Department For Education
Whole trust and school approaches to improving attendance webinars
Primary
Aaron Wright, Executive Headteacher, and Luke Renwick, Headteacher, at Brook House Primary School share how they have created a culture of excellent attendance through a pastoral approach which has significantly reduced the number of pupils who are persistently absent.
A pastoral approach- Brook House Primary School
Kelly Moore, Principal at Ormiston Meadows Academy shares the strategies they have implemented with various cohorts of pupils to significantly reduce persistent absence across the school.
Reducing persistent absence - Ormiston Meadows Academy
Secondary
Michael Robson, Executive Principal of North Shore Academy, shares their approach for managing and improving attendance in schools in the Northern Education Trust, including work theyve done during the pandemic.
Managing and improving attendance in a multi-academy trust - Northern Education Trust
Jamie Stubbs, Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for inclusion, safeguarding and attendance at St Thomas More Catholic Academy, shares how the school has managed to improve attendance levels to above national averages.
Improving attendance to above national averages - St Thomas More Catholic Academy
Diane Henson, Headteacher at Wheelers Lane Technology College, shares strategies that the school have successfully implemented to improve attendance for pupils at their secondary boys school.
Successful implementation - Wheelers Lane Technology College
Sue Huntley, Deputy Principal of Studio West, shares how they use their curriculum and other strategies to improve attendance in their 11 to 19 studio school.
Improving attendance in a studio school - Studio West
Special/Alternative Provision (AP)
Wayne Askham, head of the Abbey School, shares how they use their curriculum, incentives and rewards, and other strategies to improve attendance in their 5-19 special school.
Using curriculum, incentives and rewards - Abbey School
Matthew Rooney, Principal at St Giles School, shares the actions he has taken to reduce the attendance gap between his 3 to 18 special school and other mainstream settings nationally.
Closing the gap - St Giles School
Bromley Trust Academy Alternative Provision share actions they take at trust, school, and pupil level to bring school attendance significantly above national AP averages.
Raising AP attendance averages - Bromley Trust Academy
Trust
Michelle ODell shares an insight into her role as Attendance Intervention Manager for John Taylor Multi Academy Trust. This includes strategies for monitoring and improving attendance across all of the schools in the trust.
Using an Attendance Intervention Manager to improve rates - John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust
Training sessions for new attendance guidance
Adam Luke, Department for Education School Attendance Policy lead, outlines what the new attendance guidance means for schools and academy trusts.
What the new attendance guidance means for schools and academy trusts
Jayne Lowe, Department for Education attendance adviser, sets out what makes an effective school level attendance policy.
Setting an effective school attendance policy
Star Academy Trust set out how they ensure that the attendance register is completed consistently across their schools. The presentation also covers the trusts day-to-day processes to monitor, follow up and improve attendance.
Attendance coding practice and day-to-day processes
Sapientia Education Trust share how they work with families, local authorities and other partners effectively to maximise attendance.
Working with families, local authorities, and other partners effectively to maximise attendance
Diverse Academies share how they use governance to support stronger attendance across their trust and academies.
Effective governance which supports stronger attendance
Ofsted
Susan Morris-King, one of Her Majestys Inspectors and also Ofsteds National Lead for behaviour and attendance, reports the main findings of Ofsteds Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence report.
Ofsted findings on securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence
Related case studies and resources
Schools have shared their techniques for:
- managing attendance effectively
- managing attendance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic
- texting parents: our key to success in tackling absence
- working with the community to tackle the root cause of absence
Guidance is available on:
The Behavioural Insights Team have produced a guide on how schools can use text messages to clearly communicate pupils attendance levels to parents.
This is based on the results of a successful pilot programme in Bristol, and includes examples of the style of communication schools can use to help boost attendance.