Are your students arriving late or missing class altogether?
In this episode, we’ll explore why punitive measures often backfire and how they can alienate the very students who need connection the most.
IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:
- The pitfalls of punishment: While it may seem like a way to enforce attendance, punishment can foster resentment and disconnect, driving students further away from the classroom.
- Understanding the reasons behind absenteeism: Many factors influencing attendance are beyond the students’ control, including personal circumstances and mental health challenges.
- The importance of compassionate expectations: It’s crucial to maintain high standards while approaching students with empathy and understanding.
- 5 Practical strategies for improving attendance with understanding, compassion and reflection.
The key takeaway from this episode is clear: we cannot lecture or punish our way to better attendance. Instead, we must focus on connection, celebrating progress, and having difficult yet supportive conversations.
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh, hi teachers, Welcome to Unteachable's podcast
Congratulations.
You have just stumbled acrossthe best free professional
development and support youcould ask for.
I'm Claire English, apassionate secondary teacher,
author, teacher mentor andgenerally just a big behavior
nerd, and I created theUnteachable's podcast to
demystify and simplify classroommanagement.
I want this podcast to be thetangible support, community
(00:26):
validation, mentorship all thosepretty important things that we
need as teachers to be able towalk into our classrooms feeling
empowered and, dare I say it,happy and thrive, especially in
the face of these really toughbehaviors.
So ready for some no-nonsense,judgment-free and realistic
classroom management support.
I've got your teacher friend.
Let's do this.
Hello, hello, hello, wonderfulteachers.
(00:49):
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unteachables podcast.
It is wonderful to have youjoin me here.
You have got plenty of choicein the podcasting world, but
here you are listening to me, sothat's wonderful.
I hope it's for a very goodreason and I hope that you have
been getting plenty of valuefrom these episodes.
I did a post on Instagram thismorning actually, and it was
kind of just reintroducingmyself and it made me think
(01:12):
about the journey that led mehere and why I'm so passionate
about this work, and it was oneof those like hi, I'm Claire, a
bit lame, a dorky reel, but itwas like a very quick overview
of my journey into teaching andthe work that I do to introduce
that to people who might notknow a lot about me.
And the first thing was at 17,.
(01:32):
You wouldn't catch me deadwalking into school again.
I wouldn't be walking throughany school gates, I was done.
I didn't want to talk to anyteachers, I didn't want to be
around schools.
I hated it.
But then I very soon realizedthat my calling was to be the
teacher that I desperatelyneeded.
So at 21, I graduated mymaster's without a stable place
to live.
(01:52):
I was floating around oncouches, I was working two jobs
just to try to keep myselfafloat, literally just scraping
by physically, mentally, all ofthat.
So I had a very strong why.
I was very resilient, I wasvery determined.
I'm a very stubborn person.
So I got through that and Iwalked into my very first
classroom at 21 with zero cluehow to manage behavior and I
(02:14):
immediately started to drown.
So, even with my really strongwhy, I just had no idea what I
was doing.
I didn't know if I made theright choice, but because I'm
stubborn.
I made it my mission to be thebest teacher that I was doing.
I didn't know if I made theright choice, but because I'm
stubborn, I made it my missionto be the best teacher that I
possibly could.
And even in my second year ofteaching, having zero skills, I
said to myself one day I amgoing to teach other teachers,
(02:36):
I'm going to support otherteachers, I'm going to like
dedicate myself to making surethat I nail this in some way.
Like I need to get on top ofthis and I need to be somebody
to support other teachers.
Because this is a joke, like Ijust thought this is ridiculous
and if teacher training is notgoing to teach me this stuff,
then I need to be somebody tosupport other teachers with it.
So, like, from a very, very,very early stage in my career, I
(02:58):
knew that my goal was tosupport other teachers.
So here I am, 14, 15 yearslater, and I actually feel like
I am living my dream jobsupporting teachers all around
the world with their classroommanagement.
Supporting teachers like you tomanage your classrooms
confidently and compassionatelyand calmly and, most importantly
(03:18):
for me, classroom manage in away that, like it, honors the
student that I was and theteacher that I wanted to be, and
to be able to be that teacherin the classroom for students
but then impact the lives ofstudents and the teachers
globally.
It just I'm honestly living mydream doing this work.
So all of that to say you'relistening to this podcast and
(03:41):
you could be listening to abunch of other podcasts, but the
fact that you're listening tothis one and you're with me, I
am so grateful that I get tosupport you in whatever way that
I possibly can, and I trulyhope that, listening to these
podcast episodes, you do getsome actionable strategies to
take away that we don't gettaught at university in our
teacher training.
(04:01):
So, okay, that was a very longintroduction just to say hello,
thank you for being here.
Let's get started then.
In today's episode, I wanted totalk about attendance and trying
to get attendance from ourstudents and getting students
walking through that door eitheron time or at all.
Maybe your students just aren'tcoming in and maybe they're
around the school somewhere butthey're choosing not to come to
your subject, and, in particular, I wanted to talk about the use
(04:24):
of punishments to try to getstudents to attend class, like
whether it's if you don't cometo class and you get a detention
or you know like there arepunishments that are imposed on
students who don't come to classor come late to class, and all
the rest of it.
You have got the best ofintentions right.
You want the best for yourstudents.
If you're listening to thispodcast, clearly you want the
(04:46):
best for your students, butthink about what the goal is to
get students through that door.
So I want to talk about whypunishments are not the best way
to do that and, of course, giveyou some strategies in this
episode to help you to encouragestudents to come to lesson, to
increase their attendance, anddo so without making things
worse, which is what punishmentsdo.
And why do they make thingsworse?
(05:08):
Well, when we punish studentsfor things like this especially,
we are associating our lessonsfurther with dread.
We are fostering resentment.
We are disconnecting with thevery students who probably need
that connection more than any ofour students who are showing up
to class on time and all thetime.
And all of this can justfurther breed that disengagement
(05:30):
.
It leads to a cycle ofavoidance that's so much harder
to get them back into class ingeneral.
In a recent episode, I spokeabout students coming late to
class and I spoke about how thereasons they're late to class
sometimes are totally out oftheir control, and the same
applies to students not comingto class at all.
I slightly touched on this atthe start of the episode where I
mentioned that when I finishedschool I never wanted to walk
(05:54):
back through the gates ofanother school again, but when I
was in high school I was notgetting any attendance awards.
My attendance actually wentdown to 55% in my final year of
schooling.
That means every single week Iwas having an average of 2.5
days off school.
Half of the time I wasn't there, and that is.
(06:14):
You're a teacher.
You know that amount of timeoff school is huge.
You are missing so much, andhow can you possibly be
successful with that amount oftime off school?
What my teachers didn't know wasthat at home I was either
caring for my mom, who hadsignificant mental health needs
at the time, or I was riddledwith so much anxiety and
depression because of all ofthose things that were going on
(06:36):
that I was feeling completelyand utterly hopeless and I
couldn't bring myself to get outof bed in the morning.
I didn't know how to live Like.
I really didn't know what to do.
I didn't feel like there was afuture for me.
It was beyond challenging, andthis is not a poor me moment.
This is just an opportunity forme to remind everybody out
(06:57):
there listening that we have noreal understanding around what
might be happening for the youngpeople in our care at home.
I knew my attendance sucked.
I knew that things weren't goodat school.
And things were worse because Ihad this stack of catch-up work
that kept building and buildingand building.
It was crushed in the bottom ofmy bag.
(07:18):
I was being told off everysingle day and punished every
single day for it not beingsubmitted, and it was like an
impossible task for me to catchup on.
Even if I had any motivation tocontinue on with school, with
anything, it would have been animpossible task.
I was given another set of workto add to it.
I was viewed as being lazy.
I was viewed as a disengagedteen who didn't deserve to
(07:39):
graduate, who didn't deservesuccess.
I remember you know people likeother students in my grade oh,
don't worry, she's not going tograduate anyway, she's just.
You know, she might be at homeright now but she's not going to
get anywhere in life Like thatkind of vibe towards me.
I couldn't catch up.
I was able to takeaccountability.
I could even accept if I didn'tgraduate, I knew I hadn't been
(08:02):
there enough.
This, right here, is not abouthaving zero expectations of our
students.
It's about holding thoseexpectations with compassion and
holding those expectations withunderstanding and approaching
things in the right way,approaching things in a way
where students like me all havefar harder times than I did will
(08:24):
actually start to re-engagewith school and to actually want
to come in and actually feelconnected and feel like there is
hope.
So that's like the extreme endof things, but kids every day
are struggling to get back toclass, for whatever reason.
It could even just be that theymiss out on, like the lesson
the last week and they'restruggling to get back into it,
or it could be any reason thatthey're not coming.
(08:44):
It could.
It also could be that it won'tdo, but there are a bunch of
reasons.
The whole point is we just don'tknow.
But the way that we approach itmatters and this is how we do
it.
We can't consequence our way tobetter attendance.
It's not going to work.
They're not going to come backto class.
They're going to disconnect.
They're going to, you know,disengage even further.
But what we can do is and wecan't control those things, by
(09:12):
the way, remember like thiswhole month I've just been
banging on about controllingwhat we can control in the
classroom to actually feelconfident and calm and being
able to approach things withcompassion.
All the rest of it we can'tconsequence our way to better
attendance, we don't havecontrol over that stuff.
But we can find students andgive them time to talk to them.
And it seems so simple, butnobody did this with me, not
once.
Just a wellbeing check-in, areyou all right?
(09:33):
You haven't been coming and Ihave noticed just get curious
and seeing what might come upfor that student and a simple
conversation can be powerfulenough to open doors and give
you insight into what might bekeeping that student away.
And if not, even just the factthat you have gone and seeked
that student out and tried toconnect might go a long way in
(09:55):
and of itself to get thatstudent re-engaged with your
lesson.
And of course, I am speakingabout this particular situation
in terms of like students areactually at school going to
other subjects but they're notcoming to yours.
So that's a situation wherethis is going to work.
You obviously can't find themand talk to them if they're not
at school at all, but thesesituations are when they're at
school but they're not actuallycoming to your class.
The second thing is recognizingsmall wins when they do come in.
(10:20):
If you have got a student whois a chronic non-attender and
they're making the effort toattend your class for that day,
no matter how short their stay,no matter whether it's one day
every two weeks, it is soimportant to make them feel like
they belong there.
There's, you know I talk aboutlike needs meeting behaviors.
Love and belonging is such ahuge driver for the behaviors
(10:40):
that we do see in our youngpeople.
That's such a priority for themat that age.
If you can try to meet thatneed for love and belonging.
The second they walk into classno matter whether or not they've
been there for the last twoweeks or you know, they kind of
come in drips and drabs that'salways going to be more
beneficial than the alternative.
If they come back to class, andif they come in and the second
(11:02):
they walk in they know they'regoing to be questioned or
lectured or they're going to belooked at in a certain way
because they haven't been thereor haven't done the work.
No matter what the reason, theyare not going to want to come
back.
And if they are there, if theydo come back, their behaviors
are probably going to beincredibly disengaged and
they're probably going to bedisruptive and they're going to
be dysregulated.
(11:22):
So it's not going to helpanybody to lecture a student,
especially in public.
It's more important for us tobe recognizing the fact that
they have come in and try towelcome them in and try to make
them feel like they're a part ofthat class community, no matter
what.
The third thing is gettingcurious about how they are
experiencing your lesson Oncethey're back in class.
(11:45):
Fabulous, take the time tocheck in with them about their
experience during the lesson.
What do you enjoy?
What do you find difficult andchallenging?
How does the environment feel?
Where are you sitting in classat the moment?
Are you okay with that?
Like, do you have any kind ofissues with your peers?
Like, what is your experiencein this room when you're sitting
there and doing the work?
How does that feel?
A lot of students who have beenmy chronic non-attenders in
(12:07):
English are actually at schoolbut don't come to my lesson and
they're the ones that reallystruggle with their literacy or
have had really difficultexperiences in the past with
that subject, have experienced alot of failure in the past.
Chatting to them about that andshowing them that you are
pitching the work right andunderstand their challenges,
it's always been really helpfulto get them to come back in and
(12:28):
try, and even if they don't dothat immediately, at least it's
planting the seeds of you knowlike I'm really trying here to
get you to a place where you'recoming in and attempting the
work and overcoming thosebarriers and opening up the door
, for that is just so wonderful,and the best way to do that is
just to get really curious howare they experiencing the lesson
(12:50):
?
And ask these questions withoutany judgment and do it
privately as well.
So maybe once they're back inclass, just like catch them at
the end and go oh my gosh, likeit's so nice to see you here.
Can I just have a bit of a chatabout some of the reasons why
you might not be coming and howwe can make the lesson something
that you do want to be involvedin?
Um, so that's always going toget more buy-in than you
lecturing them.
You know that you have to cometo class.
(13:11):
You've missed out on so muchwork and there is a time and
place for that kind of stuff,but it's not right now.
The next thing is keep investingin that rapport For those
students who are struggling toget through the door.
Make investing in theiremotional piggy bank an absolute
priority.
I use the two by 10 method.
It's just two minutes for 10days.
I seek that student out and Ihave a two minute chat about
(13:34):
anything not related to behavior.
I try to make it as natural aspossible, like I'm not, like you
know, creeping and seeking themout.
Um, but yeah, I.
I find that the most effectiveway to start to break down those
barriers with students who Inever see in class.
If they're never there, you cannever get to build that rapport
unless you kind of seek themout.
(13:55):
And of course, you can't dothis with five students because
you know five times two minutesa day finding them going to seek
them out and it is a lot oftime to take out of our day.
So I just focus on one studentat a time and make them my
priority for two weeks and Ifind it works absolute magic for
us being able to, you know,overcome some of those barriers
(14:16):
of trust and and start to buildthe rapport enough for them to
be like hey, miss, you know like, and want to come into the
lesson.
Then the next step and I havevery intentionally put this
after investing in the rapportand, you know, investing in the
emotional piggy bank, because ifyou don't have that investment
first, you have nothing towithdraw.
(14:37):
And the next step is toreinforce the expectations with
love and kindness.
And you can't reinforce thoseexpectations and have serious
conversations with a student andmake that withdrawal if you
haven't got anything to withdraw, because these conversations
are hard and it is a withdrawaland without anything in the bank
(14:58):
first, you just won't be ableto get through to them.
You're not going to be able tohave these chats with them.
And if you do have these chats,you're not going to be able to
have any kind of impact withthem.
So, assuming that you havesomething in the bank to have
any kind of impact with them, soassuming that you have
something in the bank, if theattendance issue is something in
their control, you can ask themquestions like what's the
impact of your attendance?
Where is this road going?
(15:20):
Like, if you're on this path,if you're not coming to class,
where is this going to end up?
What are your biggest concernsright now?
What can we do to fix this?
What can I do to help, likehave that hard conversation
around if you keep going downthis track and I care too much
about you to let you go downthis track any longer.
Ask them Like we talk a lotabout on this podcast, like
(15:41):
control, like what we cancontrol and what we can't
control.
Ask that student you know you'vegot all of these barriers here,
but what can you control aboutyour attendance?
Like, what can you controlabout your education?
Let's focus on those things.
And what can I do to help youreally take control of those
things?
Like how can I help you do that?
So it's really important to,number one, get them to take
accountability for the fact thatthey're making a choice to have
(16:03):
poor attendance in whatever way, shape or form that comes in.
But the most important thing isfor us to be able to overcome
the barriers, like understandthe barriers and overcome the
barriers with a plan.
So really think what is thenext step here?
So you can ask them, likewhat's the plan for next lesson?
Like what's the plan for nextweek?
What's the plan for the nextterm?
Like what do we want to aim for?
And make a realistic plan withthem around how to improve their
(16:26):
attendance.
It's not going to be realisticto go from 50% attendance to
100%, but what can we dotogether?
Also, I think I just need to addon here that if students aren't
coming to school, it's not yourjob to get them to come to
school.
Necessarily, there are peoplewithin your school hopefully,
surely that work with theparents and the carers and
(16:48):
social services and all of thoseplaces to encourage students
back into school.
If they are chronicnon-attenders, well, I know for
sure in the UK and Australiathey definitely do that.
Your job is to try to buildthat relationship, get them into
class, engage them in the bestway that you can.
If you have concerns about astudent that is definitely not
attending your class you don'tknow where they are.
If there are any concerns likethat, please, please, please, go
(17:16):
and speak to your welfare team,your welfare department.
That might be called somethingdifferent in your school, but I
just want to make sure thatthat's said before I finish this
episode, because I don't wantyou to think that it is in your
realm of control or expertise toget students that are complete
non-attenders back into theschool building.
How you respond to studentswhen they get there, that is in
your control.
So let's focus on those things.
So the biggest thing to takeaway from this episode is just
(17:39):
remembering that when it comesto student attendance, when
they're not coming to class andthey finally come to class we
can't lecture or punish our wayto having better student
attendance.
It's going to make things worse.
We need to connect, we need tocelebrate the wins, we need to
get curious, we need to offersupport, we need to invest in
that emotional piggy bank andhave the tough and honest
(17:59):
conversations when and if we arein the position to do so with
impact.
So just have a think about thestudents this week who aren't
walking through your door.
What is one tiny step you cantake to re-engaging them?
Focus on what you can control.
Focus on the things that aregoing to move the needle.
Our last little takeaway that Iabsolutely love is that
(18:21):
connection is never the wronganswer.
If you are ever in doubt abouta student, about their behavior,
about what's going on student,about their behavior, about
what's going on, always leadwith connection, because that is
always going to do so much morefor the relationship, for that
behavior, for that student, thanany amount of consequences,
threats, lectures, punishmentsever could.
(18:43):
Okay, wonderful teacher, I'llleave it there for now.
Have a brilliant week ahead andI will see you in the same
place, at the same time nextweek.
Oh, hi teachers, Welcome to Unteachable's podcast
Congratulations.
You have just stumbled acrossthe best free professional
development and support youcould ask for.
I'm Claire English, apassionate secondary teacher,
author, teacher mentor andgenerally just a big behavior
nerd, and I created theUnteachable's podcast to
demystify and simplify classroommanagement.
I want this podcast to be thetangible support, community
(00:26):
validation, mentorship all thosepretty important things that we
need as teachers to be able towalk into our classrooms feeling
empowered and, dare I say it,happy and thrive, especially in
the face of these really toughbehaviors.
So ready for some no-nonsense,judgment-free and realistic
classroom management support.
I've got your teacher friend.
Let's do this.
Hello, hello, hello, wonderfulteachers.
(00:49):
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unteachables podcast.
It is wonderful to have youjoin me here.
You have got plenty of choicein the podcasting world, but
here you are listening to me, sothat's wonderful.
I hope it's for a very goodreason and I hope that you have
been getting plenty of valuefrom these episodes.
I did a post on Instagram thismorning actually, and it was
kind of just reintroducingmyself and it made me think
(01:12):
about the journey that led mehere and why I'm so passionate
about this work, and it was oneof those like hi, I'm Claire, a
bit lame, a dorky reel, but itwas like a very quick overview
of my journey into teaching andthe work that I do to introduce
that to people who might notknow a lot about me.
And the first thing was at 17,.
(01:32):
You wouldn't catch me deadwalking into school again.
I wouldn't be walking throughany school gates, I was done.
I didn't want to talk to anyteachers, I didn't want to be
around schools.
I hated it.
But then I very soon realizedthat my calling was to be the
teacher that I desperatelyneeded.
So at 21, I graduated mymaster's without a stable place
to live.
(01:52):
I was floating around oncouches, I was working two jobs
just to try to keep myselfafloat, literally just scraping
by physically, mentally, all ofthat.
So I had a very strong why.
I was very resilient, I wasvery determined.
I'm a very stubborn person.
So I got through that and Iwalked into my very first
classroom at 21 with zero cluehow to manage behavior and I
(02:14):
immediately started to drown.
So, even with my really strongwhy, I just had no idea what I
was doing.
I didn't know if I made theright choice, but because I'm
stubborn.
I made it my mission to be thebest teacher that I was doing.
I didn't know if I made theright choice, but because I'm
stubborn, I made it my missionto be the best teacher that I
possibly could.
And even in my second year ofteaching, having zero skills, I
said to myself one day I amgoing to teach other teachers,
(02:36):
I'm going to support otherteachers, I'm going to like
dedicate myself to making surethat I nail this in some way.
Like I need to get on top ofthis and I need to be somebody
to support other teachers.
Because this is a joke, like Ijust thought this is ridiculous
and if teacher training is notgoing to teach me this stuff,
then I need to be somebody tosupport other teachers with it.
So, like, from a very, very,very early stage in my career, I
(02:58):
knew that my goal was tosupport other teachers.
So here I am, 14, 15 yearslater, and I actually feel like
I am living my dream jobsupporting teachers all around
the world with their classroommanagement.
Supporting teachers like you tomanage your classrooms
confidently and compassionatelyand calmly and, most importantly
(03:18):
for me, classroom manage in away that, like it, honors the
student that I was and theteacher that I wanted to be, and
to be able to be that teacherin the classroom for students
but then impact the lives ofstudents and the teachers
globally.
It just I'm honestly living mydream doing this work.
So all of that to say you'relistening to this podcast and
(03:41):
you could be listening to abunch of other podcasts, but the
fact that you're listening tothis one and you're with me, I
am so grateful that I get tosupport you in whatever way that
I possibly can, and I trulyhope that, listening to these
podcast episodes, you do getsome actionable strategies to
take away that we don't gettaught at university in our
teacher training.
(04:01):
So, okay, that was a very longintroduction just to say hello,
thank you for being here.
Let's get started then.
In today's episode, I wanted totalk about attendance and trying
to get attendance from ourstudents and getting students
walking through that door eitheron time or at all.
Maybe your students just aren'tcoming in and maybe they're
around the school somewhere butthey're choosing not to come to
your subject, and, in particular, I wanted to talk about the use
(04:24):
of punishments to try to getstudents to attend class, like
whether it's if you don't cometo class and you get a detention
or you know like there arepunishments that are imposed on
students who don't come to classor come late to class, and all
the rest of it.
You have got the best ofintentions right.
You want the best for yourstudents.
If you're listening to thispodcast, clearly you want the
(04:46):
best for your students, butthink about what the goal is to
get students through that door.
So I want to talk about whypunishments are not the best way
to do that and, of course, giveyou some strategies in this
episode to help you to encouragestudents to come to lesson, to
increase their attendance, anddo so without making things
worse, which is what punishmentsdo.
And why do they make thingsworse?
(05:08):
Well, when we punish studentsfor things like this especially,
we are associating our lessonsfurther with dread.
We are fostering resentment.
We are disconnecting with thevery students who probably need
that connection more than any ofour students who are showing up
to class on time and all thetime.
And all of this can justfurther breed that disengagement
(05:30):
.
It leads to a cycle ofavoidance that's so much harder
to get them back into class ingeneral.
In a recent episode, I spokeabout students coming late to
class and I spoke about how thereasons they're late to class
sometimes are totally out oftheir control, and the same
applies to students not comingto class at all.
I slightly touched on this atthe start of the episode where I
mentioned that when I finishedschool I never wanted to walk
(05:54):
back through the gates ofanother school again, but when I
was in high school I was notgetting any attendance awards.
My attendance actually wentdown to 55% in my final year of
schooling.
That means every single week Iwas having an average of 2.5
days off school.
Half of the time I wasn't there, and that is.
(06:14):
You're a teacher.
You know that amount of timeoff school is huge.
You are missing so much, andhow can you possibly be
successful with that amount oftime off school?
What my teachers didn't know wasthat at home I was either
caring for my mom, who hadsignificant mental health needs
at the time, or I was riddledwith so much anxiety and
depression because of all ofthose things that were going on
(06:36):
that I was feeling completelyand utterly hopeless and I
couldn't bring myself to get outof bed in the morning.
I didn't know how to live Like.
I really didn't know what to do.
I didn't feel like there was afuture for me.
It was beyond challenging, andthis is not a poor me moment.
This is just an opportunity forme to remind everybody out
(06:57):
there listening that we have noreal understanding around what
might be happening for the youngpeople in our care at home.
I knew my attendance sucked.
I knew that things weren't goodat school.
And things were worse because Ihad this stack of catch-up work
that kept building and buildingand building.
It was crushed in the bottom ofmy bag.
(07:18):
I was being told off everysingle day and punished every
single day for it not beingsubmitted, and it was like an
impossible task for me to catchup on.
Even if I had any motivation tocontinue on with school, with
anything, it would have been animpossible task.
I was given another set of workto add to it.
I was viewed as being lazy.
I was viewed as a disengagedteen who didn't deserve to
(07:39):
graduate, who didn't deservesuccess.
I remember you know people likeother students in my grade oh,
don't worry, she's not going tograduate anyway, she's just.
You know, she might be at homeright now but she's not going to
get anywhere in life Like thatkind of vibe towards me.
I couldn't catch up.
I was able to takeaccountability.
I could even accept if I didn'tgraduate, I knew I hadn't been
(08:02):
there enough.
This, right here, is not abouthaving zero expectations of our
students.
It's about holding thoseexpectations with compassion and
holding those expectations withunderstanding and approaching
things in the right way,approaching things in a way
where students like me all havefar harder times than I did will
(08:24):
actually start to re-engagewith school and to actually want
to come in and actually feelconnected and feel like there is
hope.
So that's like the extreme endof things, but kids every day
are struggling to get back toclass, for whatever reason.
It could even just be that theymiss out on, like the lesson
the last week and they'restruggling to get back into it,
or it could be any reason thatthey're not coming.
(08:44):
It could.
It also could be that it won'tdo, but there are a bunch of
reasons.
The whole point is we just don'tknow.
But the way that we approach itmatters and this is how we do
it.
We can't consequence our way tobetter attendance.
It's not going to work.
They're not going to come backto class.
They're going to disconnect.
They're going to, you know,disengage even further.
But what we can do is and wecan't control those things, by
(09:12):
the way, remember like thiswhole month I've just been
banging on about controllingwhat we can control in the
classroom to actually feelconfident and calm and being
able to approach things withcompassion.
All the rest of it we can'tconsequence our way to better
attendance, we don't havecontrol over that stuff.
But we can find students andgive them time to talk to them.
And it seems so simple, butnobody did this with me, not
once.
Just a wellbeing check-in, areyou all right?
(09:33):
You haven't been coming and Ihave noticed just get curious
and seeing what might come upfor that student and a simple
conversation can be powerfulenough to open doors and give
you insight into what might bekeeping that student away.
And if not, even just the factthat you have gone and seeked
that student out and tried toconnect might go a long way in
(09:55):
and of itself to get thatstudent re-engaged with your
lesson.
And of course, I am speakingabout this particular situation
in terms of like students areactually at school going to
other subjects but they're notcoming to yours.
So that's a situation wherethis is going to work.
You obviously can't find themand talk to them if they're not
at school at all, but thesesituations are when they're at
school but they're not actuallycoming to your class.
The second thing is recognizingsmall wins when they do come in.
(10:20):
If you have got a student whois a chronic non-attender and
they're making the effort toattend your class for that day,
no matter how short their stay,no matter whether it's one day
every two weeks, it is soimportant to make them feel like
they belong there.
There's, you know I talk aboutlike needs meeting behaviors.
Love and belonging is such ahuge driver for the behaviors
(10:40):
that we do see in our youngpeople.
That's such a priority for themat that age.
If you can try to meet thatneed for love and belonging.
The second they walk into classno matter whether or not they've
been there for the last twoweeks or you know, they kind of
come in drips and drabs that'salways going to be more
beneficial than the alternative.
If they come back to class, andif they come in and the second
(11:02):
they walk in they know they'regoing to be questioned or
lectured or they're going to belooked at in a certain way
because they haven't been thereor haven't done the work.
No matter what the reason, theyare not going to want to come
back.
And if they are there, if theydo come back, their behaviors
are probably going to beincredibly disengaged and
they're probably going to bedisruptive and they're going to
be dysregulated.
(11:22):
So it's not going to helpanybody to lecture a student,
especially in public.
It's more important for us tobe recognizing the fact that
they have come in and try towelcome them in and try to make
them feel like they're a part ofthat class community, no matter
what.
The third thing is gettingcurious about how they are
experiencing your lesson Oncethey're back in class.
(11:45):
Fabulous, take the time tocheck in with them about their
experience during the lesson.
What do you enjoy?
What do you find difficult andchallenging?
How does the environment feel?
Where are you sitting in classat the moment?
Are you okay with that?
Like, do you have any kind ofissues with your peers?
Like, what is your experiencein this room when you're sitting
there and doing the work?
How does that feel?
A lot of students who have beenmy chronic non-attenders in
(12:07):
English are actually at schoolbut don't come to my lesson and
they're the ones that reallystruggle with their literacy or
have had really difficultexperiences in the past with
that subject, have experienced alot of failure in the past.
Chatting to them about that andshowing them that you are
pitching the work right andunderstand their challenges,
it's always been really helpfulto get them to come back in and
(12:28):
try, and even if they don't dothat immediately, at least it's
planting the seeds of you knowlike I'm really trying here to
get you to a place where you'recoming in and attempting the
work and overcoming thosebarriers and opening up the door
, for that is just so wonderful,and the best way to do that is
just to get really curious howare they experiencing the lesson
(12:50):
?
And ask these questions withoutany judgment and do it
privately as well.
So maybe once they're back inclass, just like catch them at
the end and go oh my gosh, likeit's so nice to see you here.
Can I just have a bit of a chatabout some of the reasons why
you might not be coming and howwe can make the lesson something
that you do want to be involvedin?
Um, so that's always going toget more buy-in than you
lecturing them.
You know that you have to cometo class.
(13:11):
You've missed out on so muchwork and there is a time and
place for that kind of stuff,but it's not right now.
The next thing is keep investingin that rapport For those
students who are struggling toget through the door.
Make investing in theiremotional piggy bank an absolute
priority.
I use the two by 10 method.
It's just two minutes for 10days.
I seek that student out and Ihave a two minute chat about
(13:34):
anything not related to behavior.
I try to make it as natural aspossible, like I'm not, like you
know, creeping and seeking themout.
Um, but yeah, I.
I find that the most effectiveway to start to break down those
barriers with students who Inever see in class.
If they're never there, you cannever get to build that rapport
unless you kind of seek themout.
(13:55):
And of course, you can't dothis with five students because
you know five times two minutesa day finding them going to seek
them out and it is a lot oftime to take out of our day.
So I just focus on one studentat a time and make them my
priority for two weeks and Ifind it works absolute magic for
us being able to, you know,overcome some of those barriers
(14:16):
of trust and and start to buildthe rapport enough for them to
be like hey, miss, you know like, and want to come into the
lesson.
Then the next step and I havevery intentionally put this
after investing in the rapportand, you know, investing in the
emotional piggy bank, because ifyou don't have that investment
first, you have nothing towithdraw.
(14:37):
And the next step is toreinforce the expectations with
love and kindness.
And you can't reinforce thoseexpectations and have serious
conversations with a student andmake that withdrawal if you
haven't got anything to withdraw, because these conversations
are hard and it is a withdrawaland without anything in the bank
(14:58):
first, you just won't be ableto get through to them.
You're not going to be able tohave these chats with them.
And if you do have these chats,you're not going to be able to
have any kind of impact withthem.
So, assuming that you havesomething in the bank to have
any kind of impact with them, soassuming that you have
something in the bank, if theattendance issue is something in
their control, you can ask themquestions like what's the
impact of your attendance?
Where is this road going?
(15:20):
Like, if you're on this path,if you're not coming to class,
where is this going to end up?
What are your biggest concernsright now?
What can we do to fix this?
What can I do to help, likehave that hard conversation
around if you keep going downthis track and I care too much
about you to let you go downthis track any longer.
Ask them Like we talk a lotabout on this podcast, like
(15:41):
control, like what we cancontrol and what we can't
control.
Ask that student you know you'vegot all of these barriers here,
but what can you control aboutyour attendance?
Like, what can you controlabout your education?
Let's focus on those things.
And what can I do to help youreally take control of those
things?
Like how can I help you do that?
So it's really important to,number one, get them to take
accountability for the fact thatthey're making a choice to have
(16:03):
poor attendance in whatever way, shape or form that comes in.
But the most important thing isfor us to be able to overcome
the barriers, like understandthe barriers and overcome the
barriers with a plan.
So really think what is thenext step here?
So you can ask them, likewhat's the plan for next lesson?
Like what's the plan for nextweek?
What's the plan for the nextterm?
Like what do we want to aim for?
And make a realistic plan withthem around how to improve their
(16:26):
attendance.
It's not going to be realisticto go from 50% attendance to
100%, but what can we dotogether?
Also, I think I just need to addon here that if students aren't
coming to school, it's not yourjob to get them to come to
school.
Necessarily, there are peoplewithin your school hopefully,
surely that work with theparents and the carers and
(16:48):
social services and all of thoseplaces to encourage students
back into school.
If they are chronicnon-attenders, well, I know for
sure in the UK and Australiathey definitely do that.
Your job is to try to buildthat relationship, get them into
class, engage them in the bestway that you can.
If you have concerns about astudent that is definitely not
attending your class you don'tknow where they are.
If there are any concerns likethat, please, please, please, go
(17:16):
and speak to your welfare team,your welfare department.
That might be called somethingdifferent in your school, but I
just want to make sure thatthat's said before I finish this
episode, because I don't wantyou to think that it is in your
realm of control or expertise toget students that are complete
non-attenders back into theschool building.
How you respond to studentswhen they get there, that is in
your control.
So let's focus on those things.
So the biggest thing to takeaway from this episode is just
(17:39):
remembering that when it comesto student attendance, when
they're not coming to class andthey finally come to class we
can't lecture or punish our wayto having better student
attendance.
It's going to make things worse.
We need to connect, we need tocelebrate the wins, we need to
get curious, we need to offersupport, we need to invest in
that emotional piggy bank andhave the tough and honest
(17:59):
conversations when and if we arein the position to do so with
impact.
So just have a think about thestudents this week who aren't
walking through your door.
What is one tiny step you cantake to re-engaging them?
Focus on what you can control.
Focus on the things that aregoing to move the needle.
Our last little takeaway that Iabsolutely love is that
(18:21):
connection is never the wronganswer.
If you are ever in doubt abouta student, about their behavior,
about what's going on student,about their behavior, about
what's going on, always leadwith connection, because that is
always going to do so much morefor the relationship, for that
behavior, for that student, thanany amount of consequences,
threats, lectures, punishmentsever could.
(18:43):
Okay, wonderful teacher, I'llleave it there for now.
Have a brilliant week ahead andI will see you in the same
place, at the same time nextweek.
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