Attendance Principles for Co-op Academies Trust

All schools within the Co-op Academies Trust are unique - serving local communities in different contexts. We know that the best attendance systems and practices work, when they are based on excellent knowledge of the community - and the particular strengths and challenges of the local context is at the centre of the attendance policy and strategy.

At the same time, we know that there are key principles in developing a strong culture of great attendance. Although the evidence base for strong attendance interventions is only just developing, there are studies, our own practice and community listening outcomes (such as Public First) that guide us toward the ‘best bets’ for improving attendance in our Trust. Some of these are highlighted here, in the EEF supporting attendance research, and also in the design and tone of the new ‘Working Together to Improve Attendance’ DFE statutory guidance. Many of our schools are already implementing some ‘best practice’ strategies - and as a result, are having positive outcomes.

Therefore, outlined in this document, are a set of principles that all schools should adhere to in their approach to attendance. Each Academy should be able to evidence clearly, how they believe each principle is demonstrated in their setting; implemented with rigour; and have an accurate understanding of how successfully they feel each is embedded. These go beyond local authority procedures (which are important) but don’t replace them.

Great school attendance relies on rigour, tenacity and repeated and clear routines, systematically applied. It also relies on a brilliant knowledge of the context and situation of the community being served, great relationships and a culture of truly high expectations for all. Importantly, the fundamentals of great attendance is having a school where children feel welcomed, supported, included and want to attend - every day. We want to support, empathise and understand the challenges our pupils and families face - but we want to consistently challenge poor attendance and ensure we are not tolerating anything but the highest possible.

Support in Implementing the Attendance Principles:

To support all academies in implementing this approach, academies should use the

Co-op Academies Trust Attendance Policy Template (to be personalised by each Academy) found here.

There are also various support documents that exist - for leaders and headteachers that can be found in this shared folder.

The Principles

Leadership and Management:

1. All hands on deck

Attendance is everyone’s responsibility. School leaders should be clear on the roles, responsibility and part that every member of the organisation has when it comes to promoting good attendance. This should be explicit in job descriptions, school handbooks and part of PPDR. Regular messages need to be repeated to staff about how they can and should support school attendance, which might include: language, phone calls, mentoring, sharing data, great interventions, use of tutor or form time, parent meetings, enhancements/experiences and rewards.

2. Senior attendance champion

Every school should have a strategic lead with responsibility for attendance (in primary, this might be the headteacher). An attendance champion. The attendance champion should have a great oversight of attendance, but also be really actively involved in the day to day processes. Working with the team, checking in on what is happening, supporting the process and providing clear guidance and leadership. They should be known to vulnerable families. They should stand on late gates, link with pastoral care and, most importantly, robustly QA  processes, routines, practise etc. to ensure all are of high quality.

3. Data driven

All attendance analysis should involve an analysis of reason for absence, and by demographic. So, as a minimum, coding analysis should be done routinely at SLT level. Codes though, don’t tell the whole story - an i code could be for hundreds of reasons. Having a mechanism (note code / summary reports etc) for analysing the reasons behind i codes and o codes gives high quality data to base strategy on. In addition, analysis should look beyond percentages - number of days; which pupils have declining attendance over a period; what are patterns for attendance for certain groups, on certain days, certain ‘ability’ levels, postcodes etc?

4. Calendars, Timetables and Extra Curricular

Thought should be given, at a strategic level, to timetabling of subjects, assemblies, tutor periods, extra curricular activities etc. to maximise attendance and make ‘low attendance days’ ‘unmissable’ (e.g. Fridays; end of term; short weeks). What this looks like will be different in different communities (e.g. do pupils in your school see ‘trip days’ as a reason to miss school or as an incentive?). But this should be woven into the calendar.

Systems and Norms:

5. Pastoral AND attendance

Attendance can’t just be the remit of the attendance team or attendance individual in school. Issues around attendance are a whole school responsibility and particularly the responsibility of the pastoral team / learning mentor or other pastoral workers in school. Having a great attendance team who can get pupils to attend school isn’t enough - if when they arrive - there is not a joined up approach with how they will be supported by the wider pastoral infrastructure. As a minimum - there should be regular and robust communication for EBSA pupils and those who refuse to attend due to pastoral issues (bullying / discrimination / behaviour) to ensure that the package of support is right and that staying at school, not just coming to school, is high on the agenda.

6. People talk to people

Every interaction is a possibility for intervention. If parents and pupils are reporting absence to a machine, this is an opportunity lost. A great attendance officer, answering the phone to a parent reporting an absence, can support relationship building, make a pupil feel cared for and importantly, can support with misconceptions or unreasonable reasons for absence. This can only happen if a skilled attendance officer is answering a phone and a conversation is taking place. Scripts and scaffolds should be there to support but phone lines should be open and operated by a person,ideally for an hour before and after school - or to ensure as many attendance phone calls as possible, are picked up by colleagues - not a machine.

7. Daily, weekly, termly routines

Schools should have  systematic and clear routines; and great organisation. Daily, weekly and termly routines around attendance that are written down and adhered to will create clarity and ensure that systems remain robust. Importantly, the responsibility for each routine needs to be considered, written down and shared out amongst staff. Regular revisiting and QA of routines is a key part of a leader’s responsibility.

8. Root cause of absence

Schools need to dig deep to explore root cause of absence and establish  what the ‘typicality’ is in their own setting (through listening to families, pupil and parent panels, code and note analysis etc) and then design bespoke and clear pathways of support to address the actual root cause - rather than a 1 size fits all, generic approach. ‘Attendance Works’ believes absence broadly falls into 4 categories of Barriers; Aversions; Misconceptions and Disengagement. Each of these would need their own pathway to support better attendance for pupils.

9. Numbers not percentages

Schools should be reporting absence in terms of hours, lessons (and lesson content where relevant - e.g. in primary, number of phonics sounds missed, in secondary, tutor content missed) and days missed, not just percentages. Any communication with families should clearly let them know exactly how much learning time missed is behind the percentage. In addition, where appropriate, schools should be adding comparators for ‘other pupils’ in the cohort - supports families in understanding how much more school their child is missing compared to other children.

10. Close registers

Pupils arriving on time are marked as present. Those late but within the first 30 minutes of a day will be marked as L. Pupils late after the first 30 minutes must be coded as a U. This is national guidance but also morally the right thing to do. If we authorise lateness for children, any lateness, we are telling families that it is ok to miss half an hour of school. For safeguarding purposes as well - it is important that it is possible to distinguish between children who are a little bit late - and children who are missing large parts of school by turning up over half an hour late. We need to understand where these pupils have been and be able to challenge families. If we do not close registers, we are creating false documentation about who is and is not in school, we are lowering expectations, and, if it gets to it, we will not be able to prosecute or move forward with more formalised support.

11. Explicit on what is and is not authorised

Be clear on what you are authorising and un-authorising in terms of absence in your policy. Do you accept the word of parents where attendance is good, but request medical proof below a certain percentage / with a certain number of split weeks? This needs to be completely explicit to parents. Schools should make it explicit during induction (for reception and Y7 but also for all in year admissions and those joining at other times). Expectations should be clear on phone calls and then, importantly, leaders need to QA that this is happening. There may be exceptional circumstances, but in the main, families need to know and understand what the school can and cannot accept and it needs to be made clear and iterated regularly - so that we create clarity and understanding.

12. Intervene early - Trends not just thresholds

Issues with attendance should be addressed at the earliest opportunity - when a decline in attendance is first noticed;, to avoid pupils becoming persistent absentees. Attendance analysis should involve weekly and fortnightly tracking of trends - who’s attendance has declined over a week? Over 2? A strategy should then be in place to catch the decline early - send a message / have a conversation and intervene as early as possible in a non-punitive and helpful way - this will end up having a much bigger impact than waiting for someone to dip below 90% and then beginning to act on a staged process.

13. Safeguarding

Best and most desirable practice is that if a child has not been seen, and no contact has been made with carers, a home visit should be carried out to safeguard a child. In some cases, this is impossible - due to the number of absentees, sizes of attendance teams and sizes of schools. So as a minimum:

• If a pupil has not been seen in school for 3 days and no reason for absence can be established, we should be carrying out a home visit to see the child
• If a pupil is identified as vulnerable, home visits should be carried out on the 1st day of absence (with no contact) using an established, and regularly updated, priority home visit matrix. SG teams and attendance should work together to establish who needs a first day visit - with or without contact. Some may, even with contact.
• If a pupil is continually off, for any reasons, for periods of 5 days or more, a ‘welfare check’ home visit should be carried out on a weekly basis
• If we have not seen or heard from a pupil or established reasons for absence, for 5 days or more, processes should be in place to escalate a SG concern:

• Reported on CPOMS
• Reported to CSWS via front door / triage
• Requested Safe and Well check from 101 / SSPO
• CME referral (following local procedures for when to complete this)
• Reaching out to primary schools who may have siblings
• Reaching out to any other services who might be involved and neighbours

Building Relationships

14. Clear communication (empathise but don’t tolerate)

Communication with families should focus on improvements and support rather than take a punitive and judgemental tone. Local authority letters and processes are necessary, but for relationship building and for better attendance at all levels, when using our own communication (letters, calls, texts) we need to treat our parents as partners, take an asset based approach and live by our Ways of Being. Non-judgemental language, factual and bespoke information (personalised for each individual) and demonstrating knowledge of the pupil, should be the default for all communication.

15. Welcome strategy

All staff in school need to be made aware of how we welcome pupils back after absences - this should include language, catch up plans, bespoke timetables, sharing of reintegration pupil passports. There should be a clear strategy document and regular reminders, training and sharing on our strategy for supporting returning absentees.

Staff Training and CPD

16. EBSA

At least one member of staff in the school should be trained in EBSA (using Anna Freud or similar) so that they are able to support pupils fully, on an EBSA pathway and encourage better attendance. The EBSA pathway should be one of the tools in your school’s attendance support system - if avoidance seems to be the root cause of absence.

17. Scripts and scaffolds

As a minimum there should be scripts available about connect, correct, connect, positive framing and warm challenge, in relation to attendance conversations. Scripts should also include what phone calls about absences need to include around authorisation, number of absences the pupil currently has and ways to encourage attendance where appropriate. Support and challenge is a difficult balance - and given culture is built through conversations and interactions, this cannot be left to chance. Attendance officers need training and support (in the form of scripts etc) and regular chances to practise.

18. Regular whole staff training

Schools should be regularly (termly / half termly) providing whole staff training for all teaching and non-teaching staff on the principles of establishing great attendance and therefore, their roles within that. Training should include (but not limited to) understanding of what secures great attendance; what the role of the attendance team is and what they do; all staff’s responsibilities when it comes to attendance of pupils; and how they can help further if they would like. It should also include regular information on the main causes of absence in the setting and what is driving trends and patterns.

19. Building Belonging

Schools should have a foundational, tier 1 approach to building belonging in the school - including staff training on ways in which schools can build a sense of belonging and support on curriculum, teaching and learning, attitudes that can foster this.

20. Filling gaps in learning

Having pupils returning to your classroom after long absences or sporadic attendance requires skill. It is tough to know how to include a pupil when they have missed more or different things to others. Training and support for teachers on how best to include pupils returning from absences and to have the strategies to fill knowledge gaps and gaps in learning to continue to move the class forward will be essential for most schools.

Pupil Support and Development

21. Pupil and parent panels

Half termly pupil panels as a minimum expectation, to discuss issues around attendance, any reasons for absence (or attendance) and to really understand the situation for the PA / SA pupils in our school. Discussions include topics around community issues; school based issues; mental health; rewards and incentives; support and curriculum and next steps. A clear focus group could be decided for each half term and cycled around throughout the year (e.g. SEND PA; PP SA; Low starter split weeks; year group focus)

22. Reintegration plan

To instil greater patterns of attendance for pupils who have had prolonged absences, attendance, pastoral and SEND teams should be working together to put together the right package of support (which may or may not include a reduced or bespoke timetable for a small amount of time) to ensure that pupil feels safe and supported in school. The ideal would be to create a pupil reintegration passport, similar to a SEND passport,  regularly reviewed, for any pupil returning to school after a prolonged absence. This should be shared with teaching staff and a plan in place that includes filling gaps in learning and catching up.

23. PD package

A  great personal development package that supports pupils in feeling a sense of belonging at school, helps them develop resilience and a clear understanding of why their attendance is important. This needs to go beyond simply telling them their percentage (though making pupils aware of their attendance is part of this). It needs to be a well sequenced and supportive personal development curriculum that addresses and supports root causes of absence and signposts pupils to where they can get support for mental health, anxiety and other issues that prevent strong attendance.