Attendance

The purpose of this group is to support school leaders to improve attendance and reduce absence in their schools. The support also aims to help with understanding what the research tells us about improving attendance and reducing absence, particularly persistent absence. It is aimed at Senior Leaders working together with Attendance Officers to share the most effective practice.

This community is open to Senior Leaders in charge of attendance and Attendance Officers in Newham Learning member schools and Newham Learning Leads.

To sign up for this Community

Please visit: https://forms.gle/LF7njkKn4eScb6mj6 

• Relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16 (DfE, 2025)

• Helping pupils return to school: strategies for improving attendance (NFER, 2025)

• Children’s Commissioner report ‘Lost in Translation’, also available as a summary (Children's Commissioner, Feb 2024)

• Chronic Absenteeism has become a crisis (Thomas Fordham Insitute (US), Nov 2023)

• Research on school approaches to reducing absence and exclusions (NFER, Sep 2023)

• Securing Good Attendance and Tackling Persistent Absence (Ofsted, Feb 2022)

• Podcast: Evidence into Action: Supporting school attendance (EEF, 2024)

• Inspecting attendance well (Ofsted, 2024)

• In the best interests of children (Ofsted, 2024)

• Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence | Ofsted webinar (Sep 2023)

• Terri White: Finding Britain's Ghost Children (BBC, 22 Mar 2022) NB: podcast

(coming soon)

Guidance Documents

• Putting Evidence to Work (Implementation Guidance) (EEF, 2024)

Videos

• A schools' guide to Implementation - Animation (EEF, 2024)

• Newham Learning: Implementation (Newham Learning, 2022)

Templates

• Action plan template (pdf)

• Action plan template (docx)

• Case study template (pdf)

• Case study template (pptx)

Improving School Attendance Blog (Ofsted, Nov 2023)

What is driving persistent absence in your setting  (Schools Week, 23 Oct 2023)

September Absence Round up  (FFT Education Datalab, Sep 2023)

'I don't really care any more': Parent Apathy on Attendance Laid Bare (Schools Week, 21 Sep 2023)

How Attendance Hubs Are Tackling Soaring Absences (Schools Week, 08 Sep 2023)

How likely are pupils who are absent in the first week of term to become persistently absent (FFT, Sep 2023)

Five things to know about chronic absenteeism (Ed Trust, 15 Mar 2023) NB: US based organisation

The knock on the door: A simple solution to poor attendance? (Schools Week, 07 Nov 2022

Improving School Attendance Blog (Ofsted, Nov 2023)

What is driving persistent absence in your setting  (Schools Week, 23 Oct 2023)

September Absence Round up  (FFT Education Datalab, Sep 2023)

'I don't really care any more': Parent Apathy on Attendance Laid Bare (Schools Week, 21 Sep 2023)

How Attendance Hubs Are Tackling Soaring Absences (Schools Week, 08 Sep 2023)

How likely are pupils who are absent in the first week of term to become persistently absent (FFT, Sep 2023)

Five things to know about chronic absenteeism (Ed Trust, 15 Mar 2023) NB: US based organisation

The knock on the door: A simple solution to poor attendance? (Schools Week, 07 Nov 2022