Circle Forum

The complexity of student needs underlying attendance concerns requires new responses from schools and community agencies. Agency work is done in silos Absenteeism is a symptom of deeper issues and concerns Government mandated collaboration can bring various agencies to a common table Schools often do things TO other agencies School district level interventions needed Telling other agencies what t...

Every school is a busy place all the time!  It’s true that there’s no month of the year that isn’t busy with something.  Instead of just reacting, proactive changes can be made in small increments. One teacher started restorative circles in March Another teacher increased talking time with students as the spring time got busier Ask “what happened?” Instead of “Why did you do that?” Pressure builds...

When educators discover some of the reasons behind student absenteeism, it can seem like the problems are insurmountable.  One of the best things to do is recognize your own role in support student attendance since everyone at school plays a role. 2:46 You never know the impact you’re having 3:34 Listening makes a difference and is more than “just” listening 4:43  They won’t care what you know til...

Talking about student attendance requires regular reminders to staff.  How about using your current memos or newsletters to make it a monthly discussion in the staffroom?  In this podcast we discuss some simple attendance tips that can be part of your conversations. 1:23 Greet students at the door of the classroom. 2:18 Address students by name 2:33 Have a weekly attendance update for staff. 3:36...

Parent voice needs to be included through a variety of channels that are formal and less formal.   1:44 School climate surveys 4:00 Parents will come to meetings about topics that are important to them 5:34 Proactively design the questions for consideration. 7:57 Plan time for conversations with parents 9:06 Ask open ended questions like “What are 3 stars and a wish that you have for our school?”...

There are a lot of people at school who have information about a student or family that’s not connected or engaged.  It’s important to make connecting the dots of information a priority. 0:23 Starts with a school leader asking the question about who’s NOT connected 2:33 Involve the staff in addressing the question 4:46 Redraft staff meeting agendas to include topics like families that aren’t conne...

Dealing with parents in difficult circumstances takes skill and practice.  The good news is that everyone can learn to get better at being firm and fair. 2:02 Start by de-escalating the situation 2:50 Acknowledge the upset parent with head nods and eye contact 6:10 Check your tone of voice and body language 6:51 Model and practice, model and practice again. 7:20 Fair process starts with Engaging p...

Protective factors are those things that mitigate concerns regarding student attendance and help promote coming to school.  It starts with identifying the protective factors with which parents are most engaged.  Here are a few: Academic support for learning at home Motivational support for learning Availability of educational resources Parental monitoring 4:03 Parents may not know how to do this s...

Conversations about student attendance issues are filled with complexity and it all starts with attendance data.  How do you get attendance to be part of the discussions in schools?  How does attendance impact achievement?  What are the changes we can measure?  Who’s the point person for attendance at school or in the school district?  Sharing attendance data with school and district staff each ha...

Talking with parents can be challenging especially when the topic is their child’s absenteeism. Don’t make attendance your first or only contacts with parents! Get to know them and ask questions that are open and curious. Restorative questions don’t judge others and lead to conversations not conclusions. It’s not always easy and we may feel judged as educators! Change your questions to build relat...

“I am so busy that I don’t have time for this! Besides, how can I use restorative questions during my busy day?” It’s one of the questions we often hear from educators. And schools are very busy places so setting an intention to make some small changes in your language and questions can make a big difference. Integrating questions like “What’s happening?” Or “What do you think?”  can invite b...

The most severe and chronically absent students need a community surrounding them to address the issues that impact their attendance. It’s not an easy thing to do yet is essential and can benefit from a restorative approach as you’ll hear in this week’s podcast CircleForum. “To best meet the needs of students and families, some of the recipients have adjusted the tiers and processes for attendance...

By itself, restorative practices does not do it all! The research shows some positive change in reducing suspensions. The recommendations coming out of this research are worth a second look. Shelley, Steve and Stan discuss how the complexity involved with attendance, suspensions and achievement require complex responses. “The authors examined a specific restorative practices program — the Internat...

Student achievement and attendance are improved by the non-academics of social emotional learning and character education. Using a restorative lens, Shelley, Steve and Stan discuss the many positive in this program, things like interactive discussions. “ Using school-level archival data, analyses comparing change from baseline (2002) to one-year post trial (2007) revealed that intervention schools...

To say that attendance is complex is to state the obvious. Shelley , Steve and Stan discuss how a restorative process can develop student voice, parent voice and a fair process in addressing student attendance. One size does not fit all so it’s important to determine the reasons behind the attendance behaviour. A circle process which has great questions and focusses on listening goes a long way. “...

Using Restorative Practices, communication with middle school and high school parents is all about building a partnership relationship with school and home. The research on these early and timely ALERTS shows improvement in student attendance. From our perspective, it adds to good conversations and connections. “ABSTRACT We partnered a low-cost communication technology with school information syst...

Each person in a school plays a role in student attendance. Teachers can do something by connecting the curriculum to relevant issues and topics in the lives of their students. Research says that students feel more confident in their learning when the curriculum is frequently connected to their lives which in turn IMPROVES ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTENDANCE! “The results indicated that students randomly a...

“No way my child has missed that much school already!” Parents underestimate the number of days missed by a factor of 2. A relational approach to communicating with parents is firm and fair not punitive. Provide parents with the data AND with the support is part of the conversation this episode with Shelley, Steve and Stan “Parents of 28,080 high-risk Kindergarten through 12th grade students recei...

Simple and proactive and doable! These are things we appreciate about the research on positive greetings at the door(PGD) “ Results revealed that the PGD strategy produced significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior. Moreover, results from a social validity questionnaire indicated that teachers found the PGD strategy to be feasible, reasonable, and accep...

We love research and data that supports initiatives to reduce student absenteeism. In this episode we do some restorative reflections on this Tier 1 intervention that is good for all. Moving a breakfast program into the school day promotes conversations and community for students and staff. “The study found that Breakfast After the Bell programs can help reduce chronic absenteeism and improve...

For Season 6 of CircleForum, we’re going to be taking a closer look at the research on things that work to improve student attendance and how that fits with restorative practices. “Students reporting "moderate" and "negative" climate in their schools were more likely to attend schools with higher chronic absence rates than students reporting that their school had "positive" climate. Likewise, "cli...

In this fourth of 4 conversations about the complex solutions required to address student attendance issues, Shelley, Steve and Stan end where schools need to start, with the attendance data. The article published in October 2022 by Dr. Jess Whitley of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Beth Saggers Queensland University of Technology is called“School attendance problems are complex, and our solutio...

Shelley, Steve and Stan continue part 3 of their discussion about an article published in October 2022 by Dr. Jess Whitley of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Beth Saggers Queensland University of Technology. It’s called“School attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well.” Restorative leadership is the lens through which we see and discuss this complex concern. School cli...

Shelley, Steve and Stan continue part 2 of their discussion about an article published in October 2022 by Dr. Jess Whitley of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Beth Saggers Queensland University of Technology. It’s called“School attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well.” Restorative leadership is the lens through which we see and discuss this complex concern.  We a...

Shelley, Steve and Stan discuss an article published in October 2022 by Dr. Jess Whitley of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Beth Saggers Queensland University of Technology. It’s called“School attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well.” Restorative leadership is the lens through which we see and discuss this complex concern.  We are starting this week with “Academ...