New to Role School Attendance Officer

Course introduction

Effective attendance management is key to improving attendance and ensuring all children have access to education. Attendance Officers play a crucial role in managing, monitoring and improving attendance, yet training is often received ‘on the job’. During the course common scenarios will be examined and best approaches discussed. There will also be opportunities to discuss specific challenges of the work and role with the trainer and to network with others.

What we will cover throughout the day

• Understand the context of your work in relation to the latest DFE Guidance and the bigger picture and why this is important;

• Have a clear perception of your role and responsibilities within your setting and the role of others in attendance management;

• Build confidence in how to manage and use data productively;

• Ensuring registration practices are compliant and meet legal requirements;

• Know the codes and their statistical meaning;

• Understanding different types of absence - authorised, unauthorised, persistent and severe absence;

• Understand the links between Attendance and Safeguarding.

Target audience

Do you work directly or indirectly with students and parents to improve school attendance, new to the School Attendance Officer Role and/or are looking to develop more confidence and skills? Then this online course is for you!

This course is designed for anyone who is new to role and/or responsible for attendance in schools and academies; and any colleague who supports positive attendance in school.

Trainers for this course

Victoria Franklin

Senior Education Welfare Consultant - CQSW ILM

Victoria Franklin is an Attendance Management Consultant working across all phases of education with a remit to raise whole school attendance. Victoria qualified from Bristol University a...s a social worker with a focus on education and has 30+ years of working in education settings including Local Authorities/Multi Academy Trusts and schools. Victoria has developed systems and procedures to help organisations become more effective in the management of attendance. (Including several Local Authorities holding authority wide specialist responsibility for school attendance improvement and data analysis.) The interface of where policy meets practice, and the use of data are particular areas of interest.

Victoria has developed and successfully implemented a strategy around coding to help schools understand and analyse the impact of coding decisions on attendance levels. Victoria is a freelance trainer and produces and delivers highly successful national training events for several training companies on attendance related issues and consistently achieves outstanding evaluations. She is a regular contributor to the Attendance Matters magazine.

Victoria is President of NASWE -National Association of Support workers in Education www.naswe.org.uk – a professional association promoting the welfare and school attendance of children since 1884. This involves meetings with the DFE to discuss policy and practice, being involved in consultation work for example working with Lord Soley regarding his proposed private members bill on regulations for Home Education and linking with other national organisations in areas of research, policy, and practice. Victoria is a member of INSA (International Network for School Attendance www.insa.network) and contributes to the INSA website as one of the UK (England) representatives.She took part as a presenter at the inaugural conference In Oslo in October 2019.

Other related interests include Chair of the Management Committee of Bristol Hospital Education service.Read more

See what others have to say about us

Really good mix of new ideas and making me feel better about what I am already doing. I've been an AO for about four years and this is my first training so thank you, really enjoying it.

@nsmtc thank you so much for today's informative course. Feeling ready to get back into school tomorrow and get my attendance high priority and for everyone to understand attendance is everyone's business.

I found that this course gave me a lot of relevant advice about how it improve attendance and promote good relationships between the school and parents.

About the venue

Stay at home, get comfortable and enjoy our live interactive course via Zoom! You’ll receive the link a few days before the course date so you can get prepared (and excited) ahead of time.

Handy course logistics

• The course will run via Zoom from 9:30 am – 3:00 pm, however, the trainer will be available 15 minutes before and after the course times to answer any questions.
• You’ll receive mid-morning, lunch and afternoon breaks to re-energise.
• This course is designed to be interactive and inclusive. We welcome questions and discussions throughout and we want you to be comfortable and stress-free no matter where you join us from!
• Your course pack includes handouts, an M&S voucher for food, a snack, a pen and a notepad – we’ll send this to you before the day. Please note this is only for UK-based participants, international attendees will receive the pack via email.
• Additional links and information will be emailed to you before and during the course.
• This course is also available as an in-house / INSET training session at your school. Contact us for details.
• Please Note – the cost is per person