Improving attendance: A shared priority

Improving attendance remains a key priority and the refreshed attendance strategy sets out how we will work together to support children to be in school and ready to learn.

We know that good attendance is essential for pupils' progress, wellbeing and sense of belonging. When attendance drops, it can often signal that a child or family needs additional support.

This strategy aligns with national expectations and statutory guidance on school attendance and reinforces our commitment to working alongside schools to support a consistent, whole-school approach. We want to build on what you are already doing well and ensure you feel supported to meet these expectations.

The strategy focuses on supporting schools to:

• Identify and respond early when attendance begins to decline
• Understand the individual circumstances affecting pupils and families
• Work in partnership with the whole school community and partners
• Remove barriers to attendance, using a supportive and consistent approach

Work has already begun on the revised action plan that accompanies the strategy and we will continue to seek the views of schools, children and parents and other agencies to develop new resources to support the implementation of the strategy and assess its impact. We are currently undertaking a small-scale pilot with two secondary schools to look at multi-disciplinary responses to severe absence and we will share the findings with you as soon as possible.

Across Norfolk, there are already strong examples of schools and partners working together to improve attendance, ensuring pupils are supported in a way that works for them and their families.

Barriers to Education Assessment Tool for consultation

Learning from the severe absence pathfinder project we undertook earlier this academic year which included feedback from schools, children and parents provided important learning about supporting school attendance. Feedback indicated that practitioners did not feel they were equipped to assess the individual barriers to education and audit of plans highlighted that children's views were often missing or inconsistently captured in attendance planning. As a result, plans did not always address individual barriers to accessing education leaving gaps in holistic support.

In response a small working group has developed a draft tool to support earlier identification of the barriers to education which is informed by recently published guidance from the National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists (6b4f08_00d8296797964cf9951b8b5216b93d93.pdf). This tool is in its early stages of development and we want to hear feedback from as many school staff as possible to inform the final product.

The tool will be discussed at the forthcoming Attendance Networks:

West: 11 June 2026, 9:30am-12:30pm - Kings Oak Academy, Kings Lynn

Central: 3 July 2026, 9:30am-12:30pm - County Hall, Norwich

You can book your place on the network via this link.

Alternatively, you can access the draft tool and complete a short survey via the following link. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to your children and young people. The relationships you build and the support you provide every day are central to helping children attend and flourish.