This half day masterclass has been designed to support schools with tackling persistent and severe absence. You’ll leave with a full understanding of your obligations as well as practical strategies that you can implement straight away.
Persistent and severe absence remains one of the most urgent challenges facing schools today. Since the pandemic, absence rates have risen sharply, with growing numbers of pupils missing significant amounts of education - or disengaging entirely.
Schools cannot address this issue in isolation.
This focused half-day masterclass will equip you with the insight, strategies and collaborative approaches needed to tackle persistent absence effectively in your setting. Drawing on the latest guidance, Working together to improve school attendance, you will explore both the why behind absence and the how of driving sustainable improvement. T
his interactive masterclass also provides opportunities for discussion and virtual networking, enabling you to learn from others facing similar challenges.
By the end of the session, you will leave with practical ideas and a clearer strategy to improve attendance and re-engage pupils in learning.
Key Learning Objectives
During the session, you will:
Understand the link between persistent absence and pupil attainment
Identify the underlying drivers of absence using meaningful data analysis
Explore practical strategies for working in partnership with families, colleagues and wider services
Learn how national expectations and guidance can support long-term improvement
Gain insight from peer practice and international approaches to attendance challenges
Facilitator
Joanne became an “accidental” Education Welfare Officer (EWO) in January 2000 after finding herself in a 3-month contract that has become a 22+ year career.
From 2000 to 2005 Joanne was employed as an EWO and allocated to a range of primary and secondary schools. In 2005 she took on the post of Primary Project Manager, managing a small team of Assistant Education Welfare Officers, in a BIP funded project with a focus to improve attendance using a combination of strategic, casework and preventative project work in a number of Primary Schools. It was at this time seeing the success of this approach that she became further convinced about the importance of a whole school strategic approach to improve attendance (based on a clear understanding of attendance data), coupled with casework undertaken within the legal framework. In 2010 she became Senior Education Welfare Officer and then in 2013 Acting Chief Education Welfare Officer. In both roles the use of attendance data, and upskilling EWOs and School’s in understanding and using attendance data to develop a strategic plan to improve attendance has been a focus. She was involved in delivering the CWDC induction to Education Welfare Officers regionally, and the LDSS NVQ for Education Welfare Officers regionally both as course tutor and assessor and again seized opportunities to promote the use of attendance data in understanding and improving school attendance. In October 2015 with two partners Joanne established CSAWS (Central School Attendance and Welfare Service ltd). CSAWS is a team of proactive, passionate Education Welfare Officers. They are committed to achieving better outcomes for children by securing regular attendance at school. They understand the reasons behind non-school attendance can be varied and complex. We offer support to schools and settings to identify and improve school attendance including reviewing, refining, and advising on school approaches and processes.
