Development of plans, policies and guidance: Exemplification of roles and responsibilities

Learners will:

• Take personal responsibility for attending as often as possible
• Try not to be late
• Engage in all aspects of the life of the school including learning
• Contribute to the daily life of the school and encourage peers to attend

Parents and carers will:

• Ensure their child understands the importance of education and attendance
• Support their child to attend as often as possible
• Notify the school as soon as possible when their child is unexpectedly absent
• Work with staff to minimise absence and reduce any barriers to attendance
• Book medical appointments outside school hours where possible and give advance notice if an absence is unavoidable
• Keep the school up to date with telephone numbers and emergency contacts

Staff will:

• Proactively and regularly promote good attendance through lessons, assemblies, school events, and informal and formal conversations with learners, parents/carers and partners
• Support learner engagement using a range of strategies
• Keep regular and accurate records of attendance for every learner
• Share concerns about a learner's engagement, attendance or wellbeing at the earliest stage
• Respond sensitively to learners and parents/carers when exploring attendance concerns

Senior leaders will:

• Make good attendance and punctuality a priority for everyone
• Promote attendance through policies, documents, training, meetings and communications
• Improve overall attendance and reduce lateness through supportive interventions
• Explore all absences
• Identify and investigate patterns of absence
• Keep a chronology of repeated and regular absences and associated follow-up actions
• Ensure consistency in supporting attendance and challenging barriers to attendance
• Ensure effective communication through text, phone, letter, email and face to face meetings
• Treat learners and parents/carers as partners when exploring appropriate supports
• Enable staff and partner agencies to support all children and young people to attend and engage in learning 

Local authority leads will:

• Work together with school leaders to set whole school cultures
• Prioritise attendance and take an active role in improvement
• Ensure the accurate recording of learner attendance and absence in accordance with Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1 (2019)
• Ensure senior leaders fulfil local authority expectations and statutory duties
• Make special arrangements for children and young people granted an exemption from attending schools
• Support schools to provide training which enhances staff understanding and implementation of policy and procedures for the promotion and management of attendance
• Offer opportunities to share effective practice

Partners will:

• Work with learners, parents/carers and staff to maximise learner participation in education
• Contribute to attendance support planning
• Where possible, attend meetings and catch-ups relating to attendance and prioritise these
• Be clear on what the offer is from your organisation/setting
• Communicate when things are not going well and be solution focussed to mitigate issues
• Ensure that records and or recordings are accurate and are shared timely with appropriate colleagues
• Provide local knowledge to establishments to help them better understand circumstances affecting attendance
• Build capacity of other staff to utilise different approaches to improve attendance
• Support community-based planning to improving attendance through alternative curriculum offers