Attendance

Every Day Counts

High Bank staff and governors are united in their belief that regular school attendance enables children to maximise the educational opportunities available to them. Excellent attendance helps children to become emotionally resilient, confident and competent adults who are able to realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to their community; utilising their God-given talents. 

At High Bank we value all children. We work with families to identify the barriers to achieving and maintaining excellent attendance and offer the right services, at the right time, to resolve difficulties. Senior Leaders monitor attendance weekly and use attendance data to identify any patterns of concern, whilst also celebrating success. 

Attendance concerns will be raised with parents and when necessary, concerns may also be shared with other professionals within the Local Authority. Where we have concerns, or there is a lack of engagement from families to improve attendance, we will follow the school’s staged approach to improving attendance. 

High Bank’s staged approach is child-centred and prioritises support and developing strong working relationships with families. We will use the Early Help process to provide support prior to escalation and consider how we can work with families to enable children to access their right to education. 

Attendance figures for each child will be reported to parents termly: as part of the Parents’ Consultations and pupils’ Annual Reports. Parents can also access their child’s live attendance figure, at any time, by contacting the school office.  

At High Bank, we implement a staged approach to promote excellent attendance for every pupil. Our staged approach is underpinned by six principles: 

1. Expect: a culture where all children can, and want, to be in school. 

2. Monitor: analyse attendance data weekly to identify patterns of poor attendance or areas of concern. 

3. Listen and Understand: working alongside parents to understand their barriers to attendance; work together to remove them. 

4. Facilitate Support: empower parents by supporting them to access external support to overcome barriers outside of school. 

5. Formalise Support: this could include formalising support through a Parenting Contract of Education Supervision Order. 

6. Enforce: statutory intervention or prosecution to protect the child’s right to an education. This stage will only be implemented when all previous stages of the approach have been exhausted and there is no other option.