In Rochdale, headteachers like me lead our schools with a clear commitment to our locality and the needs of our learners. Our dedication to Raising Rochdale’s ‘grow up, get on and live well’ initiative is paramount to our values as educators.
Forty per cent of children live in poverty in our region – one of the highest rates in the UK. At Matthew Moss High School, part of the Watergrove Trust, our proportion of free-school-meal-eligible (FSM) students, students with EHCPs and English as an additional language are all above the national average.
Like so many others, we’ve faced significant barriers to attendance. For us, valuing how our families experience belonging in our locality is crucial to how we understand and address absence challenges.
Over the past two years, we’ve further supported vulnerable children drawing on Rochdale’s involvement in the LocalED 2025 initiative. Lifting the lid on attendance through needs-focused, holistic approaches like this has further highlighted to us the importance of trauma-informed support and prioritising the child’s voice.
Our approach based on empathy, trust and co-construction with our learners and the education welfare service has helped raise our attendance to within the top 40 per cent nationally. Here are five strategies that have helped us overcome the complex, inter-related barriers to attendance.
Welcome all who attend
As a school, we take pride in building meaningful relationships, fostering trust and mutual respect. All learners and staff are valued, and everyone is seen as equal – never broken or dysfunctional.
To encourage belonging, our pastoral system is structured around five ‘families’ rather than year groups.
And when learners return after absence, they are greeted and welcomed warmly, as part of an inclusive culture rooted in the relational theory of transactional analysis.
Know your community
Building trust requires a solid starting point. For us, that comes from taking time to know our learners so they feel listened to and equipped to overcome challenges.
This knowledge is data-informed. We create short overview profiles of how best staff can work with learners, referencing any specific or additional learning needs, requirements, adjustments and more.
Learners are guided to understand the value of attending school every day and our wrap-around care prioritises engagement with families through positive interactions.
Make attendance everyone’s business
Everyone has a role in improving attendance, supported by a structured approach, CPD and staff training aligned with safeguarding guidance. This includes associate staff who play such a vital part in our pastoral outreach.
We share attendance details through inclusion meetings, co-creating bespoke support and reintegration plans, and celebrate the impact of positive work together.
Attendance is also the business of learners, which is why we co-construct attendance goals together. Each term, students receive data, analyse their own absences, and set achievable targets for improvement, helping them take ownership of their learning journey.
Reshape practices
Empowered staff need impactful processes to make big changes. Our own comprehensive attendance trackers enable staff to access live information relevant to specific cohorts. All professionals can monitor attendance and apply consistent support through our graduated approach and proactive strategies.
We maintain strong relationships with the local authority through regular milestone meetings and sub-attendance groups, accessing bespoke education welfare service packages to deploy resources for maximum impact.
Our open-door policy for professionals includes CAMHS, the school nurse team, alternative provision and virtual school networks. This allows us to synchronise our work to meet individuals’ needs.
Embed emotional support
Our compassionate and practical approach makes strategic use of pupil premium funding, mental health resources, partnerships and a focus on relationships to help learners feel safe and supported. This is complemented by a simple, accessible wellbeing and mental health page on our website.
We also facilitate connection through internal provision for learners who are severely absent, and/or struggling due to a medical need. This offers targeted, personalised education for learners made vulnerable by mental health or wellbeing barriers, and can incorporate holistic solutions such as sensory breaks and time-out passes.
To create environments where every learner can ‘achieve and thrive’ we must remove the barriers to attendance, whether emotional, financial or systemic. These five strategies help us do just that.
How Rochdale is tackling severe absence will be discussed at LocalED’s ‘Locality Working in Education’ conference on 30 January. Learn more here
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