Lego, martial arts and dance classes: how one school tackled school absenteeism

In St Vincent’s infant boys’ primary school in Dublin’s northeast inner city, mixed martial arts, dance and Lego are helping to reduce absenteeism and transform teaching and learning.

The children told their teachers these were the activities that interested them.

“Interest surveys have changed the way children are being looked at,” says school principal Caoimhe Sheehan. “Every child has been targeted for what they are interested in or what they need as opposed to it being a one-size-fits-all for everybody.

“We can link the boys up with things after school but also look for services to come into the school based on the children’s interests. It’s made a huge difference. The boys are coming to school so happy because there’s more of a link between the home, the community and the school.”

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These interest surveys are part of the programme City Connects, a pilot project that offers comprehensive student support and is being run in 10 schools in Dublin’s northeast inner city.

We started City Connects about 23 years ago. It was at a time when there was huge pressure for reform in education, but it was obvious to teachers that kids would come in sometimes with challenges that were insurmountable for schools

—  Prof Mary Walsh of Boston College

The Mulvey Report, published in 2017, made a number of recommendations designed to promote long-term, social and economic regeneration in the area. City Connects is one of the initiatives that aims to fulfil the targets outlined in the report.

“City Connects is a system originally developed by Boston College that organises student support and leverages existing school and community-based resources in order to improve students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes,” says a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

The project, now in its third year, is being led by the department and Tusla in conjunction with Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, and Boston College.

“We started City Connects about 23 years ago,” says Prof Mary Walsh of Boston College. “It was at a time when there was huge pressure for reform in education, but it was obvious to teachers that kids would come in sometimes with challenges that were insurmountable for schools.”

[ Do locals in Dublin’s north inner city see signs of hope for the next Barry Keoghans? ]

Walsh says some children living in poverty were not thriving in education because the conditions did not exist for them to do so outside school. They were missing out on basic needs, such as attending eye tests, as well as being unable to access enrichment activities that played to their strengths. City Connects aims to link children up with supports that cater for both areas.

“That’s the magic formula. It can’t be one or the other – it has to be both,” says Walsh. “We set out to develop something that we could do in schools, an intervention that would identify children’s strengths and needs, and then support the strengths and address the needs.”

Addressing needs in school is not unusual, but it is the reach of City Connects that sets it apart.

“We do it for each and every child,” says Walsh. “It had to be for every child, because they all need opportunities.”

Surveying the children about their interests is just one step in the programme. The groundwork starts well in advance of this stage.

“It’s not something that happens overnight,” says Tracie Tobin, implementation lead for the City Connects programme in Ireland, based in MIC. “It takes roughly nine months before you could start it.”

We don’t come with any money. It’s just a systematic way of supporting all kids

—  Martine Shovlin, a City Connects co-ordinator

The principals and school staff are consulted to get an idea of the needs of the schools and build up a database of services that are available in the community, says Tobin.

All the data is stored on a digital platform called My Connects, which enables co-ordinators to identify needs and record allocated supports.

There are six co-ordinators working with the 10 schools. They play a vital role in delivering the programme and, as the name suggests, it’s all about connections.

The co-ordinator conducts a whole class review with the class teacher. “We review every child and match them to appropriate supports, either in the school or in the wider community and we do that for every child,” says Martine Shovlin, a City Connects co-ordinator.

Ideally there would be one co-ordinator per school, as in the US, but here they are shared between schools.

The plans are reviewed on a regular basis as the strengths and needs of the child change. It is hoped these supports will travel with the children from infant classes up to sixth.

“The consistency that you are getting by linking the children to those enrichments and supports is preventive rather than reactive,” says Shovlin.

While the project is still in its infancy in Ireland, a benefit-cost analysis of City Connects in the US shows the benefit-cost ratio is 3:1, or a return of three dollars for every dollar invested

In some cases, it is simply about linking a child with an after-school club they are interested in, but for others more intensive support is required.

The project is funded in Ireland by the Department of Education, the Department of Children and the North East Inner City Initiative, but many of the supports accessed by the programme already exist within the community.

“We don’t come with any money. It’s just a systematic way of supporting all kids,” says Shovlin.

Tobin says that since its launch in Ireland, City Connects has helped deliver supports to thousands of children. “This school year there are 1,731 kids receiving three-plus services. Some of them are receiving 10.”

The whole class reviews have additional benefits for the schools. “Before City Connects, there wouldn’t have been that sort of in-depth knowledge about every single child, because before this, you would have focused on the children who really needed help, as opposed to the children in the middle who may have gone unnoticed because they were getting on well in school,” says Tobin.

The co-ordinator can also work in conjunction with the Home School Community Liaison Teacher, and in many cases it has freed up this teacher to focus on their target families.

Parents realise their children are getting these opportunities. I think that’s a huge incentive to get up in the morning and send your child to school

Although the City Connects targets the individual, the benefits are collective. “We have far more engagement in school, the attendance is better, we find more engagement between parents and teachers than we had before,” says Sheehan. “We’ve really seen an impact across the board in terms of the boys’ engagement in school and with their health and wellbeing.”

While the project is still in its infancy in Ireland, a benefit-cost analysis of City Connects in the US shows the benefit-cost ratio is 3:1, or a return of three dollars for every dollar invested. The study, carried out by the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, states that “even under the most conservative assumptions regarding costs and benefits, the programme’s benefits exceed its costs”.

Tobin believes this has led to a reduction in absenteeism in the schools. “These services are based on the children’s strengths, needs and interests. Parents realise their children are getting these opportunities. I think that’s a huge incentive to get up in the morning and send your child to school.”

Another benefit has been felt in the lightening of the workload of principals. The role of the co-ordinator has put in a middle person instead of cutting it out.

“Initially, when they were talking about rolling out City Connects, one of the things they talked about was freeing up the principal,” says Ruth Bourke, who manages the process evaluation for the programme in Mary Immaculate. “The principal doesn’t have to follow up on all the referrals – there’s somebody else within the school now who has that dedicated role – and the principal is freed up to be the principal of a Deis school, which isn’t an easy job.”

Creating a brighter future: The challenges

The Mulvey Report, published in 2017, made a number of recommendations aimed at making the northeast inner city a “safe, attractive and vibrant living and working environment for the community and its families”. The scale of the challenge was laid bare in these statistics

80% The proportion of lone parent families in some parts of the area, compared with a national average of 18 per cent

50% The proportion of unemployment among men in some areas, above the then national average of 13 per cent

51% The proportion of those age 15 or over with primary education only, compared with a national average of 9 per cent