Attendance is one of the biggest challenges facing education today. In 2022 the Department for Education (DfE) began piloting attendance hubs, which enable schools with strong attendance practices to share their approaches with other schools to help them improve.
We are pleased to announce that two Meridian Trust schools have been chosen by the DfE to become two of the nine new attendance hubs announced by the DfE. After putting our trust forward to be part of the initiative and an assessment of our data, the DfE chose Ely College and Bar Hill Primary School to be the lead schools for our trust attendance hub, supported by Sharon Templeman, Trust Attendance & Welfare Leader.
Sharon said: ‘Although this is a significant piece of work when pressures in education are already high, we felt that it was an exciting and important initiative to be involved in. The landscape of attendance has changed dramatically post-pandemic. This means it’s even more important that we positively promote attendance approaches that not only ensure children’s right to education is preserved, but also that responds in a compassionate way and builds strong relationships with our communities.
“We believe that securing positive relationships alongside clear expectations and robust systems all has an impact on improving overall attendance. This approach requires a whole-school focus to ensure that good relationships and clear messaging is received in every interaction our children and families have.
“Our approach promotes removing barriers to learning from the root cause to support children to attend and therefore flourish in their learning and personal success. It is crucial that the school environment is somewhere children feel safe and want to go and this is created by generating emotional connection with staff, subjects, and peers and placing the child at the centre of all we do.”
Schools who join the hub have access to half-termly virtual meetings run by Ely College and Bar Hill Primary School as an opportunity to share practice and discuss shared challenges with others. Each school will also have access to a web portal which Sharon is currently creating with our core IT department and the schools involved. The portal will provide schools with an outline of our approach to attendance, information, processes, policies, templates, tools and supportive instructions on how the processes work.
Support is open to all state-maintained schools including primary, secondary, special schools and alternative provision providers and is intended for senior leaders with oversight of attendance. If you’re interested in learning more please contact enquiries@meridiantrust.co.uk.