THE QUESTION
Why does school attendance keep falling?
Propose what to do, then judge whether each action would move each root.
Sealed 23 days ago: this room no longer knows who sat in it; only its steward is still named. What it concluded stays.
30 at the table (29 simulated) · 3 actions proposed against 6 root causes. Add one, then judge whether each action moves each cause.
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PROPOSED ACTION
First contact home for any absence is a phone call that asks why, made by someone the pupil knows
Nothing said yet.
3 groups of claims influence each other in a circle
↺ Parents contact the school only when the schoo → Break is fifteen minutes and the queue for foo → Anxiety is the reason given most, and there is
↺ Toilets are locked during lessons and some pup → Teachers mark a late arrival the same as a ful
↺ Older siblings' history with the school s → Fines are issued to families who cannot pay th → Some families keep children home on days they → Letters home are the same template whatever th
A circle can be a real finding — a cycle that feeds itself — or a link whose direction was never really settled. The map treats the group as one node, so nothing inside it is a root on its own. If it is the second, the pair is worth putting back to the room.Score the roots first
why
The method's own practice, before any action is proposed: each root cause is scored 1–5 on how feasible it is to address, how much impact addressing it would have, and how likely it is to resolve by itself with no intervention. Priority goes to roots with high impact, high feasibility and low likelihood of fixing themselves — priority = impact + feasibility − likelihood. Scores are averaged across the group and shown with how many scored.
1 = low, 5 = high. Your own scores; the group's averages beside them.
| root cause | feasible | impact | fixes itself | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parents contact the school only when the school has contacted them first | – | – | – | – |
| Anxiety is the reason given most, and there is a waiting list to see anyone | – | – | – | – |
| Pupils say nobody would notice if they were not there | – | – | – | – |
| Break is fifteen minutes and the queue for food is longer | – | – | – | – |
| The first lesson on Monday is the most missed of the week | – | – | – | – |
| Nobody at school knows which pupils are young carers | – | – | – | – |
Would each action move each root cause?
Down the side: the actions people proposed. Across the top: the root causes the map found. Every square is one vote on one question — would this action significantly reduce that cause? One side has to reach 75% of the votes cast to settle it; short of that the square stays split. Each square shows how its votes fell — yes / worse / no — and a square is settled when one of those reaches three quarters of them.
why
Answered at 75% of votes cast, like every other question here. Split means people voted and neither side reached that bar — it is a result, not a queue, and it stays split until enough people change their minds. A square nobody settles stays undecided; it never turns into a no. Judging each pair on its own is what stops a popular action being credited with fixing things it does not touch.
| ACTION | ROOT CAUSES · does the action on the left reduce it? | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parents contact the school only when the school has contacted them first | Anxiety is the reason given most, and there is a waiting list to see anyone | Pupils say nobody would notice if they were not there | Break is fifteen minutes and the queue for food is longer | The first lesson on Monday is the most missed of the week | Nobody at school knows which pupils are young carers | |
| First contact home for any absence is a phone call that asks why, made by someone the pupil knows in focus ↑ · close ✕ | ✓ yes, it reduces this 25 yes / 0 worse / 4 no | ⚑ the group split 8 yes / 0 worse / 21 no | ✗ no, it does not 2 yes / 0 worse / 27 no | ✗ no, it does not 4 yes / 0 worse / 25 no | not decided yet | ✗ no, it does not 4 yes / 0 worse / 25 no |
| Publish who is missing by year and reason, not one percentage discuss | ✓ yes, it reduces this 23 yes / 0 worse / 6 no | ✗ no, it does not 3 yes / 0 worse / 26 no | ✗ no, it does not 3 yes / 0 worse / 26 no | ⚑ the group split 8 yes / 0 worse / 21 no | not decided yet | ✓ yes, it reduces this 26 yes / 0 worse / 3 no |
| A return plan for every absence over a week, owned by a named adult discuss | ✓ yes, it reduces this 26 yes / 0 worse / 3 no | ✓ yes, it reduces this 25 yes / 0 worse / 4 no | ✓ yes, it reduces this 25 yes / 0 worse / 4 no | ✓ yes, it reduces this 26 yes / 0 worse / 3 no | not decided yet | ✗ no, it does not 5 yes / 0 worse / 24 no |
Highest leverage so far
A return plan for every absence over a week, owned by a named adult reduces 4 of 6 root causes
Publish who is missing by year and reason, not one percentage reduces 2 of 6 root causes
First contact home for any absence is a phone call that asks why, made by someone the pupil knows reduces 1 of 6 root causes
THE ACTIONS ON THE MAP
Showing every action the room judged: it acts directly on 5 of the 6 root causes. It does not act directly on 1.
Read from the squares the room settled at Actions, nothing else. A root in green is reduced by at least one of the shown actions; in grey, none of them acts on it directly; a red outline means one of them makes it worse.
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Each number on the map marks a root cause that action reduces.
① First contact home for any absence is a phone call that asks why, made by someone the pupil knows
② Publish who is missing by year and reason, not one percentage
③ A return plan for every absence over a week, owned by a named adult
FROM ACTIONS TO A PLAN
The grid judged each action on its own. A plan is a set of them the room would carry out together.
Members put plans together from the actions that reduce a root cause, and the room compares the plans two at a time, at three quarters of the votes cast, as it judged everything else. Each plan shows which root causes it acts on directly, which it does not, and which it makes worse.
The steward can open a plan comparison.
What we expect to follow
Predictions about the actions: what each should change, how to measure it, and when to check. On the date, someone who was in the room writes what actually happened beside it.
why
A map says which actions move which causes. It does not say whether anyone did them, or whether anything changed. An entry here is a prediction with a date and something to measure, written after the map settled. When the date comes, what actually happened is written beside it and the prediction stays as it was: a wrong one is the useful kind. Nobody voted on any of this and it changes nothing the room found.
due 24 Dec 2026
actionFirst contact home for any absence is a phone call that asks why, made by someone the pupil knows
we expectweekly absence falls once the first call home asks why rather than reports the absence
measured by% of enrolled pupils absent in a week
guessesthe room: 12 (median of 15, spread 9 to 25)