The Education Endowment Foundation’s ‘Supporting School Attendance – Planning and Reflection tool’ uses a practical and evidence-based framework to support schools with taking a holistic approach to improve attendance.

This tool was developed following their report which summarised 72 international studies which focused on school approaches to improving attendance. The main findings were that:

• There is some evidence of promise for parental communication and engagement approaches and responsive interventions that meet the individual needs of the pupils.
• The interventions that show promise take a holistic approach in understanding pupils and their specific need, and address the specific barriers to attendance that have been identified.

The tool is split into 6 themes, informed by this research, and aims to guide leaders to reflect on their current processes and practices, to support them with considering different approaches to improve attendance.