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“There has been a paradigm shift in the view of parents. Pre Covid, ensuring your child’s daily attendance at school was seen as a fundamental element of good parenting. Post Covid, parents no longer felt that to be the case, and instead view attending school as one of several – often competing – options or demands on their child on a daily basis, against a backdrop of a more holistic approach to daily life.”
Listening to, and learning from, parents in the attendance crisis, September 2023
“Parents from poorer families expressed a fundamental mistrust of schools. They do not think that schools and teachers have the best interests of their children at heart. Many of them identified their children as having varying challenges which would impact on their schooling, such as SEN, being bullied, or being long-term sick. They did not feel supported by schools in tackling or improving these issues.”
Listening to, and learning from, parents in the attendance crisis, September 2023
Improving school attendance looks set to remain at the tops of the government’s agenda for 2024. Research shows that effective engagement between schools and parents* can lead to increased attendance, as well as improved outcomes.
Building strong relationships through identification and removal of barriers to engagement is crucial in the battle to decrease absence rates, particularly for students with severe and persistent absence.
Join us for this virtual conference for a full day of discussion surrounding parental engagement and attendance. You’ll come away with a deeper understanding of how you can work to improve your day-to-day communication with all parents. You will consider in detail the issues surrounding harder to reach parents to help you understand their barriers to engagement and what steps you can take to remove these.
*The term parents is used throughout for conciseness, but should be read to include all carers.
Who should attend?
Headteachers, Assistant Heads, Deputy Heads, Governors, Attendance Officers, Education Welfare Officers, Pastoral Leads, Designated Safeguarding Leads and Deputy DSLs.
This conference will enable you to:
Ensure you are up-to-date on the latest guidance and regulation in the attendance, as well as a look at what is on the horizon for the next 12 months
Understand what the current guidance says about working with parents and families
Get to grips with the fundamentals of parental engagements and how it can benefit attendance rates
Ensure that your day-to-day communication surrounding attendance is as effective as possible and following best practice
Get top tips on what does and doesn’t work to engage parents
Identify common barriers for engagement across different groups
Take steps to engage with hard-to-reach parents, using alternatives to typical engagement measures
Work effectively with parents where children have poor attendance due to mental health issues
