Themes

During the congress, science will be translated into practice through insights, practical guidance and inspiring examples from practice relating to school attendance. The congress offers plenty of opportunity for meeting and exchanging ideas.

During the diverse event, four facets of school attendance will be highlighted:

  • Pedagogical and didactic foundations
  • Data-informed work on school attendance
  • Equal opportunities
  • Collaboration

Explanation of the theme: Pedagogical and didactic foundations

A safe, inclusive and stimulating learning environment is the foundation for school attendance. This theme focuses on the role of the pedagogical and didactic climate within schools in motivating students to attend school. By implementing school-wide policies focused, among other things, on social-emotional development, well-being, educational provision and safety, schools can reduce absenteeism. Possible contributions within this theme include:

  • School-wide policy and intervention
  • Pedagogical and didactic interventions
  • Support for vulnerable students

Explanation of the theme: Data-informed work

Data-informed work is essential for promoting school attendance. By basing decisions on objective and reliable data, attendance patterns can be analysed, the causes of absenteeism can be better understood, and targeted interventions can be developed and evaluated. Data is a building block of the MD-MTSS (pyramid) framework for school attendance. Possible contributions within this theme include:

  • Analysis of attendance data
  • Early identification
  • Successful strategies
  • School attendance team (SAT
  • Implementation of the pyramid framework

Explanation of the theme: Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities in education are a crucial social issue, with a clear relationship to school attendance. Working towards equal opportunities therefore also means working towards school attendance. This theme focuses on the influence of factors such as socioeconomic status, culture and language background on school attendance and students’ chances of succeeding. Possible contributions within this theme include:

  • Social and cultural inequality:
  • Examples from practice

Explanation of the theme: Collaboration

Collaboration is essential for promoting school attendance. It requires close cooperation between schools, young people, parents, youth care services, school attendance officers and other stakeholders to create a strong support structure, both inside and outside the school. Possible contributions within this theme include:

  • Interprofessional collaboration
  • School attendance team (SAT)
  • Involvement of parents and students
  • Administrative collaboration and policy

Submit a contribution

Would you like to contribute to this success as a session leader? For example, as a researcher, teacher, school leader, internal support coordinator, independent client support worker, policymaker, school attendance officer, consultant, administrator, inspector or youth worker? Your experiences and ideas can inspire others. The organisers are looking for thought-provoking contributions that offer new insights, promote collaboration and encourage concrete action. Submit your contribution before 1 March via the contribution form.

Criteria

General criteria for submitting a contribution are:

  • Explicitly link your contribution to the theme of School Attendance.
  • Also dare to share your lessons learned and what did not work out entirely as intended.
  • Contributions with commercial objectives will not be accepted.
  • Contributions last half an hour or one hour.

Formats

There are four possible formats:

  • Get to work: Organise an interactive workshop in which participants actively get to work and acquire practical skills that can be applied directly in their own practice.
  • You’ve got to hear this: Give a presentation lasting half an hour or an hour in which you share your insights, results or experiences. Ideal for presenting research results, successful interventions or examples from practice.
  • On the road: Take participants through the process of your project or research. This session is about your journey: who did you work with, what challenges did you encounter, and where are you now?
  • Meet: Facilitate a networking session where participants connect with one another. Exchange ideas, share experiences and explore new collaborations around themes such as LGBTQIA+ and school attendance, school attendance in vocational education, and data visualisation.

Participants will hear in May whether their contribution has been selected and how much time
will be available for it.