The resource has been compiled by education charity School-Home Support and aligns with the government guidance Working together to improve school attendance.
It offers advice for improving school attendance policies, resources and templates for use by schools, tips on building a “culture of good attendance” with families and help in identifying and addressing the underlying causes of absence through whole family support.
The core theme of the materials is building strong relationships with families in order to understand and tackle barriers to good school attendance.
Attendance figures for the last academic year show that 17.2% of primary pupils were persistently absent, meaning they missed more than 10% of sessions. Meanwhile, overall absence stands at 6% for primary schools. However, absence rates across all ages rise to 11.4% for disadvantaged pupils, 13.3% for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans, 11.1% for those with SEN (for more, see our recent report here).
The aim of the government’s guidance, published last year, was to help schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities to work together to maintain high levels of school attendance. The new toolkit includes:
- Guidance on cultivating a culture of good attendance throughout the entire school community.
- Practical tools and strategies to develop and implement a robust attendance strategy.
- Information to understand the connections between attendance and safeguarding, ensuring the well-being of all students.
- Resources to establish attendance targets and reward pupils’ achievements.
- Tips and insights for engaging in meaningful conversations with families to find out barriers to attendance.
School-Home Support is running online training sessions to help schools adopt the toolkit and use the materials within.
School-Home Support CEO Jaine Stannard said: “In the face of the school attendance crisis, we firmly believe that schools should not be left alone to tackle this problem.
“The toolkit is our way of extending a helping hand, equipping school leaders to build bridges with families and break-down barriers to good attendance, ensuring every child has access to the education they deserve and the opportunity to thrive academically and personally.”
School-Home Support is a national charity which supports families whose children are severely and persistently absent by addressing the root causes of high absence through whole family support.
- Schools can get access to the toolkit by signing up for free membership of School-Home Support. Visit www.schoolhomesupport.org.uk