Below is an extract from the Ofsted School Inspection Handbook for 2023 which outlines the expectations in relation to attendance:

Attendance

292. Inspectors will expect schools to do all they reasonably can to achieve the highest possible attendance, while recognising that the context in which schools operate has changed. (Attendance between March 2020 and March 2021 will not impact on the judgement of the school.)

293. Inspectors will expect schools to have done an analysis of absence and persistent absence rates for all pupils, and for different groups, compared with the published local and national averages for all pupils. This includes the extent to which pupils with persistent and severe absence are improving their attendance over time or whether attendance is consistently low. Inspectors will want to see this analysis and how this has fed in to the school’s approach.

294. Where attendance is not consistently at or above what could reasonably be expected, inspectors will expect attendance to be a high priority for leaders and for it to be improving towards and beyond national, pre-pandemic levels. There should be a strong understanding of the causes of absence (particularly for persistent and severe absence) and a clear strategy in place that takes account of those causes to improve attendance for all pupils. In some cases of persistent and all cases of severe absence, schools should make efforts to engage in multi-agency work with the local authority and other partners.

295. Where leaders are aware of the issues affecting attendance and have a clear, strategic plan of action in place but attendance for all pupils is not yet consistently very high, inspectors should judge this favourably, as long as there is a track record of improvement that demonstrates leaders’ capacity to continue to improve attendance (using the same factors used in considering what category of concern schools should be placed into).

Pupils who have specific needs, including pupils with SEND

296. The school may be working with pupils with particular needs in order to improve their behaviour or their attendance. When this is the case, behaviour and conduct that reflects the school’s high expectations and their consistent, fair implementation are likely to include demonstrable improvement in the attendance and behaviour of these pupils, taking account of individual circumstances.

Pupils who are not in the school during the inspection

297. Inspectors will gather evidence about the typical behaviour of all the pupils who attend the school, including those who are not present on the day of inspection. If there is evidence that a school has deliberately removed pupils from the school site on the day of inspection or has arranged for them to be absent, and inspectors reasonably believe that this was done in order to have an impact on the inspection, then inspectors are likely to judge both behaviour and attitudes and leadership and management to be inadequate.

The extent of adherence to the above will inform the grading of the judgement in relation to attendance (remember that attendance alone is not graded, so the final judgement for this descriptor will be based on a 'best fit' for all of the grade descriptors for the 'behaviour and attitudes' judgement).

Outstanding:  There are no specific additional attendance requirements over that required for a good judgement.

Good:  There is demonstrable improvement in the behaviour and attendance of pupils who have particular needs.  Pupils have high attendance (for 2023/24 the added phrase "within the context of the pandemic" has been removed). They come to school on time and are punctual to lessons. When this is not the case, the school takes appropriate, swift and effective action.  There will also be a check on the appropriate use and recording of exclusions.

Requires Improvement:  Not the above

Inadequate:  Attendance is consistently low for all pupils or groups of pupils and shows little sign of sustained improvement.

Preparing for Ofsted

This remains our most up-to-date advice in relation to Ofsted inspections, but we will be monitoring this closely as inspections continue apace. You will notice that the type of questions or no longer 'pure' attendance questions, but link very closely to safeguarding and remote learning, so please be prepared for this and have the right people in the room who are able to talk knowledgeably about these different aspects.

• Conversations relating to children who may have moved to EHE, whether pandemic related or not

• Leavers and destinations

• Attendance of vulnerable groups (closely linked to safeguarding conversations about knowing whereabouts and circumstances and acting appropriately)

• Pupils attending AP settings and arrangements to check attendance, safeguarding and progress

• Monitoring the engagement of remote learning

• Pupils on partial timetables (need to be able to show that they can still access full curriculum)

• The 'story' of attendance last academic year in the school with supporting figures (statutory and actual attendance - you won't solely be judged on low figures (although this year more importance will be attached to the actual attendance figures than in previous years) but you need to be able to explain what has happened and have some data at your fingertips to support this.  

• Use of catch-up funding to support improved attendance (or why you haven't used it)

IDSR Comments

Whilst the attendance data within the IDSR may be viewed by inspectors, it will have less importance than previously because it will be quite out of date and difficult to draw conclusions from because of the effect of the pandemic on the usual national attendance rates.  However, it might be used to provide evidence of a sustained improvement in attendance/PA, so its worth knowing what is within your IDSR, no matter how old you think it is.  You can find full DfE guidance on understanding what is in your IDSR in their online guidance document and if you click here, it will take you straight to the section on absence.

Ofsted Inspection Template

You can download at the bottom of the page an outline template for preparing a brief attendance report in the event of an Ofsted Inspection.   It is possible that the inspector will ask for more/less information than this in which case please adapt the template accordingly.  Aim to make the report a maximum of 4 sides and remember that the inspectors will gather most of their information from a discussion with the nominated attendance lead rather than wanting to see it on paper.  Much of the report can be pre-populated and updated monthly so that you only have to fill in a few things at the last minute.  If you are making a case around your IDACI deprivation quintile then its definitely worth reading this article to increase your understanding of these.

Note that the report does not include anything about punctuality so be prepared to talk about how you manage this, but more importantly the inspectors will witness whether pupils are punctual themselves.

On the days of inspection remind staff to be accurate in taking their registers and ensure that these are returned asap (but don’t get so carried away with this that marginally late pupils get missed off the register).

• Also consider having readily available, but do not hand to the inspectors, the following:

• Breakdown of attendance codes used.

• One side of A4 individual pupil case studies (make sure you include some figures on attendance within the case study) and only use pupils who you would be happy for the inspector to track/speak with.  NOTE that you can download sample case studies from the bottom of this page kindly provided by Allan Crozier at Briar Hill.

• List of absent pupils on the day of inspection.

• Printout of pupils marked present compared with attendance percentage for the day (ie these should match and if they don’t the inspectors will look more closely at the codes you are using).

• An up to date list of leavers with their date of leaving and destination.

• Information on the formal off-rolling procedure (this should include the sign-off from a senior member of staff before the pupil is removed from roll).

• Evidence of completion of a CME form when the destination of the pupil is 'unknown' or 'left the country'.  Evidence of acknowledgement from the LA of the CME form.

• Evidence that all off-rolls are reported to the LA within 5 days.

• You are more likely to get asked about any pupils who have moved to elective home education during the pandemic (EHE) and, if you have any, have evidence to hand that shows the communication trail with parents.

If you have any pupils who are attending alternative provision

Juliet has kindly shared this information with us on what we are expecting Ofsted to inspect for any pupil who is attending alternative provision whilst remaining on-roll.  Whilst not all of these items are strictly attendance, its worth keeping them together and this is likely to be discussed as part of any conversation on attendance.

• Formal agreement for each pupil at each provider to include confirmation of the start date of each student attending the setting; the pupil’s attendance record on Bromcom should correspond with these details exactly.  

• Ofsted registration docs for the setting

• Most recent Ofsted report for the setting and any response

• Evidence of safeguarding checks i.e. a site visit notes including an evaluation of safeguarding practice such as the publicity of the DSL, how children know who to talk to if they have a concern; you will also establish rigorous procedures for working together for any child open to service or in collaboration with the virtual school 

• Up to date confirmation of compliance with vetting and recruitment procedures I.e that all checks have been completed and recorded on the SCR (the date received should be on the academy safeguarding appendix as well)

• Records of routine visits to the setting to include pupil voice; also some parent voice 

• Written rationale for the choice of provider with the objectives and programme for each pupil 

• Evidence of daily contact to confirm attendance; behaviour monitoring 

• Routine reports on the progress/ behaviour of pupils evaluated against the objectives of the programme 

Getting it Wrong

If you want to scare yourself then take a look at this Ofsted report where a school was put into special measures, largely because of poor attendance practice.

Resources

Ofsted held a webinar about how they inspect attendance in April 2023.  You can access the recording here.  

In February 2022 Ofsted published a report entitled 'Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence' which will be well worth reading if you are in the Ofsted window as this will give you a 'flavour' of the type of things that Ofsted will be interested in.  You can access this by clicking here.

You may want to watch this video which is a recording of Jason Bradbury, Dep Dir of Data and Insight at Ofsted, speaking at a recent FFT Datalab Conference.  The first 20 mins are about the effect of the pandemic and you may find the most useful comments on inspection from about 20 mins onwards.  

There are other resources available for you from the folder below which you may find useful.