Attendance

What is attendance?

School attendance refers to a child's presence in school for their required education, with the expectation that children attend every school day unless there is a valid reason, such as illness or a pre-approved absence.

Regular attendance is a legal requirement, and missing school too often, especially below a 95% rate, can significantly hinder a child's learning.

Why is it important to attend school?

Being around teachers and friends in a school or college environment is the best way for children and young people to learn. Time in school keeps children safe and provides access to extra-curricular opportunities and pastoral care.

Attending school is important for all children and young people so they have a sense of belonging, to enable achievement and fulfil their potential, as well as for their overall wellbeing and wider development. Evidence shows that the students with the highest attendance throughout their time in school gain the best GCSE and A Level results.

What can be the barriers to attendance?

When working directly with the young person and their families, listen to them to understand what their barriers to regular attendance are and adopt a flexible approach to overcome those barriers. Families are more likely to engage if they feel you are taking time to listen to their needs and responding accordingly.

The potential list of barriers to regular school attendance is enormous, but could include:

Not wanting to leave their parent at home alone during the day
Feeling behind in their schoolwork
The parent does not wake in time to take the child to school
Friendship issues
Caring responsibilities for parent or siblings
Unmet SEND
Parental mental health
Lack of clean uniform
Poor sleep
Outside influence e.g. county lines
Parental drink or drug misuse
Apathy to studying due to a lack of a positive role model

The role of the Designated Teacher and Social Worker to support attendance

The Designated Teacher (DT) and Social Worker should act as advocates for children in care and support families of children previously in care.

They should take lead responsibility for helping other professionals to understand the difficulties affecting children in care and how this can impact on attendance and engagement with school. The DT should work with the Team Around the Child to promote attendance and develop a strategic overview to support the child or young person to engage with education.

The role and responsibilities of the Virtual School to support attendance

Monitor attendance data for children in care
Provide advice and challenge to schools and other professionals
Support Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings with attendance focus
Offer training and resources to schools and carers
Provide information and advice to families and professionals supporting previously in care children with their education, including attendance
The Virtual School has a non-statutory duty to work strategically to support the attendance for children with a Social Worker and in kinship care

What does the law say?

The Virtual School has statutory duties to monitor the attendance, progress and attainment of children in care and ensure they have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) which is the education element of their care plan.

For previously in care children, the Virtual School has a statutory duty to provide information and advice to parents, guardians and professionals supporting a child or young person's education

For children with a Social Worker and those in kinship care, the Virtual School has non-statutory duties to promote the attendance of children in these cohorts.

There are three key pieces of legislation:

What support is available for children in care?

Where there is a child in care, education settings and localities have named Advisers within the Virtual School Team.

The Virtual School has a linked Attendance and Entitlement Officer.

The Engagement Team for child or young person specific based concerns.

We have an offer which is published annually and can be found on our website. This includes a comprehensive professional development programme.

What support is available for children previously in care, children with a Social Worker and those in kinship care?

For children previously in care and those in kinship care with a Special Guardianship Order or Child Arrangements Order (regardless of previously in care status) we have a tiered offer of support with details available on our website which can include information and advice from our linked Attendance and Entitlement Officer.

For children with a Social Worker, our work is predominantly strategic however, we are able to offer support with opportunities and training for Trauma and Attachment Aware Practice, as well as support from our linked Attendance and Entitlement Officer in promoting attendance.

The Norfolk County Council Attendance Team have created a Support First template that can be used when meeting with families to discuss attendance and make supportive plans. As many Support First meetings as are appropriate can be held and where the family are engaging with school, they should be held regularly to review progress and make any amendments to the existing plan.

For more information on the Support First approach and the procedure to follow should you need to formalise attendance plans (where further support is not appropriate or offered support is not being engaged with), please see School attendance.