United Kingdom has said a total 14 hubs established, which will support around 800 schools responsible for attendance of 400,000 children, and will start working with schools over the next two weeks for the rest of the academic year.
According to Department of Education on Wednesday who announced addition of four more attendance hubs which are in Nottingham, Grimsby, and two in Swindon and they will support schools across the country.
Hubs are led by schools with excellent attendance which share practical ideas with other primary, secondary, alternative provision and special schools in England who need support to boost their attendance.
The Government has been clear that attendance is everyone’s business and regular attendance is vital for children’s education, wellbeing and long-term development and evidence shows pupils with higher attendance tend to have higher attainment across all key stages.
The new hubs are St Giles Special School in Nottingham, John Whitgift Academy in Grimsby and Ridgeway School and Sixth Form and The Croft Primary School both in Swindon while the lead hub schools share practical approaches to improving attendance with other schools.
This could include advice about how to make their school warm and welcoming, building strong relationships with families, working effectively with wider services where there’re complex reason for absence, and using data to identify pupils at risk of not coming in, to intervene early.
Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan reacting to this development said: “Being at school helps children grow in confidence and ensure they get the education they need to reach their full potential.
“That is why we are doing everything in our power to ensure children don’t miss out on these precious years that only happen once in a lifetime.
“We are delighted to expand our ground breaking attendance hubs and continue to work with the wider sector through the Attendance Action Alliance to further reduce absence”, the Secretary added.
Recall govt’s mission to tackle barriers to attendance, announced expansion of the attendance hubs and the attendance mentoring programme in May, to support more schools in England to improve their attendance.
It also established the Attendance Action Alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and allied services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence.
Last month, Schools Minister Nick Gibb urged parents to play their part in continuing to support pupils to go to school, including when they have a minor cough or cold.
The Department also recently published a toolkit for schools providing tips and evidence-based adaptable templates for communicating with parents and carers on attendance.
This is in addition to work with children’s charity Barnardo’s to deliver attendance mentors programme which works directly with persistently absent children and their families to help overcome their specific barriers to attendance and support them back to school.
