Consistent attendance is strongly linked to positive long-term outcomes. It increases the chances of academic success, higher education, and future employment. When students miss school, they fall behind, which can affect confidence and limit opportunities. 

Being in school regularly helps build resilience and equips children with the tools they need to succeed and contribute meaningfully to society. 

Schools offer access to a wide range of activities—sports, arts, academic programs, and more—that help students discover their passions and broaden their horizons. It also connects them with mentors and role models who guide and inspire. 

These experiences, both academic and personal, are essential for shaping a child’s future. 

Supporting families is key to improving attendance. Challenges like financial hardship or health issues can interfere with regular school participation. By providing resources and solutions to help remove barriers, we can help families create stable environments that support learning. 

A collaborative approach between families, schools, and communities ensures that every child has the opportunity to thrive. 

Schools are where children build social skills, emotional intelligence, and lasting relationships. Interacting with peers from diverse backgrounds helps develop communication, empathy, and resilience—all vital for adult life. 

These connections foster confidence and a sense of belonging, helping students grow into well-rounded individuals. 

Jo began her career in education at Castlebrook High School (Unsworth Academy) in 2004 as a non-teaching Head of Year. In this role, she successfully led initiatives to improve attendance and punctuality, working closely with the Local Authority (LA). In 2012, Jo joined Bury LA as an Education Welfare Officer, where she was based at St Monica’s RC High School. There, she continued to focus on attendance improvement while also serving as Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL). In 2017, she joined St Monica’s RC High School full-time as Family Liaison Officer and DDSL, maintaining her leadership on attendance and working closely with families to eliminate barriers to education.

In 2023, Jo undertook a secondment as Attendance Lead for the Trust, successfully enhancing attendance across several schools. Her achievements led to her appointment as the Trust Attendance Lead on a full-time basis in September 2024. She remains committed to supporting and challenging school leaders in implementing whole-school strategies to improve attendance and help every child achieve their full potential.

Attendance Policy Template For Trust Schools

• Recent DFE report. At KS4, pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 11 (with an attendance rate of 95-100%) were 1.9 times more likely to achieve the Grade 5 in English and Maths GCSE compared to pupils who only attended 90-95% of the time (relating to up to 2 weeks more time in school over the course of a year) and 3 times more likely than persistently absent pupils who only attend 85-90% of the time (relating to 4 – 6 weeks more time in school). This means missing just 10 days of year 11 reduced the likelihood of achieving grade 5 in English and Maths by around 50%.  

 

• Pupils who attended school 90-95% of them time were also 1.6 times more likely to achieve Grade 5 in Maths and English GCSE compared to pupils who only attended 85-90% of them time, relating to an additional 2-4 weeks in school.  

 

• At KS2, pupils who attended school nearly every day in Year 6 (with an attendance rate of 95-100%) were 1.3 times more likely to achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths compared to pupils who only attended 90-95% of the time. This means missing just 10 days of year 6 reduced the likelihood of reaching the expected standard by around 25%. Pupils who attended nearly every day were 1.8 times more likely to achieve the standard than persistently absent pupils who only attend 85-90% of the time (relating to 4 -6 weeks more time in school)

Working Together to Improve School Attendance

Responsibilities for School Attendance

The headteacher is responsible for:

•  Ensuring the implementation of this policy at the school and includes information related to their setting.
•  Ensuring all staff understand their school’s attendance policy and their role and responsibilities in promoting good attendance, whilst contributing to a safe and positive school environment.
•  Ensuring staff recognise that children missing education can act as a vital warning sign for safeguarding issues including neglect, sexual abuse, child sexual and child criminal exploitation.
•  Promoting and ensuring all staff understand Attendance is everyone’s business.
•  Monitoring school-level absence data and reporting it to the Local Governing Body and the Trust Attendance Lead.
•  Supporting staff with monitoring the attendance of individual pupils.  Monitoring the impact of any implemented attendance strategies
•  Issuing fixed-penalty notices, where necessary and/or authorising the Designated Senior Leader responsible for attendance to be able to do so.
•  Supporting the SENCo working with parents of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to develop specific support approaches for attendance, including where school transport is regularly being missed, and where pupils with SEND face in-school barriers.
•  Supporting the SENCo in communicating with the local authority when a pupil with an education, health and care (EHC) plan has declining attendance, or where there are barriers to attendance that relate to the pupil’s needs.
•  Communicating the school’s high expectations for attendance and punctuality regularly to pupils and parents through all available channels.

 

The designated senior leader (also known as the ‘senior attendance champion’) is responsible for:  Leading, championing and improving attendance across the school.

•  Setting a clear vision for improving and maintaining good attendance.
•  Evaluating and monitoring expectations and processes.
•  Having a strong grasp of absence data and oversight of absence data analysis.  Regularly monitoring and evaluating progress in attendance.
•  Working closely with the Trust Attendance Lead to overcome barriers that may hinder good attendance.
•  Establishing and maintaining effective systems for tackling absence and making sure they are followed by all staff.
•  Liaising with pupils, parents/carers and external agencies, where needed.
•  Building close and productive relationships with parents to discuss, support and tackle attendance issues.
•  Ensuring intervention or reintegration plans are developed and executed in partnership with pupils and their parents/carers.
•  Ensuring, through the attendance officer and pastoral team, that targeted intervention and support is delivered to pupils and families which may include the consideration of an Early Help Assessment.

The school attendance officer at each school is responsible for:

•  Taking calls from parents/carers about absence on a day-to-day basis and recording the absence on Arbor.
•  Conducting meetings with parents/carers to offer support in improving their child’s attendance as early as concerns arise, exploring each family’s personal situation and understanding what support is needed.
•  Building strong relationships and supporting pupils and families with attendance interventions including home visits when required.
•  Liaising and referring to external support agencies when required.  Monitoring and analysing attendance data (see section 7).
•  Benchmarking attendance data to identify areas of focus for improvement.
•  Providing regular attendance reports to school staff and reporting concerns about attendance to the designated senior leader responsible for attendance, and the headteacher.
•  Working closely with the Trust Attendance Lead and the Local Authority officers to tackle persistent and severe absence.
•  Working closely with the Trust Attendance Lead to identify and support pupil’s at risk of declining attendance.
•  Advising the headteacher and/or the designated senior leader responsible for attendance (authorised by the headteacher) when to issue fixed-penalty notices.
•  Completing all relevant Local Authority documents in relation to school and pupils’ attendance.

Parents/Carers are expected to:

•  Ensure their child attends school every day and every session on time.  Maintain effective routines at home to support good attendance.
•  Contact the school to report their child’s absence before 9am on the first day of the absence, and each subsequent day of absence, advising school when they are expected to return.
•  Provide the school with more than 1 emergency contact number for their child.
•  Ensure that, where possible, appointments for their child are made outside of the school day.  Inform school of any change in circumstances that may impact on their child’s attendance.
•  Support school by being involved in their child’s education, acknowledging the value of education and the importance of children receiving the same messages from home and school.
•  Work with school to address any barriers to attendance for their child, including attending all meeting requests to discuss attendance issues.
•  Adhere to any attendance contracts that they make with the school and/or local authority.
•  Seek support, where necessary, for maintaining good attendance

The Trust Attendance Lead will:

• Drive attendance improvement across the trust by supporting and challenging all schools to overcome barriers that may hinder good attendance.
• Ensure all schools maintain and update accurate attendance
• Work more intensively with schools who require support to improve attendance and where necessary visit family homes to discuss attendance issues.
• Conduct parent/carer meeting for pupil’s with/or at risk of declining
• Support school staff with legal processes relating to school
• Deliver staff training through termly professional learning network
• Act as a central contact point for schools with attendance
• Liaise with the DfE’s regional teams for advice about wider support