In this paper we will give an overview of a monitoring scheme that was set up in the 2010-11 academic year by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. We monitored first year students' submission of assignments, their attendance at tutorials and their engagement with an online mathematics proficiency course. Students who failed to engage appropriately were contacted by the department. The contact was initially by email, but then progressed to a letter from the head of department, and onto a meeting with a member of staff for students who continued with their pattern of non-engagement. We will discuss the background to this scheme, and how the monitoring project operated. We will look at the effectiveness of the scheme by analysing its impact on students’ levels and quality of engagement. In particular we will present evidence that the monitoring scheme has significantly increased levels of engagement.