Embedded Files
Everything that you need to know about Stirling's Engaging Learners Service
Schools information
Parents/Carers information
Children and Young People information
Meet the Team
Screening Group Agencies
Documentation
Service flowchart
Initial Referral- Primary Schools
Initial Referral- Secondary Schools
Professional Learning Library
Professional Learning Library
Our professional learning tab is consistently updated with the latest CLPL opportunities, academic research and wider reading around supporting engagement, attendance and wellbeing for young people.
Please let us know of any useful program, readings or online learning that you feel we should add by contacting;
Matt Wadkins- Engaging Learners Service Lead
wadkinsm-sc@stirling.gov.uk
Section 1- Introduction
Section 1- Introduction
Stirling Council is committed to promoting good attendance and engagement in learning for all children and young people. Good attendance and engagement in learning helps children and young people thrive, achieve their potential and realise a positive post school destination.
Guiding Principles, set out in Stirling Council’s Attendance Guidance for Schools Promoting, Supporting & Managing School Attendance (Oct 2023), are:
All children and young people have a right to education (UNCRC Article 28); and Stirling Council has a duty to provide this education.
All children have the right to be included, engaged and involved in their learning.
All children and young people have the right to get the support they need to benefit fully from their education and fulfil their potential.
Stirling educational establishments focus on positive relationships and inclusive cultures that promote good attendance; attendance is not considered in isolation.
Educational establishments and services will work in partnership with children, young people, families and partners to ensure any barriers to engagement are removed.
Educational establishments and services will prioritise early intervention to support attendance.
The Scottish Government (2019) defines attendance as “participation in a programme of educational activities arranged and agreed by the school.”
The Engaging Learners Service is being piloted in session 2024/25 using grant funding from the Strategic Equity Fund, Care Experience Children and Young People Fund, Community Mental Health grant and existing Stirling council services to try to address barriers to school attendance and engagement.
The service is not a virtual school; every pupil engaged with the service remains on the role and the responsibility of the base school. Through a multi-agency approach, the service aims to provide signposting, guidance and supportive short term interventions to engage with young people and their families. The aim of any intervention is to promote re-engagement with school or support to a positive destination.
The service builds on existing practice at school and local authority level to improve attendance, engagement and inclusion.
Within Stirling’s Attendance Guidance, there is a staged approach to promoting positive attendance and engagement, based on the response to intervention model (Kearney and Graczyk, 2014). The Engaging Learners Service is primarily aimed at Tier 3- Intensive: individualised interventions for those with persistent low attendance/ Assessment and Planning.
Section 2- Aims
Section 2- Aims
The Engaging Learners Service aims to:
To support the inclusion of young people identified as facing barriers to engagement at school. As set out by the Scottish Government inclusive approach for Scottish education, all children and young people are supported to be:
Present:
All children and young people should learn in environments which best meet their needs
All children and young people should receive a full time education including flexible approaches to meet their needs
Participating:
All children and young people should have their voices heard in decisions about their education; including decisions on where they learn.
All children and young people should be enabled and supported to participate in their learning.
Supported:
All children and young people should be given the right help, at the right time, from the right people, to support their wellbeing in the right place
All children and young people should be supported to overcome barriers to learning and achieve their full potential
Achieving:
All children and young people should be achieving to their full potential
All children and young people should have access to a varied curriculum tailored to meet their needs
To offer wider wellbeing support to the child, young person and their family through a multi-agency response.
To work with the wider ‘Team Around the Child’ to promote positive transitions for young people to more sustainable destinations ie return to school/ post school destinations.
Section 4- Screening and agreeing outcomes
Section 4- Screening and agreeing outcomes
The Engaging Learners Service has a multi-agency screening process which includes analysis of Stirling’s attendance data, direct discussion with local schools and involvement of a multi-agency approach following the referral process.
Screening Group representatives can be from- Educational Psychology, Virtual Head Team, Family Wellbeing Team, Youth Participation Team, ASN Outreach, SISS Outreach.
Who can be referred to the Engaging Learners Service screening group?
Any pupil who is enrolled in a Stirling Primary or Secondary School.
The focus will predominantly be on secondary school pupils but primary age will be considered on a pupil by pupil basis.
Any pupil who has 50% attendance or below for a sustained period of time (this can be dependent on time of the year, attendance patterns over time and personal/mitigating circumstances eg illness/ bereavement etc).
A pupil who has experienced challenges with school attendance for more than one term.
Any pupil who is struggling to attend school or is at higher risk of further disengagement from school.
Consent has been granted by parents/carers and the young person if 12 or over with capacity to do so.
Agreeing outcomes:
Given this is Tier 3- Intensive, the response from the screening group will be:
At an individualised level to:
Respond to need;
Engage on the young person’s level of readiness;
Be young person-centred;
Be trauma-informed;
Aim to make connections and build relationships;
Focus on wellbeing;
Promote a sense of belonging
Define success differently for each individual.
Work in partnership with the child or young person's mainstream school.
The pupil’s mainstream school will continue as the Named Person/Lead Professional and continue to take responsibility for planning, TAC meetings and recording bespoke packages and additional support.
The interventions agreed from the Engaging Learners Service aim to enhance and add to already existing support; it will not replace their mainstream schooling.
Interventions will be planned for agreed timescale and reviewed to agree if ongoing support is required.
All pupils should maintain regular contact with key staff within school and regularly communicate and build relationships through TAC meetings and, if appropriate, attend planned activities to support transition back into school.
If a direct educational input is agreed by the Screening Group, this must be done in partnership with the school to ensure a joined up approach. This approach would ensure that:
Key outcomes are agreed on a pupil by pupil basis and a flexible, customised approach will be encouraged.
For Broad General Education pupils, literacy, numeracy and HWB outcomes may be addressed but the overall focus will be on supporting pupils to integrate back into mainstream school. Plans will be regularly reviewed, with the aim to get pupils back into school as soon as possible.
For Senior Phase learners, bespoke packages should focus on national qualifications and the teachers/support workers from the Engaging Learners Service will link closely with the school to support qualifications that each learner will work towards.
Transitions back to school/into positive destinations
All pupils working with the education staff from the Engaging Learners Service will be supported with either a transition back into school or will be supported into a positive destination. The service aims to offer a bespoke package to each pupil.
For Broad General Education pupils, regular contact with their base school is essential to facilitate a transition plan to sustain an educational package.
For the Senior Phase students, the support package will prioritise work on national qualifications and support into a positive post-school destination.
-Senior phase pupils will be supported in school and onwards into college, training placements, apprenticeship programmes, activity agreements or employment.
-The service aims to help pupils to develop relationships with various teams including the Youth Participation service and the Learning and Employability team to help ensure positive outcomes and sustained destinations.
-All learners involved with the service will be sign-posted to wider opportunities within Stirling Council, if appropriate e.g. Stirling CHAMPs.
Section 3- Service overview
Section 3- Service overview
The Engaging Learners Service will form part of existing Stirling Council strategies to support children and young people to engage with school. To this end, work undertaken will be in partnership with schools and aim to supplement the work already underway at school level.
The Engaging Learners Service would support at the Enhanced/Individualised level (tier 3):
Tier 1 Universal Level attendance of 85%+ -
Identifying and addressing risk factors around attendance (might slip/early signs)
- offer includes CLPL, T and M, Toolkit made available
Tier 2 Targeted Level attendance of 50-85% - (already slipping)
Consultation with EP, existing services/usual channels,
Data to target groups- Yth Participation MH; Triple P Fearless
Tier 3 Enhanced/ Individualised Level - below 50%- referral to the Engaging Learners Service screening group for discussion
The Engagement Pathway shown at the start of this section demonstrates how the Engaging Learners Service has a holistic approach and incorporates both:
Wellbeing and Family Supports
Education and Learning Supports.
Section 5- Quality Assurance and Evaluation
Section 5- Quality Assurance and Evaluation
The Engaging Learners Service has robust quality assurance processes that seeks to ensure consistent evaluation of the services input with schools, families, children and young people. This includes analysis of Stirling’s attendance data, quality assuring the referral process through multi-agency screening, working closely with schools to track and monitor attendance through the self-evaluation toolkit, reviewing monthly attendance data and working to enhance the support offered by schools. Priority will be given to young people in P7, S3 and S4.
Following initial referral and screening, a Pupil Support Plan will be developed alongside the young persons named professional to further understanding of circumstances, review the steps taken through Tier 1 and Tier 2 to promote good attendance and engagement and targeted support that has been in place. This plan will be reviewed consistently with the lead professional from the educational setting to monitor progress and adapt accordingly:
Meeting held with young persons Named Person to develop Pupil Support Plan. This plan should outline desired outcomes that are SMART – specific, measured, achievable, realistic and timed and learner focused.
Further discussion to be held after 3 weeks between service and the Named Person to evaluate progress made and identify areas of improvement.
Discussion held after 6 weeks engagement with the Engaging Learners Service to evaluate progress, decide next steps and whether continued input from the Engaging Learners Service is required.
Every stakeholder that is involved with the Engaging Learners Service will follow a review process to allow for evaluation of the support provided.
Children and Young People
For young persons quality assurance purposes, pupils will be issued with a meta-skills passport to monitor progress throughout the block. Pupils will identify two targets using the Meta-skills framework, aiming to build employability skills as well as qualification work.
Pupil voice to be gathered through completion of surveys at the end of their group/individualised sessions to gather views and act on feedback.
Parents/Carers
Parental engagement with support through programmes such as Triple P FearLess or working in partnership with other teams such as Learning and Employability and outside agencies will be supported, monitored and evaluated.
Parent/Carer voice will be gathered through completion of surveys, case studies and data. Follow-up work will be undertaken to support families beyond engagement with the service.
Schools
Schools will be supported to complete the self-evaluation attendance toolkit and this will be followed up to support progress with agreed targets.
CLPL programme for all staff across the Local Authority- offering a selection of sessions from universal support to understanding more enhanced level responses. Feedback on these sessions will be undertaken.
Supporting schools with tracking and monitoring of attendance data to quality assure processes.
On-going analysis of Q1/ FME data and feedback at Head Teacher meetings
Local Authority
Evaluating attendance data to measure successful reengagement with education.
Evaluation of positive destinations data to ensure that positive transitions are secured for all young people.
Attainment data to review successful completion of qualifications.
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