Working together to improve school attendance

1. Update: DfE update on the progress of ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance

The DfE has written to all Directors of Children’s Services providing further update regarding progress of the working together guidance.  The pressures on the Parliamentary timetable remains and legislation to make the guidance statutory will not be in place before the beginning of the new academic year as planned and therefore the guidance will not be statutory from this September. During a briefing by the DfE on 22^nd July 2023, it was further stated that, ‘It remains top of the legislative priorities for the Department and will be pursued at the next available opportunity’.         

2. TES article.

Colleagues maybe interested to read the following article from TES. Nick Gibb, Minister for Schools stated to the Commons Education Select Committee that ‘we are in unchartered territory’ when talking about school attendance in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. Read the full article here.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-attendance-nick-gibb-i-dont-know-absence

3. School Attendance Self- Evaluation Framework

All maintained schools across the county should by now have sight of the attendance self-evaluation framework. This is the first stage in the free at the point of access offer to all schools by the local authority under Working together to improve school attendance. Academy schools will receive an invitation to complete the SEF from September.  Please do return your SEF at the earliest opportunity, following receipt of the document your school will be linked with an Education Casework Officer who will then offer you the opportunity to have a termly targeted support meeting.

4. Wonde

82% of schools nationally have opted in to sharing daily attendance data with the DfE The figure in Warwickshire is 87%. 

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. Further information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools

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.

If you are having ICT difficulties in sharing data and have contacted Wonde direct, and the matter has not been resolved we would be interested to know; please emails was@warwickshire.gov.uk with the details.    

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