Every Day Counts: Every Child, Every Day, Ready to Learn

At The Batt CE Primary School and St Mary’s CE Infant School, we believe that every day of school matters. Excellent attendance helps children build strong relationships, develop confidence, make progress and fully experience all that school has to offer.

We work in partnership with children and families to understand and remove barriers to attendance, build positive habits and ensure that every child is supported to attend school regularly and on time. Our approach is rooted in belonging, inclusion, early support and the belief that working together gives every child the best opportunity to succeed.

The Five Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice

  1. Culture and Climate – Creating a sense of belonging

We create a welcoming, inclusive environment where every child and family feels valued, safe and connected to school. We want to understand individual children and any barriers to attendance, listen to children’s views and build positive relationships between home and school.

 2. Policies, Systems and Processes – Setting clear expectations

We communicate the importance of regular attendance and punctuality, ensuring that expectations are understood and applied consistently. Clear systems help us monitor attendance, identify concerns and work with families at an early stage.

 3. Professional Learning – Understanding and responding to attendance

We use attendance information to identify patterns, recognise emerging concerns and understand the reasons behind absence. Staff work together to respond promptly, using professional knowledge and a supportive, curious approach to identify the most effective next steps.

 4. Targeted Programmes and Intervention – Removing barriers together

When attendance becomes a concern, we work with children and families to understand what is preventing regular attendance and agree appropriate support. This may include individual support plans, regular review meetings, key adult support, Early Help and partnership working with external agencies. Where attendance does not improve, we take further action in line with statutory guidance.

 5. Connecting with Approaches to Behaviour – Building connection and belonging

We recognise that children are more likely to attend when they feel safe, understood and that they belong. Positive relationships, consistent expectations and appropriate emotional and practical support help children feel secure, connected to school and ready to learn.

Our Escalated Approach to Attendance

We follow a support-first approach, responding to concerns early and increasing support in line with each child’s individual circumstances. Attendance is monitored regularly so that we can act promptly rather than wait for absence to become entrenched.

Our approach follows five stages:

• Expect: Build a positive culture where all children can and want to attend school.

• Monitor: Use attendance information to identify patterns and emerging concerns.

• Listen and Understand: Talk with children and families to understand barriers and work together to remove them.

• Facilitate and Formalise Support: Put appropriate support in place, review its impact and involve other services where needed. This may include formal attendance or parenting contracts.

• Enforce: Where support has not secured improvement and there is no other appropriate option, consider statutory intervention in line with local authority guidance and national requirements.

As concerns increase, our response may progress from informal conversations and early support to formal meetings, written communication, attendance contracts and multi-agency involvement. We will continue to listen to children, review support and work with families throughout this process.

We recognise that persistent absence has a significant impact on children’s education. A child is classed as persistently absent when they miss 10% or more of their possible school sessions. This is equivalent to approximately 19 school days in a typical academic year. We therefore aim to identify and address difficulties well before this point.

Working Together: Every Child, Every Day

Our ambition is that every child attends school regularly, arrives ready to learn and has the opportunity to make the most of every school day. By combining clear expectations with understanding, early intervention and appropriate challenge, we aim to give every child the strongest possible start to learning and life.