Improving school attendance

Persistent school absence is one of the most significant ongoing impacts of the pandemic. At Forward Education Trust, for each of our schools, we are keen that our staff work with our pupils and their families to support good attendance at school.

The Department for Education (DfE) launched a major national drive in January 2024, to support the work of schools with families, to identify the many and varied reasons for absence, so our schools can work to improve attendance. At Forward Education Trust, we had already started to work across our Trust, with all of our schools, on initiatives to improve attendance.

The DfE campaign has the banner “moments matter, attendance counts”. Tackling attendance is our number 1 priority. We want all of our children to have the best start in life because we know that attending school is vital and positive for a child’s wellbeing, safety and development for their next steps in life towards adulthood. Our teachers and teaching assistants want to welcome children to vibrant places of learning, where children will enjoy being within the school community.

We know for our special schools, there may be complex reasons behind poor attendance, so understanding these reasons is essential. We have an individualised approach for each child.

Some children may want to come to school, but things happening at home or within their family might hinder this. We want all families to see attending school as a priority and we can support a multi-agency approach to supporting families to break down some of the barriers and perceptions that exist. Effective interventions can help to rebuild confidence and resilience for pupils and their families.

We recognise that school transport can be a complex issue for special schools pupils. We have effective ways of supporting families to work through these issues in a positive way.

Taking small steps of improvements to re-establish the importance and value of education is at the centre of our approach. We can work around unavoidable absences and give clear guidance when a mild medical issue should not prevent a child from coming to school.

We are training all of our staff to improve their individual commitment, in a number of different ways, to play their part in improving attendance. We are creating a climate in our schools, such that our children will want to come to school, as they are doing something exciting, interesting or they can see themselves improving as the individual they are.

We realise that moments do matter and attendance does count. We hope pupils and families will join with us on our journey to improve attendance in our schools.