It has been wonderful to see the positive professional conversations that have helped in securing better attendance that always has been, and continues to be, a day-to-day challenge for schools across the trust. Schools do their best to encourage good attendance, however illness is a factor due to Covid and seasonal viruses, but on top of that there are high levels of pupil stress and anxiety, which are not helped by very long waits for specialist mental health services, and disengagement amongst pupils who have never quite recovered the habit of regular attendance following the pandemic. Improving attendance is key to boosting attainment and evidence shows pupils with higher attendance tend to have higher attainment across all key stages.

The Trust however are ahead of national figures in terms of attendance average and continue to be part of helping to shape the landscape across the county. Consortium are part of a group that are helping to address attendance in Ipswich, using our expertise and alongside others to develop and support improvement for our county. Nationally we have a voice and meet with the Dfe to support policy in this area. Other trusts come to us to seek advice and support. We have clear expectations as defined below which are supported by legislation and our schools

• Clarity of expectations: all Schools in the trust will all have clearly defined statutory roles  as set out in a table of responsibilities
• Earlier intervention: all Schools will have legal responsibilities to proactively improve attendance (to record accurately) underpinned by timelier sharing of attendance data
• Support first: all pupils and parents, no matter where they live, will have clear expectations from their school, be regularly informed about their child’s attendance and have access to early intervention and support first before any legal action if it becomes problematic
• Targeted whole family support: the trust will work in tandem with early help to provide a whole-family response and plan to support your children’s return

However, want we want to say is a big thank you all, children, parents/carers, school staff for understanding and supporting attendance. Remember a child only spends 190 days a year in school and the more they are there the more they achieve, not only academically, but socially too.

Thank you.