Working together to improve school attendance
How
Guidance for schools, academy trusts, governing bodies and local authorities shouldon maintainmaintaining high levels of school attendance.
attendance, including roles and responsibilities.
- From:
-
- Published
- 6 May 2022
- Last updated
-
9
19JuneAugust20262024— See all updates
Applies to England
Documents
Working together to improve school attendance
PDF, 943 KB, 94 pages
Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance
PDF, 264 KB, 14 pages
Annex A: example attendance letters and emails to parents and carers
ODT, 8.42 KB
This file is in an OpenDocument format
Guidance for parents on school attendance - Office of the Children's Commissioner
https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/back-into-school/resources-for-families/
Details
This statutory guidance is for:
- maintained schools
- academies
- independent schools
- local authorities
It outlinesis howdesigned youto:
helpareschools,expectedtrusts,togoverningbodiesandlocalauthoritiesIt also summarises:
attendancesummarise- how
summariseyouthecan support familiesthatshouldbeprovidedtofamilies,to providedetailsofavailabletoprovidedetailsofarerequiredto
The guidanceFurther oninformation, RISEincluding supporta forrange improvingof attendancetechniques in schools includes resources for schoolsimproving toattendance improveand attendance.
The Children’s Commissioner has also published guidance for parents on schoolgood attendancepractice. is available.
Updates to this page
Last updated 9
-
Updated to remove outdated resources, and to clarify that this is statutory guidance.
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Update history
2026-06-09 09:30
Updated to remove outdated resources, and to clarify that this is statutory guidance.
2024-08-19 10:00
Updated the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance to clarify: independent schools are not required to submit daily data to the Department; penalty amount for children present in public places whilst excluded from school; supervision requirements for approved educational activities; and statistical meaning for code C2. Added further guidance on the use of code E, code Q, code Y6 and code Y7. Made corrections and updates to formatting and paragraph and chapter references. No changes were made to policy.
2024-03-07 15:20
Updated the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance that applies from 19 August 2024 to correct regulation references in points 218, 219, 286, 317, 369 and 377. No changes were made to policy.
2024-02-29 10:42
Added ‘Working together to improve school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024’ and ‘Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024’. The status of these documents will be statutory as of that date.
2023-09-05 14:15
Added ‘Toolkit for schools: communicating with families to support attendance’ and ‘Annex A: example attendance letters and emails to parents and carers’.
2023-08-01 13:42
Added link to guidance on school attendance for parents.
2023-04-18 16:57
Added a link to a source of further information on improving attendance.
2022-05-06 11:00
First published.