The review will be undertaken by Carolyn Harkness, SIO for Attendance or Allison Cain, Head of Service for EWS. Both have extensive experience at local authority level in providing attendance training, support and guidance to schools together with auditing school’s provision.
How the attendance review will be undertaken
Before a site visit, key attendance information on your website and other documents will be reviewed.
The four-hour site visit will include a range of activities including
- Observing start of day procedures, inside and outside of the school building.
- Observing how and when registers close and the first response process
- Speaking with Attendance officers, admin staff, Heads of year etc.
- A learning walk to assess how visible attendance is within the setting.
- An in-depth open dialogue with the DAL(Designated Attendance Lead) on SLT about current attendance process and practice.
- A discussion and analysis of the attendance data profile of the school.
At the end of the visit, key recommendations will be suggested. You will receive a report within ten working days which will cover:
- Policy documentation
- The leadership and management of attendance
- Use of data at all stages of the process
- Key actions and next steps agreed during the review
Key Questions to be considered:
- How strong is the whole school focus on improving attendance and reducing PA?
- Is the school approach to improving attendance and reducing PA effective?
- How effective is the leadership and management of attendance?
- Are the school’s key policies which support attendance in place and fit for purpose? (safeguarding, behaviour, wellbeing, mental health, SEND)
- Are the school procedures for coding accurate?
- Are staff following procedures for CME, exit forms, removing children from roll?
- Is the school being proactive rather than waiting for attendance rates to fall before acting?
How much does the attendance review cost?
At present, this is included free for Liverpool settings as part of the universal offer - but is also available to any setting that would like to review their attendance practices.
Please get in touch with [email protected] for further details and a quote.