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Find out more about virtual attendance
School attendance has never faced so much scrutiny. The Government have announced a series of measures designed to drive school attendance back to pre-pandemic levels – and beyond. The pressure looks set to continue. January 2023 saw the launch of the Persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils’ inquiry to explore the increases in persistent and severe absence.
This essential conference will bring you up to date on all of the proposed changes, when to expect them and what they will look like in practice. It’ll help you prepare for what you need to do now, to stay ahead of regulation change and ensure you are able to take a fresh look at your whole school approach to improving school attendance.
Who should attend?
Headteachers, Assistant Heads, Deputy Heads, Attendance Leads, Heads of Year, Education Welfare Officers, School Business Managers, Pastoral Leads, SENCOs and Designated Safeguarding Leads
The pupils with the highest attainment at the end of key stage 2 and key stage 4 have higher rates of attendance over the key stage compared to those with the lowest attainment.
“Disadvantaged pupils are more likely to miss school. The latest national statistics showed 33.6% of pupils who were eligible for free school meals were persistently absent in Autumn 2021, compared to 20.0% of pupils who were not eligible.”
This conference will enable you to:
- Ensure you are completely up to date with all of the current and proposed changes in the area of school attendance
- Implement the new ‘Working together to improve school attendance guidance’
- Be prepared and get your new school attendance policy in place
- Understand the governments expectations in relation to data sharing
- Improve your data recording procedures and put in place clear practices on regular analysis to allow for identification of concerning patterns
- Devise a plan for reengaging and supporting pupils who are persistently or severely absence
- Work with the local authority to tackle persistent absence in particular cases of concern
- Think strategically about school attendance so that you can embed a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance levels
- Understand the role of the attendance champion and the impact it could have for your school
- Consider the additional support needed for disadvantaged pupils to improve their attendance rates
- Work effectively to improve attendance for children with anxiety based school avoidance
- Consider how you engage with parents and the community on school attendance, looking at problem areas for 2023 and how to approach them