaver, but their leaving date, being during the current session, means they have possible attendance in this session and therefore must still be included in the attendance/absence statistics. Six others have moved on from their schools meaning they will be unable to improve their attendance statistics. Fifteen remain on school rolls and so could still possibly improve their attendance rate.
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38 May Focus Area: Local Learning Communities Unauthorised Absence in the primary sector ranges from 1.7% of all possible attendance in the Our Lady & St Patrick's LLC to 2.2% in the Vale of Leven LLC. In the secondary sector, the range is from 4.4% in the Dumbarton LLC to 6.6% in the Vale of Leven LLC. All sectors combined it ranges from 2.9% in the Dumbarton LLC to 4.1% in the Vale of Leven LLC. It should be noted that all three special schools are included under the Dumbarton LLC.
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39 Focus Area: Postcode Prefix A request was made to see data by area, so that has been provided here. G13 Yoker/Knightswood Area: G15 Drumchapel Area: G60 Bowling/Old Kilpatrick Area: G81 Clydebank Area: G82 Dumbarton Area: G83 Vale of Leven Area: G84 Helensburgh Area: (descriptions of areas covered by postcode prefixes are not official and are intended as a guide only)
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40 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: List of Codes SEEMiS code Attendance Code Description SEEMiS code Authorised Absence Code Description --- Present ABS Other authorised Absence ATF Adapted Timetable (Flexible Education) DCA Exceptional domestic circumstances (auth) FLD Field Trip LT2 Late (arrives after mid-point) FLX Flexible Learning MED Medically Certified LAT Late (arrives before mid-point) NIM Notifiable illness (medically certified) MIS Missing NIS Notifiable illness (self certified) OAT Other attendance out of school PHL Authorised Parental Holiday PER Medical or Dental Appointment PTH Part Time Timetable (health related) SCH In school but not in class PTX Part Time Timetable (exclusion related) SEP Sickness with educational provision SEL Self Certified STY Study Leave VIS School Visit VHL Virtual Home Learning WRK Work Placement SEEMiS code Unauthorised Absence Code Description DCU Exceptional domestic circumstances (unauth) OUA Other unauthorised absence RFS Refusal to attend TBC To be Confirmed UNA Truancy or Unexplained Absence UPH Parental Holiday If no chart is shown below for a code that appears in this table, then there is negligible attendance data assigned to that code so far this session.
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41 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Primary Sector: Attendance
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46 Primary Sector: Authorised Absence
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51 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Primary Sector: Unauthorised Absence
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54 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Primary Sector: Exclusion
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55 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Secondary Sector: Attendance
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59 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Secondary Sector: Authorised Absence
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61 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Secondary Sector: Unauthorised Absence
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63 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Secondary Sector: Exclusion
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64 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Special Sector: Attendance
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68 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Special Sector: Authorised Absence
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70 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Special Sector: Unauthorised Absence
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71 June Focus Area: Individual Attendance Codes: Special Sector: Exclusion