This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's School Services Group Manager, Sabi Hothi, for the attention of all Headteachers.
The DfE attendance guidance introduced in September 2022 requires LA’s to seek more frequent and or comprehensive sharing of data from the schools to fulfil their obligations under the Education Acts. In Slough we are looking to improve the accuracy of the attendance data being shared by schools with the LA. Slough Borough Council’s initiative is focused on individual level live data to support safeguarding and enable early intervention to improve wellbeing, school attendance and educational outcomes. Slough Borough Council’s initiative is focused on individual level live data to support safeguarding and enable early intervention to improve wellbeing, school attendance and educational outcomes.
We will be working with ‘Studybugs’ to help facilitate delivery of live pupil attendance information to the Education and Safeguarding Teams at SBC. This will enable us to focus resources where they are most needed, to intervene sooner where necessary and to make a positive impact for the benefit of all.
Further Information below:
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Who are Study Bugs? |
Studybugs offer local authorities a way to access live attendance data, without adding to the reporting burden already placed on schools. More than 2,000 UK schools use Studybugs for exactly this. Studybugs Ltd software has been developed with funding from the Department for Education, UK Research and Innovation and the Open Data Institute, amongst others.
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Why should my school do this? |
The DfE attendance guidance introduced in September 2022 states, local authorities will seek, and schools are expected to provide, more frequent and/or comprehensive sharing of data than the statutory minimum where it is essential for fulfilling their obligations under the Education Acts. To avoid any unnecessary burdens for schools this should always be collected automatically from school registers and will not require additional manual data collection/returns from schools (e.g. through a data aggregator directly from management information systems). This collaboration will allow local authorities to facilitate quicker more efficient joint working and will better target their area wide attendance strategy. Slough Borough Council’s initiative is focused on individual level live data to support safeguarding and enable early intervention to improve wellbeing, school attendance and educational outcomes. |
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Why is this needed? |
The platform will allow the LA’s Attendance Officers to work collaboratively with schools to identify persistent absentees instantly, drill down to individual schools and pupils. Monthly data and pupil attendance reports will be produced and shared with schools to identify pupils at risk of poor attendance at its earliest point and will follow up with School Termly reviews meetings to discuss appropriate intervention (Statutory responsibility of schools/LA).
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Are other LAs doing this? |
Yes, other LA’s are already using Studybugs to access the live data. This includes Maintained Schools, Academies, Nurseries and Sixth-Form Colleges.
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Is there a cost to the school? |
There will be no cost to the schools.
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What about data protection & GDPR?
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Studybugs is fully GDPR-compliant and secure. Studybugs serves as a data processor for your school and the school remains the data controller. We will not share your data with third parties except on your instructions, which is why Studybugs need your agreement to share your data with Slough Borough Council. Your agreement to participate includes agreeing to our data processing terms (as required by GDPR) which we will email to you for your records. SBC have completed a DPIA (Data Processing Impact Assessment) which was approved by SBC’s Data Governance board. |
To implement the above, SBC require agreement from the head of school in the first instance. Please visit this website
- for more details and to register to participate.
- 10 minutes of your IT officer’s time to work with the Studybugs professional to set up a secure web connection.
Next Steps
- Once you have registered, the Studybugs team will liaise with your IT team to set up the MIS sync (around 10 minutes virtually).
- The SBC Attendance Service will work directly with School Attendance officers and share monthly data reports and hold termly reviews with each school. Please note: Studybugs has already been introduced to School Attendance Officers at the last School Attendance Network Meeting held on 20th September 2022, at which they met with Studybugs team to learn more about how the system will support the school with achieving their statutory responsibilities for pupil attendance and had the opportunity to ask further questions.