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Attendance Strategy

Improving attendance is everybody’s business

Our Vision and Values

Growing happiness, healthiness and life-long success

In order for all pupils to realise the vision that we hold for their education, they need to be in school accessing a high-quality education at all times.

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Our Meadow View values of Include, Aspire, Achieve and Wellness thread through everything we do at Meadow View Primary School, including pupil attendance. This supports us to build a culture that promotes the benefits of good attendance:

Include

Education Development Trust (2024) states that learners’ sense of belonging in the school community can be a cause of absenteeism - if a learner does not feel that they belong within their school community, their risk of absence is higher. Everyone has the right to feel a sense of belonging at our school. We ensure that the school environment, curriculum and ethos are representative and inclusive of all pupils at Meadow View Primary School. Pupils who feel as though they belong, are more likely to want to attend. We recognise that some pupils find it harder to attend school than others therefore all staff prioritise building positive relationships with all pupils and their families, proactively finding relational moments with an open heart ready to empathise, care and support. The diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging team ensure that we know each and every pupil as individuals and remain professionally curious as to what the individual barriers our pupils and their families face regarding their attendance, providing the right support at the right time.

Aspire

We want all pupils at Meadow View Primary School to leave us with high aspirations for their future. Our curriculum and personal development strategy are built to develop this aspirational stance. An integral part of our attendance strategy aims to expose the positive impact that good attendance will have on the reality of them fulfilling their dreams.

Achieve

Good attendance is essential to ensure that pupils get the most out of their school experience, including attaining academically, achieving the personal development drivers of resilience, emotional literacy, communication, teamwork and independence; and developing good physical and mental health wellbeing approaches. Good attendance ultimately provides the pupils with the best possible outcomes and life chances, leading to them becoming happy and successful citizens of their community. It is statistically clear that the pupils with the highest attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 have higher rates of attendance compared to those with the lowest attainment.

Wellness

We recognise that mental and physical wellness are significant drivers in school absence. We therefore ensure we prioritise these factors in both our school curriculum and responses to repeated absences. In order to ensure that children feel confident and safe in school we ensure the school is a calm, orderly, reliable and supportive environment for all pupils and their families. We actively teach our children to recognise when they are feeling well and happy, but also teach them how to recognise when they may need to seek support or use strategies to support their own feelings of wellness.

The Law

The law in the UK entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have.

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Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.

The Impact of Poor Attendance

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The Impact of Lateness

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Our School Approach

Our school approach is written in conjunction with the DFE ‘Working together to improve school attendance’. We work together with partners to ensure that we have the right culture in school to promote good attendance alongside the right support being offered at the right time to enable pupils to fully access education.

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We recognise that the barriers to accessing education are wide and complex and therefore remain professionally curious at all times, seeking to expose the barrier or barriers to school attendance. We build strong relationships with our families ensuring that they know we are a source of support at all times, we are approachable and that we genuinely want to achieve the very best for their children.

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Below explains our school strategy:

Expect

  • Our school attendance policy sets out the clear expectations of the school with regard to parents. All staff are familiar with the policy and our expectations and the contents of the policy are communicated to parents and pupils in an appropriate way.

  • School attendance expectations are set at admissions meetings.

  • Attendance forms part of parent meetings and our expectations are set out clearly.

  • Attendance forms part of parent meetings and our expectations are set out clearly.

  • All children engage in an attendance assembly each week which makes clear the expectations of attendance at school and celebrates good attendance through school.

  • We have a colour coding system in school which is displayed in classes, the entrance hall and on newsletters so that stakeholders are clear of the level of attendance expected.

  • The impact of lateness posters are displayed in school.

  • Attendance data alongside our expectations are included on annual school reports.

  • Attendance expectations are shared with governors within Head Teacher reports.

  • Class Teachers and Teaching Assistants talk to their pupils about the importance of attendance regularly.

Monitor

  • Attendance is tracked on an individual basis. Any pupil who does not have attendance levels of 96% or more at the end of each half term is discussed by the attendance team and appropriate actions are agreed and tracked for impact.

  • Attendance is also tracked on a group basis under the following categories: year groups, pupil premium, non-pupil premium, SEND, Not SEND, EHCP, EAL, Not EAL, Roma, Girls, Boys and PA. the data is analysed and actions are decided each month on how to address any concerns through whole school actions and ethos.

  • Half termly letters are sent to families informing them of their child’s attendance level and where their child’s attendance falls in the colour coding system.

  • Pupils who end the year in the red category (Persistently Absent) will be become a ‘red’ focus family. These pupils’ attendance will be monitored more closely and these families will be prioritised for support.

  • Pupils whose attendance persistently sits between 90-96% but never meets the threshold of 96% become a purple focus family. These pupils’ attendance will be monitored more closely, including tracking reasons for absence, patterns in absence, frequency of absence and prioritising them for support.

  • The Attendance Leader is present each morning to monitor lateness, address any issues in the moment and identify families that may require increased support, building positive relationships with them.

  • Staff are professionally curious, looking for patterns of absence to highlight to the attendance team.

Listen and Understand

  • There is an attendance team made up of:

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Mrs Logan
Head Teacher and Strategic Attendance Leader

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Mrs Gregg
AHT Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

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Mrs Bartholomew
Day to Day Attendance Leader and HLTA

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Mrs Shaw
Attendance Officer
and Admin Assistant

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Mrs Morgan
 Inclusion and Safeguarding Officer

  • Our Strategic Attendance Leader (HT) and Attendance Leader are there to greet families into school each morning by being an active and welcoming presence on the school drive. This allows for close and approachable contact with families on a daily basis.

  • When a pupil’s attendance is identified as a concern by the attendance team, our attendance leader meets with parents in the first instance via telephone progressing to face to face meetings to explore the reasons for the concerning attendance. This provides information for the attendance team to reflect on to identify individual measures that can be taken.

  • When data is analysed and a vulnerable group is identified as having poor attendance, an enquiry will take place to elicit multiple views from this group so that the attendance team can reflect on these and look to take appropriate action.

Facilitate Support

  • As a school we continually look to employ supportive strategies and techniques to improve pupil attendance.

  • The strategies and techniques and increase or decrease in significance as the child or family needs more or less informal support.

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Tier 1 Support is open to all pupils in school

Tier 2 Support is used for groups of pupils

Tier 3 Support is used for individual pupils

  • Good communication with parents

  • Absence challenged at the point of absence

  • Lateness challenged at the point of lateness

  • Attendance Letters

  • Late Letters

  • Reminder texts

  • ISO Phone Calls

  • Attendance Meetings via telephone

  • Weekly Attendance Race

  • Annual Attendance Raffle

  • Attendance included at parents’ meetings

  • Attendance included on annual reports

  • School nurse available at parent meetings

  • Attendance meetings face to face

  • Translated texts and emails

  • Support with transport

  • Bilingual Teaching Assistant Support

  • Sensory circuit welcome

  • Toast and juice in a safe space

  • Educational Psychologist involvement

  • Star charts

  • Buddy System

  • Adapted routines

  • FOC Breakfast Club

  • FOC After School Club

  • Referral to School Nurse

  • Therapeutic time through art

  • Separate entrance point

  • Earlier start time

  • Welcome by an Emotionally Available Adult

  • Attendance contracts

  • Home Visits

  • Internal routines and boundaries

  • Parenting Support

  • Signposting to external support such as Stepping Stones, PPP parenting, parents’ forum.

  • Referral to IAPT for parental mental health support.

  • Support for parents to access education, employment, voluntary work or training.

  • Wake up calls

  • Collection from home

  • Temporary part time timetables

Formalise Support

  • When a child’s attendance drops below 90% (red) the parents will be invited into a parent attendance contract meeting (PACM). This will allow the attendance leader further opportunity to explore the barriers and formalise the support with a signed attendance contract and 3 weekly reviews will take place until the child’s attendance is sustainably above 90%.

  • Alongside a PACM, if the family has children in KS2, the Attendance Pupil Voice questionnaire will be conducted with the child/children and the answers will be reviewed every 3 weeks through a light touch check in.

  • Parents are informed of the severity of the situation and the fact that we are now required to elevate the support given to more formal support. Parents are informed of the consequences that may occur should their child’s attendance not improve. Parents are given a clear insight into actions that may follow including prosecution and education supervision orders.

  • For pupils who have persistently poor attendance, or those who are making little sign of improvement and whose absence is largely due to medical reasons, repeated illness or mental wellbeing of the child; we attempt to seek parental or carer consent to refer the family to the school nurse.

  • For pupils who have persistently poor attendance, or those who are making little sign of improvement and whose absence is largely due to limited routines and/or boundaries, parental wellbeing, home conditions, unemployment, finances or complexities within the family; we attempt to seek parental or carer consent to engage the family in the Early Help process.

  • Should a family decline all offers of formal support, a meeting with school and parents is called to put in place a parenting contract to formalise the support given.

  • School will continue to attempt to engage families in the formal support required monthly.

  • School begins to issue attendance pathway letter 1 and letter 2 to reinforce the severity of the situation, but always with the aim of providing challenge to encourage parents to engage with the support available. Alongside each letter being issued, school hold a meeting with parents to attempt to prevent further escalation.

  • School seek support from the Local Authority Attendance Team at this point, sharing our concerns, sharing attendance data of specific pupils and gaining their support alongside issuing letter 1 and letter 2.

  • If attendance is poor, the safeguarding team will map the family against the social care thresholds to consider whether a referral into social care should be made.

  • If a pupil’s attendance drops below 50%, a referral is made into social care.

Enforce

  • Formalised support continues throughout this stage.

  • The Inclusion and Safeguarding Officer will discuss pupils of concerns with the Early Help Integrated Working Lead to seek advice and support.

  • School holds weekly attendance reviews for these families, always attempting to build positive relationships and re-engage parents into the support offered.

  • Pathway letter 3 including a FPN is issued. The intention of the enforcement is always to provide the challenge to encourage parents and carers to engage with and access support.

  • Following FPN, should attendance fail to improve, attendance pathway letters 2 and 3 are issued again and school seek to take a case to the Local Authority School Attendance Panel (LASAP) to seek an education supervision order.

  • If an Education Supervision Order is issued meetings with the parent/carer, ISO, Attendance Leader, local authority and any other agencies involved take place 3 weekly to review and support the parent to make progress.

Remote Education

  • Remote education is only ever be considered as a last resort where a decision has already been made that attendance at school is not possible, but pupils are able to continue learning. Remote education is not viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school.

  • Circumstances where it might be suitable for a pupil to access remote education fit into 2 broad categories:

  • School closures or restrictions on attendance, where school access for pupils is restricted

  • Individual cases where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able to learn

  • Work provided during periods of remote education will be provided by the pupil’s class teacher and will be high quality, meaningful, ambitious, and cover an appropriate range of subjects to enable pupils to keep on track with their education.

  • Where pupils have access to appropriate devices, remote education might include recorded and / or live direct teaching time, as well as time for pupils to complete tasks, reading, and assignments independently, depending on their age and stage of development. If a pupil does not have access to their own suitable device, school will provide a device to be used at home. If families do not have access to a printer at home, any resources requiring printing will be printed by school and school will work with the family to make arrangements for someone suitable to collect the printed materials or for school to deliver the materials.

  • Remote education is provided that is equivalent in length to the core teaching time pupils would receive in school where possible, being mindful of the individual needs and circumstances of the pupil and their families.

  • Any work completed will be returned to school and will be marked by the teacher, with feedback given to the family/child depending upon age suitability.

  • Appropriate adaptations will be made for learners who require them in line with their abilities and needs.

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