Essex support first toolkit

Supplementary information regarding the use of the documents and templates contained within the Essex Support First Toolkit.

Identifying concerns and putting the right support in place early is essential to improving school attendance. 

Schools must develop their own processes and practices according to the unique makeup of their school.  Processes and practices will need to embody a support first approach as per the expectations from the DfE’s statutory Working Together to Improve School Attendance Statutory Guidance.  To support schools with this, the Attendance Teams in Essex have developed a toolkit of template documents, with support first as the priority. These tone and language within each of the documents/templates sit with the expectations on all partners to:

•    Expect, Monitor, Listen and Understand, Facilitate Support, Formalise Support and where all other avenues have been exhausted and support is not working, or being engaged with, Enforce through statutory legal intervention.

The toolkit embodies good-practice and supports schools to identify concerns early and put the right support in place, however discretion as to the use of many of the earlier documents lays with each individual school. 

An attendance roadmap for schools and other professionals has been provided to help address attendance in Essex.

Essex Attendance Roadmap (PDF, 522KB)

To request an accessible version of the roadmap contact EducationWebTeam@essex.gov.uk 

Monitoring Attendance

Another key aspect in addressing attendance is monitoring and tracking. School’s should analyse and monitor pupil level data on a weekly basis.  The Attendance Tracker (Excel, 104KB) has been designed to support schools to do this.  The tracker is a template to be amended and added to as per an individual schools processes, practices and priorities as well as preferences on layout and data being monitored. 

Attendance model policy

Use the following attendance model policy templates:

• Attendance model policy (Word, 954KB)
• Attendance parent leaflet - non-statutory (Word, 45KB)

Communicating attendance information to families - key information

• Essex requirements when communicating attendance information to parents - advice for Essex schools - September 2024 (Word, 26KB)
• DfE guide for parents on school attendance and responsibilities 
• Helping parents and schools understand the national threshold for penalty notice fines and prosecution for school attendance (Word, 40KB)

Essex Code of Conduct

To understand when legal intervention may be applicable, review the Essex Code of Conduct.

• Essex County Council - Code of Conduct: Penalty notices for school absence/suspended pupils