Since 1870, levels of pupils' absence from maintained schools in Wales have always been higher than those in England. Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh government has tried exceedingly hard to improve this situation. Despite much effort, improving school attendance in Wales is proving stubbornly difficult to achieve. The present article…

This paper presents the evidence collected for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales on the professional development needs of staff on behaviour management and school attendance. These data were collected in two stages between 2006 and 2008. At Stage 1, data were collected from four pre-selected professional focus groups who…

In 2009, the Welsh Assembly Government published its Report on the review of behaviour and attendance in schools in Wales. The National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales was chaired by the author of this paper. Both the Review and the Welsh Assembly Government's response contained recommendations related to the training and…

This paper presents the methodology and some of the findings on school behaviour obtained for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales. This work was undertaken over two years between 2006 and 2008. The Report was widely circulated in Wales to schools, local authorities, health and social service departments, as well as a wide…

The National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) was a comprehensive review of behaviour, exclusions and school attendance in Wales, commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government. The Review's Steering Group started its work in 2006 and produced its final report in 2008. This article focuses on the Review's study of exclusions of children from…

This article presents the methodology and findings on school attendance obtained over two years from 2006 for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review in Wales. The review was led and chaired by the author and the report was presented to the Minister for Children, Lifelong Learning and Skills and the Welsh Assembly Government in May 2008. The…

This study is the first of its kind to focus upon primary head teachers and teachers' attitudes to attendance issues in two distinct but similar-size authorities in England. As part of the fieldwork 192 head teachers were interviewed and a similar number of primary teachers from the same schools. All Heads of special schools within the authorities…