Attendance Specialist Team (AST)

The Attendance Specialist Team support schools in fulfilling their responsibilities as outlined by the Department for Education's Working Together to Improve School Attendance Guidance. This includes supporting schools:

• understand and practise a 'support first' approach
• with advice and guidance about improving school attendance
• improve individual attendance
• that are seeking advice about attendance policies

Attendance data

It is now statutory for all schools to share their school and pupil-level daily data with the Department for Education.

DfE View Your Education Data (VYED):

• DfE Guidance for sharing daily pupil attendance data
• DfE Live Attendance Data Dashboard - pupil attendance in schools

DfE Guide to Absence Statistics and Statistical releases (data obtained via Census):

• DfE Absence Statistics Guidance and Statistical Releases
• DfE National Absence Rates on the GOV.UK website

Improving attendance in Essex

The Attendance Specialist Team will:

• aim to build and sustain strong, collaborative relationships with schools and other professionals
• have a responsibility to ensure school attendance is a priority
• provide advice, guidance, and training to improve school attendance
• use data to identify areas for improvement
• share good practices via different platforms
• produce and circulate half-termly 'Maximising School Attendance Bulletins'
• conduct termly attendance Targeting Support Meetings (TSMs)
• hold, review, and develop a range of resources for schools and settings to support improved school attendance

Where possible we will attend the following:

• Essex Primary Heads Association (EPHA) termly meetings
• District-based Behaviour and Attendance Partnership (BAP) half-termly meetings
• Association of Secondary Headteachers in Essex (ASHE) meetings
• Partnership meetings
• Early Help Drop-Ins (weekly, one per quadrant) - timetable can be found on the Essex County Council website

Schools and professionals

Schools and professionals should:

• sign-up to the Education Weekly Newsletter
• read the half-termly Essex Schools ‘Maximising School Attendance Bulletin’
• attend Targeting Support Meetings where appropriate
• attend Early Help Drop Ins
• develop systems and processes to monitor attendance effectively such as the Template School Attendance Tracker (Exel, 92KB).