Job description

Job purpose

• To monitor & report on whole-school attendance data, analysing data to identify key areas of concern; working closely with students, staff and parents / carers to reduce levels of absence and act appropriately when persistent absence becomes a safeguarding issue.

• To contribute to the overall ethos, work and aims of the Academy.

Main responsibilities

Administration

• Working with Student Services to ensure daily attendance registers are accurate and complete, and follow up with staff members about any incomplete data.

• Follow up on any unexplained absences with parents / carers, escalating issues as appropriate in line with Academy procedures.

• Initiate and oversee the administration of absence procedures, for example letters home, attendance clinics and engagement with local authorities / other external agencies and partners.

• Manage attendance returns for the school census.

• Manage the process of issuing penalty notices to parents

• Build and refresh knowledge of the Academy’s MIS and other relevant systems.

• Establish and develop a professional service to support the Academy in raising attendance, investigating persistent absences and improving punctuality.

• Advise the Academy on strategies to promote the regular and punctual attendance of all students and assist with the implementation of the strategies.

• Meet with Academy staff, students and parents to identify individual problems and possible solutions.

• To initiate appropriate legal action with the Attendance Improvement Officer (AIO) to ensure the Academy is carrying out its statutory responsibility in respect of students. This will include preparing statements, attending and presenting evidence or request the issuing of penalty notice fines or other legal sanctions and completion of Common Assessment Form (CAF) referrals.

• To liaise and work with other members of AIO as well as other professionals in police, Social Services, Housing, Health and any other statutory and voluntary organisations.

• To manage and prioritise your own workload in line with service requirements.

• To acquire and maintain a working knowledge of the statutory framework relating to school attendance, child employment, child protection and special needs in order to be able to offer informed advice to parents, Academy staff, Trustees and others.

• To support pastoral and learning managers and senior leaders in advising the Academy on all matters relating to attendance and, where necessary, take the lead role in developing work processes to improve school attendance.

Monitoring & reporting

• Maintain accurate records of communications with parents / carers and relevant interventions.

• To keep clear and concise records of all consultations and to write any other reports (i.e., annual action plan and summaries) as required for the Academy.

• Produce and interpret attendance reports for Academy leaders, identifying key statistics, reasons for absence and any patterns of concern.

• Track attendance of vulnerable groups of students and share information with Academy leaders.

• Identify students that need additional support to improve their attendance.

• Work with Academy leaders to identify appropriate interventions to improve attendance for particular groups or individual students.

• Lead daily or weekly check-ins to review progress and the impact of support / interventions.

• Work with Academy leaders to develop and revise the Academy’s attendance policy.

• Implement children missing education (CME) procedures when appropriate.

• Provide regular reports to attendance organisations to raise awareness of emerging at-risk students.

• Use IT systems to produce reports, often to tight timescales, using word processing and record information including statistical data, providing reports to senior leaders and other professionals.

Working with parents / carers

• Coordinate meetings with students and parents / carers to implement interventions and track progress.

• Build positive relations with parents / carers to encourage family involvement in their child’s attendance.

• Identify, and where possible, mitigate potential barriers to attendance in partnership with families.

• Make unsupervised contact with families in their own homes and elsewhere to assess the reasons impacting on the attendance of individual students, facilitating their return or access to regular full-time education provision.

• Promote positive attitudes by students and families towards education and to ensure that parents are made fully aware of their statutory responsibilities.

Safeguarding

• To be fully aware of and carry out all work in line with child protection procedures. This may involve attending case conferences, strategy and planning meetings as well as core groups or other meetings in relation to child protection cases that require input.

• Work in line with statutory safeguarding guidance (e.g. Keeping Children Safe in Education, Prevent) and the Academy’s safeguarding and child protection policies.

• Be alert to when persistent absence becomes a safeguarding concern and early help may be required.

• Work with the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) to promote the best interests of students, including sharing concerns where necessary.

• Promote the safeguarding of all students in the Academy.

Other

• Support and foster the aims of the Academy.

• Make themselves familiar with the contents of the Staff Handbook, the Academy’s aims and policies and endeavour to follow these closely.

• Attend staff meetings, parents’ evenings, INSET sessions and similar important functions both in and out of normal Academy hours, and participate in the main Open Day for prospective parents and students.

• Notify their Line Manager as early as possible if they are going to be absent from the Academy and follow the Academy’s policy for notifying. 

• Attend relevant in-service training each year, at the request of their Line Manager and / or the Headteacher.

• Comply with individual responsibilities, in accordance with the role, for health & safety in the workplace.

• Ensure that all duties and services provided are in accordance with the Academy’s Equal Opportunities Policy.

• To ensure compliance of data protection at all times.

• Take part in the Academy’s performance management scheme and appraisal.

The duties and responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present. This role will be reviewed annually as part of the performance appraisal process and the post holder is expected to accept any reasonable alterations that may from time to time be necessary.

Westfield Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of Children and Young people. To meet this responsibility, we follow a rigorous selection process. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Person specification