National Anseo Attendance Initiative
New data published by Tusla Education Support Services (TESS) shows that one in five children in primary and post-primary school are missing a month or more of their school year. The figures come as TESS and the Department of Education and Youth launch a national multimedia campaign to highlight this nationwide issue and create awareness about the importance of attending school.
Schools make two annual returns to TESS - the school Annual Attendance Report (AAR) and the School Absence Report (SAR). The figures for 2022-23 have been described as “alarming” by the Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee. The 2023/24 report indicates that while non-attendance is decreasing it is still significantly greater than pre-pandemic levels.
TESS worked with focus groups, the HSE, and key stakeholders to develop the campaign messaging, ‘Every School Day is a New Day’, with TV and radio ads to highlight the issue and to promote the social and educational benefits of school attendance. The campaign advertisement will also appear in cinemas, newspapers, video on demand, billboards, and across social media.
The aim is to create a shift in behaviours, away from the caution of pandemic days, so parents know when their children are healthy enough to attend school. It reinforces the message that when a child can go to school they should go to school, aiming to reduce absenteeism in schools in Ireland.
A new support page has been developed in collaboration with key stakeholders and is available for parents and schools with helpful guidance on many issues affecting school attendance. Click here to access: School Attendance
The school attendance campaign is part a wider piece of work in which TESS and the Department of Education and Youth have developed a five-year plan to reduce non-attendance, aimed at parents and their children but also at school-level.
Anseo (Irish for ‘Present’), is a school-level support which provides an actionable attendance tool for schools which uses a three-tiered model, schools can identify patterns of absenteeism at the student, class and whole-school level to develop nuanced and timely responses to drivers of school absenteeism within each tier.
The Anseo model was trialled in four schools during 2023-2024, and it is now being phased into rollout in which 60 schools are participating. The Anseo team will support schools in recognising the value of using attendance data to implement effective, whole-school strategies to help improve student attendance. Grennan College has been chosen as one of the participating 60 schools.
Anseo is just one strand of how school attendance is being supported. TESS’s Education Welfare Officers (EWO) work closely with parents and young people to ensure that children get the support they need.
Anseo Attendance Initiative at Grennan College
Grennan College is proud to be one of 60 pilot schools participating in the TESS Anseo Attendance Initiative for the 2025/26 school year. Whilst we have always promoted the importance of regular attendance, we are delighted to avail of Anseo, an actionable attendance tool for schools, as an evidence-based approach to improving school attendance.
As part of this initiative, we are running three dedicated Attendance Drives this year to promote the importance of regular school attendance. Our first Attendance Drive will take place from Monday, 3rd November to Friday, 28th November 2025. During these four weeks, students are encouraged to make their best effort to attend school every day. To recognise this commitment, all students who achieve full attendance in November will be rewarded with a special treat to recognise their excellent efforts. A postcard for each student will be sent home in early December, highlighting their attendance rate for the month (see sample postcard below).
Parents' and Guardians' support of this Attendance Drive is pivotal and we would ask everyone to check out gov.ie/school-attendance (School Attendance) for information and advice on how to support student attendance.
