Improving attendance is one of the biggest challenges facing schools, and there is no single intervention that will solve it. But there are practical steps schools can take to build a stronger attendance culture and identify concerns earlier to prevent absence from becoming entrenched.
Every School Day Counts is Camden Learning’s programme of work supporting schools to improve attendance. Following the publication of the Every School Day Counts Attendance Guide, which set out six key themes for effective attendance practice and shared examples from Camden schools, Camden Learning has published a new toolkit that provides further practical guidance for putting those principles into action.
Supporting practical strategies for strengthening attendance, the new toolkit is underpinned by high expectations and early intervention. It focuses on how schools can use their attendance data, systems and relationships to intervene earlier and secure improvements before absence becomes entrenched.
The new toolkit builds on the original Attendance Guide. While the guide encouraged school leaders to reflect on what effective attendance practice looks like in their own context, the new resource focuses more closely on implementation by providing practical strategies, questions and approaches that can be used by leaders and attendance teams.
The power of marginal gains
A key message in the new toolkit is the importance of intervening early when pupils’ attendance first begins to decline.
Schools will rightly continue to support pupils who are already persistently or severely absent, often where there are complex and deep-rooted barriers, but there is also a significant need to prevent more pupils from reaching that point, when the underlying issues can become entrenched.
Camden analysis shows that the majority of absence is accumulated by pupils whose attendance is above 85%. Relatively small improvements across a much larger group of pupils, alongside those who are already persistently absent, can make a significant difference to reaching pupils, and reaching them early.
The toolkit encourages schools to focus on these marginal gains, intervening when attendance first begins to fall rather than waiting until a pupil is already persistently absent and at risk of severe absence. Early intervention can help identify and address barriers before they become more difficult to overcome.
Attendance is everyone’s responsibility
The approach is deliberately broader than the work of an attendance officer. The toolkit sets out practical ways for schools to make attendance part of everyday school life, from leaders being visible at the school gates, to teachers knowing which pupils have been absent and welcoming them back, to pastoral teams building strong relationships with families.
It recommends regular attendance action meetings involving senior leaders, attendance staff, safeguarding, special educational needs and pastoral colleagues. The aim is to use data to identify pupils who need attention, agree on an action, identify who is responsible and then review whether it has worked.
This reinforces one of the central messages of the original Attendance Practice Guide: attendance is a whole-school responsibility. The new toolkit provides schools with practical ways to embed that responsibility across their existing systems and routines.
Creating a school children want to attend
The focus on early intervention does not mean focusing solely on attendance figures.
The toolkit emphasises the importance of creating a positive experience of school, with calm and welcoming starts to the day, strong relationships and a sense of belonging. It encourages schools to look beyond compliance and consider whether pupils feel known, valued and connected to their school.
Understanding why a child is struggling to attend, whether the barrier relates to the pupil, school, family, peers or wider community, is an important part of developing the right response.
From data to action
The toolkit encourages school leaders to make attendance data a tool for action, rather than just a reporting exercise.
Schools are encouraged to establish a clear picture of their current attendance, identify where the greatest opportunities for improvement lie and set a small number of clear, measurable goals. A Plan-Do-Review approach can then help schools assess whether interventions are having the desired impact and adapt their approach where they are not.
The new resource sits alongside Camden Learning’s wider attendance support for schools, including data analysis, training, Attendance Network meetings, Targeted Support Meetings and support from School Inclusion Support Officers.
Together, the two Every School Day Counts resources provide schools with both the framework and practical tools to strengthen their approach: the Attendance Guide sets out what effective practice looks like, while the new toolkit supports schools to consider how they can put it into practice.
With attendance remaining a significant challenge, improvement will not come from one initiative or one member of staff. It comes from consistent whole-school practice, high expectations, early action and a determination to understand and address the barriers that can prevent children from attending regularly.
Every school day counts and every school has a role to play in making it count.
