TESS ANSEO Attendance Initiative

St. Joseph’s is proud to participate in the nationwide TESS ANSEO Attendance Initiative.

Regular school attendance is important to provide our children and young people with a solid foundation for life. When our children miss school, they miss out on learning, social development and valuable time with their friends and teachers.

Children and young people in communities across Ireland are missing a concerning number of school days each year due to casual non-attendance – a day (or two, or three) missed here and there. These days add up quickly. As a result of casual non-attendance, there is a real risk that many of our children and young people will not achieve their full potential from education.

In fact, 1 in 5 students in primary and post-primary schools are missing a month or more of their school year.

Encouraging school attendance is within the power of everyone in a student’s life. When a child or young person can go to school, they should go to school. Every school day is a new day and a new opportunity for everyone to actively encourage school attendance.

ANSEO Tiered Approach

We based our attendance on three Tiers in ANSEO. This helps us to target our initiatives.

Tier 1: Satisfactory/Regular Attendance (Attending 95% or more of the time)

Tier 2: At-Risk for Chronic Absenteeism (Attending less than 95% but 90% or more)

Tier 3: Chronic Absenteeism (Attending less than 90% of the time)

2025/2026 Initiatives

Using data from previous years, we identified November, February, and May as key attendance focus months. Whole-school attendance initiatives were implemented during these periods, resulting in improvements across all attendance tiers and positive progress in many other months throughout the year.

Knowing if your child is well enough to go to school

https://www2.hse.ie/babies-children/parenting-advice/caring-for-a-child/knowing-if-your-child-is-well-enough-to-go-to-school-or-childcare/

Want to know more?

Find out more at https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/campaigns/school-attendance/