Inclusive Attendance & Belonging

A toolkit for schools produced in collaboration with the sector (including schools most effective at improving attendance) provides a suite of adoptable practices, tools and resources which reflect the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

This self-assessment tool has been put together to facilitate the assessment of attendance practice in a local authority against the expectations in the department’s statutory attendance guidance (Working Together to Improve School Attendance), as well as the extent to which data informs the local authority's approach.

This Zones of Regulation poster helps learners recognise and communicate their emotions, supporting self‑regulation and positive behaviour across the school day.

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON!

This resource offers a simple, ready‑to‑use script to help leaders and practitioners explain the difference between first and second order change. Whether supporting colleagues, young people, or partners, the script provides accessible language and practical examples to make these concepts easy to understand and apply. Use it in training sessions, team discussions, or any setting where a shared understanding of meaningful change is important.

This resource supports practitioners to use Kotter’s 8 Steps of Change when tackling school attendance challenges. It offers a practical, structured way to build shared understanding, create momentum, and sustain meaningful improvement. Whether working with staff, pupils, or families, the guidance helps you turn insight into action and lead change that sticks.

COMING SOON!

An educational approach or idea may seem great in principle, but what really matters is how it manifests itself in the day-to-day work of people in education settings. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) guidance on effective implementation and its accompanying resources, help educators select, and embed, evidence-informed approaches in line with their vision for improvement.

These training slides provide a straightforward overview of the Graduated Approach model, supporting practitioners to identify needs early and tailor provision effectively. They offer practical guidance, examples, and prompts to help staff implement inclusive, child‑centred support. Designed as a quick, accessible resource, the slides aim to build confidence, strengthen consistency, and ensure every child and young person receives the right support at the right time.

This one‑page summary brings together the key elements of effective school attendance support, offering a clear and accessible guide for professionals, families, and partners. It outlines the essential principles, responsibilities, and practical steps that help identify barriers early, strengthen relationships with pupils and families, and promote a culture where regular attendance is understood, valued, and achievable. Designed as a quick reference, it supports consistent practice and shared understanding across all who play a role in helping children attend, engage, and thrive in school.

COMING SOON!

What Is the Effect of Poor Sleep on School Performance?

It is widely accepted by sleep experts that a lack of sleep reduces cognitive abilities and can harm academic performance in children and young people.

The majority of research about sleep deprivation has been conducted in adults, but many of the same effects are believed to occur in younger people. Although fewer studies have examined lack of sleep in children and young people, the existing evidence indicates that poor sleep can harm academic achievement in several ways.

A direct way that sleep and academic performance are connected is through effects on mental function. Some known problems associated with lack of sleep include:

• Decreased attention: The ability to concentrate is vital to learning and academic achievement, but insufficient sleep reduces attention and focus.
• Impaired memory: Sleep provides a time for memory encoding, which is when the brain stores and strengthens the recollection of an image or thought. Without adequate sleep, memories may not be properly formed, and it may also be more difficult to accurately recall stored information.
• Slower processing: Short sleep may reduce sharpness, slow reaction time, and hinder the ability to quickly take in and analyse information.
• Reduced sequential thinking: The ability to remember a series of steps, such as in a science experiment or when playing a musical instrument, is reduced when sleep is curtailed.
• Reduced creativity: Creative thinking relies on being able to make connections between diverse ideas, and some research has found that this type of mental activity is harmed by poor sleep. Sleep deprivation can also detract from academic performance because of various effects on mood and behaviour.
• Excessive daytime sleepiness:  Drowsiness during the day, including at school, can have considerable consequences for academic achievement. Dozing off for seconds at a time, known as microsleeps, can occur in the classroom, causing a student to fall asleep at their desk. In addition to interrupting learning, this may be viewed by teachers as a behaviour problem.
• Poor decision making: Limited sleep can hinder the development of the parts of the brain involved in making good decisions, increasing the likelihood of risky or unwise choices that can lead to disciplinary problems in education.
• Aggression: Some research in children has linked sleeping problems to a heightened risk of aggressive behaviour, which may be particularly concerning when combined with sleep deprivation’s effects on mood.
• Irritability and mood: Quality sleep is correlated with healthy emotional regulation, which may make children and young people who fail to get enough sleep more likely to be irritable or upset.
• Hyperactivity: Insufficient sleep can affect attention and is associated with levels of hyperactive behaviour. Sleeping problems may exacerbate the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Depression and Anxiety: In both adults and children, sleep deprivation is associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety, and these conditions can directly affect a child or young person’s overall health and school performance.

Academic achievement is impacted negatively by missing school. Sleeping problems have been linked to increased absenteeism or lateness in school. Behavioural factors may contribute to missed school time, and poor sleep results in physical problems like lethargy, headaches, and pain that may contribute to absences due to illness.

COMING SOON!

A pupil daily attendance checklist can promote better school attendance by helping children build consistent routines and a sense of ownership over their school day. By encouraging pupils to reflect on simple factors—such as preparing their belongings, planning their morning routine, or noting any worries—it supports early identification of barriers that may otherwise lead to absence. The checklist also opens up regular, supportive conversations between pupils and staff, making attendance feel like a shared goal rather than a pressure. Over time, this daily practice can strengthen habits, reduce anxiety, and increase pupils’ confidence in getting to school every day.

PSTB In Action

Scenario:
Teachers have raised concerns about Liam, age 14. He frequently arrives late, appears tired, and has mentioned “lots of stuff going on at home.” His homework completion has dropped significantly.

Headline & Background

“Liam is increasingly late to school, appears tired, and has made comments suggesting possible stress or instability at home. His engagement and homework completion have reduced over the past month.”

Idea Generation

The team generates possible ideas to explore or address the issue, such as:

• Daily pastoral check‑ins
• Contact home to gather more information
• Offer breakfast club access
• Explore Early Help support
• Provide a safe space for Liam to talk
• Speak with his favourite teacher to increase trusted‑adult contact
• Review attendance and behaviour data for patterns
• Ask Liam about sleep routines and wellbeing
• Consult with the SENCO in case learning needs are contributing

Idea Selection

The team selects the most relevant and proportionate ideas:

1. Daily pastoral check‑ins
2. Contact home
3. Offer access to breakfast club
4. Create a trusted‑adult support plan
5. Review data for attendance/behaviour trends

Analyse Benefits and Concerns

Daily pastoral check‑ins

Benefits: Builds a sense of safety and connection; early spotting of increased risk.
Concerns: Could become performative or rushed if staff capacity is stretched.

Contact home

Benefits: Can clarify home situation and identify support needs.
Concerns: Risk of increasing family stress or defensiveness; may not reach parents easily.

Breakfast club access

Benefits: Ensures Liam starts the day with food; encourages punctuality.
Concerns: Liam may feel embarrassed unless framed positively.

Trusted‑adult support plan

Benefits: Builds relational security; increases likelihood of disclosure if needed.
Concerns: Staff availability needs to be reliable.

Review attendance and behaviour data

Benefits: Helps identify patterns that point to underlying causes.
Concerns: No significant patterns may emerge, offering limited insight.

Work Any Critical Concerns

• For the breakfast club, decide to introduce it casually (“We’d love to have you along—lots of students start their day there”).
• For contacting home, the DSL will make the call, using a strengths‑based, non‑judgemental approach.
• For the trusted‑adult plan, the identified teacher confirms availability three days a week, and pastoral team covers the remaining days.

All concerns are considered manageable.

Fierce Conversations (Susan Scott, 2017)

What Do We Mean by a ‘Fierce Conversation’?

A fierce conversation is one in which we step out from behind our assumptions, anxieties, or automatic responses and engage with honesty and clarity. As Susan Scott explains, it is about “coming out from behind ourselves and making the conversation real.”

Scott highlights three key principles:

• Our personal and professional success often hinges on the quality of our conversations.
• The conversation is the relationship; how we communicate shapes trust, collaboration, and outcomes.
• Every conversation involves people, and therefore emotions, perspectives, and needs.

In an education setting, especially when carrying safeguarding responsibilities, these conversations are often the ones we anticipate least. They might involve addressing a concern with a colleague, challenging practice that doesn’t align with safeguarding expectations, or naming a difficult truth that needs to be heard.

A fierce conversation typically:

• involves a topic that feels uncomfortable but necessary
• engages emotions—both yours and the other person’s
• requires clarity, courage, and compassion
• has the potential to strengthen understanding and improve outcomes when handled well

The 7 principles of a fierce conversation are:

1. Master the courage to interrogate reality.
2. Come out from behind yourself into the conversation and make it real.
3. Be here, prepared to be nowhere else.
4. Tackle your toughest challenge today.
5. Obey your instincts.
6. Take responsibility for your emotional wake.
7. Let silence do the heavy lifting.

While these conversations may feel daunting, they are a vital part of creating a culture where safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility—and where concerns are addressed early, openly, and constructively.

7 Steps of a Fierce Conversation

Scott argues that the first 60 seconds are crucial. She provides a seven-step model to take you through the first 60 seconds of your conversation:

Step One: Name the issue. If you have more than one issue, there has been a significant failure on your part.

Step Two: Give one specific example to illustrate the issue.

Step Three: Confess your emotion – this shows that you are involved/affected by the issue and want to see it resolved quickly.

Step Four: Say what you feel is at stake – honestly, no matter how difficult. This will get the individual’s or team’s attention.

Step Five: Admit any involvement you may have had – what contribution you have made to the problem. This is a very important step.

Step Six: Say ‘I want to resolve this with you’ – show you want to move forward together and not to point the blame.

Step Seven: Invite the person to put forward their position – do not say anything and listen without interruption.

It should be possible to summarise the steps in a single sentence.

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON!

These resources are designed to help schools understand and respond to the strengthened focus on attendance within Ofsted’s new 2025 inspection framework. Under the updated approach, attendance is no longer viewed as a standalone datapoint but as a core indicator of school culture, inclusion and pupil experience, with inspectors now examining the reasons behind absence, the systems supporting early intervention, and the effectiveness of leadership oversight. With Attendance and Behaviour now combined into a single evaluation area, schools are expected to demonstrate clear routines, early identification of barriers, and connected pastoral, curriculum and safeguarding practice. These resources will support you to navigate these expectations and strengthen your whole‑school approach to attendance.

attend their education setting and feel settled. A graduated approach simply means we start with the smallest, simplest support first, and only add more help if it is needed. It is a step‑by‑step way of working that makes sure a child or young person gets the right support at the right time, without becoming overwhelmed.

The process begins by noticing early signs of worry and offering light‑touch help. If things don’t improve, it may be necessary to move to the next step, working closely with children, young people, and their families to understand what is making education attendance challenging. As the support builds, more people may become involved — such as health services, social care, or community teams — but extra help is only introduced when it is truly needed.

COMING SOON!

This booklet, created by the Wirral NHS 0-19 Team, is designed to support parents and carers in helping children develop the key skills they need for a positive and confident start to school. This resource gives practical ideas to build a child's independence, wellbeing, communication, and early learning in everyday moments at home. By nurturing these skills ahead of starting school, parents and carers can help children feel ready, settled, and excited for the adventures that school will bring.

The Greater Manchester Transition Charter sets out a shared commitment to ensuring that every child experiences a smooth, supported journey between key education stages—laying the foundations for positive attendance from day one. By bringing schools, services, families, and communities together around consistent principles and expectations, the charter promotes early identification of potential barriers, coordinated planning, and nurturing relationships that help pupils feel confident, included, and ready to attend. It’s a practical framework designed to strengthen continuity, reduce anxiety, and ensure every young person is equipped to thrive as they move forward in their education.