Improving attendance: what every governor and trustee should ask

That brings us to the question of data. What attendance data should leaders share - and how does it differ for trusts?

If you look at the Working Together to Improve School Attendance guidance, the third expectation in the guidance is that governing bodies and trust boards must review the attendance data.

Boards should expect to receive a summary report from leaders which gives an overview of the data and leaders can do that at the touch of a button now through the Monitor Your School Attendance Service provided by DfE, so there's no additional workload (this isn’t something governors or trustees can or should access, but they should be seeing the report itself in meetings).

It's very accessible for governing boards as it illustrates how your school compares to similar schools on overall attendance but also across groups such as special educational needs and those eligible for free school meals. The other thing that the report does that's really neat for governors is it pulls out key themes and outlines what the school's doing well around a particular group or a particular trend but it also identifies those areas to focus upon. As such, it's far easier for governors and trustees to begin to question the data.

More recently, one of the most powerful aspects of the data is the banding tool which shows the full absence continuum which is arranged into 5% absence bands. You can clearly see those groups who are attending very well all the way down to those who are in school less than half of the time. It can be displayed across year groups allowing leaders and governors to spot trends and think about where to target their energy and resources.

Schools should also inform governors of how many children have part-time timetables, and how many children are accessing alternative provision away from school and how those numbers are changing over time.

Leaders should share data on procedures and the impact of them. Every school will have procedures and practices such as letters to parents when their child’s absence is becoming an issue and meetings with parents to develop support plans. The data on how many letters, meetings and plans have been issued and the impact of them. Governors should explore the data on the impact of procedures by asking questions. How many of those families have had to receive a second letter or engage in a meeting and how many plans are currently in place with parents? How many partnership plans are beginning to make a difference? How are those figures changing over time? That's the kind of qualitative data that can tell governors or trustees if procedures and processes are actually making a difference.

This leads us nicely on to the 'support first' approach in the guidance. What does a 'support first' approach look like in practice?

So, the Working Together guidance is intended to do what it says on the tin which is to make sure that every partner - those within school and the families outside - work together in partnership. Schools shouldn’t be working against families, they should work around a 'support first' structure which begins with a culture of high expectations where all children - no matter their need, their background, their context are expected to be in school. The guidance also sets out the expectation that all children can and want to be in school - that's quite a tall order. Ensuring all children can be in school will involve making reasonable adjustments for those who need it. Ensuring they all want to be there will require high quality delivery of the curriculum and a calm and safe environment. Leaders also need to talk to pupils to find out what encourages them to come into school and what keeps them away to get this right.

The next part of ‘support first’ is having rigorous and proactive monitoring so that leaders can spot those children and families who’re struggling as soon as an issue presents itself. When that happens, a school must listen to families and understand their barriers in the first instance. For example, once a pattern's been spotted, a form tutor or pastoral lead might get on the phone to ask, ‘How is a pupil doing? How are they feeling? How are we going to get them back into school? If they’re absent with a cold, a school might offer up support in terms of things to do at home if they're capable, but also make plans to welcome them back into school when they’re better.

For more complex problems, that listening and understanding piece may involve going out to see a family in their home and to listen and understand within their context and explore the barriers that the child and family are facing so the school can facilitate support and remove the barriers.

Now, we know from what the data tells us that the vast majority of absence is from children who miss between 5% and 15% of school. The vast majority of that absence is due to in-school barriers so when leaders explore those barriers they should be looking at how to remove them. This exploration should involve asking children and parents what the problems are. Sometimes it's the really small stuff that might be solved through a staggered start that supports a child or parent. If a parent finds crowds in the morning difficult, the last thing they want to be doing is bringing their child to a crowded school gate every day. I've seen schools offer a later start or alternative routes to tackle this.  It might be to make washing machine provision available to get uniforms clean. The aim is to understand and listen to what that family’s challenges are and, if necessary, engage external services around early help. A school should offer support, review how things are going, tweak the support if necessary, and then review and refine support over time.

The next stage of the 'support first' approach is to formalise support but only when the school has followed all of the other steps and  absence persists. It’s then time to work together to set those high expectations again, look to solve and remove barriers but also to explain the consequences and really make sure that the support in place is robust and that families are able to access the support and respond.

For example, if there's a complex situation where there are multiple barriers, that support might need to be staggered. The first thing a school might do is focus on getting the uniform sorted. But maybe lateness continues to be a problem so then you look at routine, which might require support from school or external partners. A staged approach to support may take time to have impact. Where families are unable to engage with support and unable to make progress, schools should work with local authorities to formalise and step that support up, which might involve engaging external partners.

Finally, at the very end of that continuum of support, when everything's been exhausted and support isn't working or being engaged with, for a very small number of families, schools should consider statutory intervention with the aim being that child can successfully return to school.   The critical dimension of formalising support is maintaining the relationship with the family because if schools don't do that, the child may never come back to school. So it's a last resort to enforce and use statutory intervention.

Do you have any more examples of strong relationships between schools, trusts, and families?

There's some great practice from up and down the country - some of it is captured in the DFE attendance toolkit which is worth a look but I can give you a few examples to illustrate it.

How can governors or trustees challenge schools to strengthen their ‘'support first'’ approach?

I think the easiest way to begin that conversation is to simply ask what the school's 'support first' approach is as it might not have been made clear in a board report.

And then governors or trustees can ask how that relates back to the Working Together to Improve School Attendance guidance. If you go to page 10, it's all on one page, it describes exactly what needs to be done, mapping out how the school should start with high expectations, culture, listening and understanding. 

The second thing to do is ask the leaders about the way in which they're meeting the first of those seven expectations in the guidance which is to do with building strong relationships - how are they building relationships with families, local authorities and other partners?

They can then pose questions to find out about what support looks like for children who return to school following a period of absence. This is the best way to test your procedures. So if a child has been absent for a few days, what does a school do? Several weeks - what then? Look for things like how staff maintain contact. How children are welcomed back. How they catch up. When a pupil’s off, who calls them up and says we're missing you and checks on how they're doing.

If you're lucky enough as governor to visit the school, I'd also urge you to have a look at what happens on arrival. Is there a warm welcome? Is there a good take up at breakfast club? Does attendance feature on displays around the school? Are people talking about promoting attendance and the impact of not being in school? Also, ask the children because they will always be super honest. Ask them what the support's like. What helps them attend and then also look at the numbers of children who are severely absent and see if it’s growing because those are the children who need that very intensive comprehensive support. Find out what's happening to those numbers - are they going up or are they declining? Ask leaders what gets in the way of supporting families and children. 

If you're a governor or trustee in a multi-academy trust, how can effective practice be shared across the trust?

It’s one of the five expectations of trust boards set out in the guidance. The first is to recognise the importance of school attendance and promote it across policies. The second is to make sure leaders fulfill expectations and statutory duties. Thirdly, reviewing the data, fourthly, making sure staff have had training and finally, sharing effective practice across schools. 

One of the most powerful approaches to improving attendance is sharing practice between schools. There's been so much innovation in this area. Some of it is starting to be captured formally, but not nearly all of it.

Multi-academy trusts and federation governing bodies are expected to provide these opportunities to bring staff together from different schools to learn from one another's expertise and effective interventions. Most trusts now have a network for their senior attendance champions and that’s one way to ensure consistency of approach.

But, as a minimum, this could include sharing example resources so not all schools are reinventing the wheel. The same with communications to parents. There’s also an expectation on local authorities to facilitate this happening too. So all types of schools within a geographical area should come together to share effective practice on a regular basis. 

If you're not in a trust and you feel a bit lonely, that's your opportunity to network. Encourage your leaders to go away and find out when those events are happening in your local authority area.

How can boards support clear policies on term-time holidays?

Boards can support leaders by ensuring that parents and carers are aware of what the statutory guidance says about taking holidays during term time and making sure it is clear in policies.

Many trusts have an attendance page on their website which is often more accessible. An attendance web page provides the basic information, the 'support first' approach, key messages around what the thresholds, systems and procedures are. This approach ensures that parents know exactly what's going to happen if they take a child out of school during term time. Schools should deploy fixed penalty notices (FPNs) in line with the guidance to tackle the impact of unauthorised holidays during term time. 

Leaders should outline procedures clearly within their policies and adhere to those procedures. The most powerful thing that we can do is to make sure that parents know what the impact is if they take their children out of school during term time. Again, as governors or trustees, go back to policies and procedures and make sure it is really clear what the impact on the child is. That should include the lessons and learning missed and the challenge of returning to school after having time off.

The ultimate solution is to make school totally irresistible so that children want to be in school and they don't want to go on holiday during term time.  Some schools do this well by setting out the calendar for the year, promoting all of those enticing events that are happening ahead of time and just before time as a reminder too.

A number of trusts have really worked on their school calendar. Some trusts have taken Eid into their training calendar so that the school is closed to children, giving families the time to celebrate and take time without impacting upon attendance. Some schools have also hosted their own celebrations in school to entice children in and avoid them taking extended leave.

About Jayne

Jayne Lowe OBE is an attendance and behaviour adviser to the DfE and Director at Bright Green Learning Ltd. She is also a MAT trustee. Follow Jayne on LinkedIn.