Working together to improve school attendance

Reminder - Register your interest in the new sector-led school attendance hubs

The DfE are launching new sector-led school attendance hubs.

Primary, secondary, special schools and alternative provision providers who wish to register their interest in joining a hub and receiving free school attendance support should complete the short application form by Monday 8 May.

Attendance hubs will be led by senior leaders in schools with strong attendance practice, who will share the strategies and resources they use for improving attendance.

Participating schools will be expected to revisit and revise their systems and protocols for managing attendance and join half termly virtual hub meetings to share practice and discuss progress and challenges.

This programme builds on a pilot hub established last year, led by North Shore Academy, which saw some participating schools achieve significant reductions in their absence and persistent absence rates.

 Reminder - Compare pupil attendance with other schools in your local authority

80% of schools nationally have opted in to sharing daily attendance data with the DfE.  Response rates nationally across school types this was: 82% of state-funded primary schools, 75% of state-funded secondary schools and 70% of state-funded special schools.

The figure in Warwickshire is 82%. 

The DfE are now rolling out new functionality to allow mainstream schools that are sharing data to compare attendance with other schools within their local authority area.  The tool will help schools to identify strengths and priorities and signpost to additional guidance and support. To share daily attendance data and get access to these tools, please email Wonde. If you already use Wonde, please accept the request in your Wonde portal.

 Reminder - Improving attendance: good practice for schools and multi-academy trusts.

There are some really useful effective practice attendance webinars produced by the DfE in conjunction with schools, with good or improved attendance, sharing their good practice.  It is highly recommended that your attendance lead/champion access this free resource.

Additional attendance resources are available on the Education Hub and Teaching Blogs

Contact Us:

If you wish to discuss any issues relating to school attendance, please feel free to contact the Warwickshire Attendance Service: was@warwickshire.gov.uk