What is an attendance strategy?
A good attendance strategy:
- Is a long-term plan, informed by evidence and your school data
- Focuses on the ‘big picture’ goal of improving attendance for all pupils
- Takes a ‘twin-track’ approach, which allows you to simultaneously:
- Be proactive and preventive, by putting in place early interventions before pupils get off track
- Use targeted intervention and support for pupils with complex attendance problems
An attendance strategy isn’t:
- A policy or document to complete
- A purely reactive approach, e.g. 'firefighting' once pupils are already persistently or severely absent
- A quick-fix. You might not see the results straight away, but if you put in the work you’ll see a bigger impact over time. Think of this as a 5-year plan
The steps below set out how to develop and implement your attendance strategy – especially the proactive and preventive part of your strategy, where you can have the biggest impact.