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