Extended school non-attendance planning tool.
This resource is a work in progress and will be added to and adapted through research and development within local schools and families.
Planning tool (slides 3,4 and 4) developed by Dr Stephanie Little
Preparing to use the tool
Young person
Is attending but missing some lessons or frequently late or absent
Identify a member of staff they have built a relationship with.
Help them to share their views – look in the appendices of the guidance for ideas on what to do.
Is not attending
Start to build a relationship with weekly check ins. The first half term is about building trust before seeking their views.
"We found that when a YP was not attending at all, it was better to spend more time building up a relationship. We couldn't use the planning tool at this stage. "
When a young person was already known to the school one teacher told us that a good first step was to RAG the timetable to help to build an understanding of where the barriers to attending where – before thinking about 'why'.
Note: Exploring the whole context is an important part of the pre-work.
For example: Sometimes called ‘push and pull factors’ what pulls them towards home?
What pushes them away from school?
Assessments that also helped to set the scene (e.g. SDQ and timeline activity) were suggested as a good routine to start the process of support.
What helps? Strengths and areas of interest.
1. Relationships with peer group
2. Relationship and support from adults
3. Experiences of school transition
4. Experiences of learning in school
5. Emotional wellbeing and mental health needs
6. Other people’s thoughts about your needs
7. How you feel about school attendance
Part one
What is relevant for you?
Select which areas are relevant to your experience and add some notes about how this impacts your feelings and thoughts about attending school. Copy and paste any boxes that don’t’ apply to you to an empty sheet (revisit at reviews to see if anything needs adding back in).
Based on research on young people's perspectives (Corcoran & Kelly, 2023) 1-4 are linked to onset factors for non-attendance and 5-7 are likely to be linked to maintaining behaviours.
Note: Theme 5 – Emotional wellbeing and mental health needs – can be in reference to you or people you live with.
Part two
Using the information from part one in discussion with your school and supporting adult to plan strategies that are appropriate to the elements of the school day that are impacted for you.
Ideas to keep in mind
Arriving at school*
During lessons*
During non-lesson time*
Getting home*
Which strategies will be tried out first/ are practical to implement today?
Practical/logistical support for parents
Start with your thoughts about what you are interested in doing outside of school or any career ideas you have. * Complete section or remove as appropriate.
Personal goals beyond school
Part three
Support plan
Small steps (can be written as SMART targets)
Support that is not school-based
Review of impact/outcomes after 3 weeks
From the part 2 sheet discussion needs will have been identified that can be used to summarise the approach and what everyone is working towards.
Identified needs for non-learning elements of school/sense of belonging/emotional wellbeing.
Identified needs related to learning.
(Adapting the educational environment)
Strategies
Whole school approaches: community psychology approach.
Using data to plan whole school change
Map each year group using the pyramid framework.
Red = tier 3 – individualised interventions and support in place to meet the identified needs of those students.
Orange= tier 2 – emerging difficulties and early intervention work in place to identify needs and offer support that may be as part of small group (e.g. using pupil premium money to buy revision guides to support learners who have less access to resources).
Green = tier 1 – whole school or year group initiatives that are linked with research to improve outcomes and sense of belonging (e.g. year group trips and activities, whole school house membership and activities linked to this, form group bonding activities).
Community psychology: Use the analysis to identify which year groups need additional tier 1 adaptations to improve whole cohort attendance, pull factors and sense of belonging – what support might be missing in this school community within this year group?
From UCL leading edge day talk: Dr David Heyne. Excellence in Attendance Support. March 26, 2024
Including young people in your conversations in a psychologically safe way.
Recording the impact of school-focused and multiagency work
Once you have established that you are using the framework of extended school non-attendance with a CYP and their family collect baseline data.
Collaborate to create outcomes that are relevant to the young person you are working with and then complete a baseline assessment for each element.
Outcome used in this example chart:
e.g. To improve the experience of being in school/in lesson/participating in learning tasks/attending a mentoring session.
Outcomes can be bespoke for each young person if you are using this approach as you can compare data from different outcomes by using the numerical system.
*Attendance data is taken to provide context, but it should be noted in the first few months it will not be the best ‘measure’ of improvement – family wellbeing is likely to show impact before attendance changes.
Attendance data (as a percentage)* | | ||||
Target monitoring approach | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
YP perceptions on the difficulty | | | | | |
Parental perceptions of the difficulty | | | | | |
School perception of difficulties | | | | | |
Other relevant factors can be added (e.g. related to subjects being attended or use of area of the school dedicated for support work etc) | | | | | |
Corcoran et al (2023) local authority projects to improve outcomes for CYP who are finding it hard to attend are becoming increasingly popular, however few are recording outcome data that could be shared on effectiveness or used to evaluate and review the processes that have been introduced.
Key
-2 situation feels stuck and it is hard to see positives
-1 situation is not good - there are some areas that are ok and sometimes these feel at risk
0 situation is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ but there is a sense that change is needed to avoid risks
+1 situation has some positives that have potential to develop
+2 situation is positive
References: a research informed planning tool.
Attendance information.
Working together to improve school attendance.
All schools must hold an electronic admission register and attendance register taken at start of each morning session and once in a pm session (except where pupils are boarders).
Schools must record a reason that CYP are not in school.
Amended data needs to show original coding and update with reason.
Attendance practice should be based on positive relationships with students and families (based on dignity and respect).
Schools can explain to their families that they have a safeguarding duty towards CYP on their role and will have procedures in place to follow up attendance when the whereabouts of a child are not known as this in then viewed as a safeguarding concern.
Schools should use relationships with families to build an understanding regarding reasons for non-attendance when it becomes a concern.
When barriers to attendance are in schools – plans should be made in collaboration with home to address barriers identified.
When barriers are mainly home based, schools should help co-ordinate wider support networks and signpost families to access voluntary support and review
If absence difficulties intensify so should support in collaboration with local authority and other supporting professionals (August 2024 DfE advice used the phrase ‘support first’ for attendance guidance for schools).
Early intervention and support is vital and if some services have long waiting lists, interim support should be planned
Parents can report their child absent from school for medical reasons even without medical ‘proof’ and schools should take a conversation about the illness from the parent as evidence to record the absence as illness (code I).
‘Support first’. Attendance prosecution is described as a last resort where all other routes have been exhausted or deemed inappropriate. (p38).
Part time timetables.*
*Reduced Educational Provision Guidance CBC, October 2023. https://centralbedfordshirecouncil.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/Communications/EepI3rbV8PBGhqSfKjZlkKoBhdqABzZmNtnwtyVetK6amg
DfE (Aug 2024). Working together to improve school attendance: statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities.
Updated Spring term 2025