by Steph Glenister, Lead Content Editor, The Key
As we work with trust c-suites, we often see that central teams have a good understanding of schools’ challenges. However, the larger the trust, the more challenging it can be to have a practical understanding of the challenges frontline colleagues are facing.
At The Key, we’re in the unique position of serving 14,000 schools. Last year, those schools made nearly 650,000 searches on our websites, giving us great insights into the changing needs and challenges faced by school leaders. Recently, we shared some of these major trends at Forum Strategy’s National #TrustLeaders CEO and COO network meetings to provide an additional layer of context for trust central teams wanting to best support their schools.
Attendance: a persistent concern
One of the persistent challenges highlighted by our data is attendance. With the recent news that nearly one-third of UK secondary pupils are missing school due to anxiety, it’s not surprising that attendance issues are a top priority for school leaders.
Our analysis reveals a shift towards addressing attendance on a case-by-case basis. This more nuanced approach is reflected in the increased interest in our articles focusing on understanding these barriers and implementing targeted strategies.
We’ve also seen a similar emphasis on attendance in our dedicated Q&A service, which sees school and trust leaders come to us directly for answers to their specific questions. When it comes to attendance, schools frequently ask about intervention thresholds (such as how many absences warrant action), request letters for specific purposes, and seek clarification on attendance figure reporting – for example, in scenarios like managed moves.
“With the recent news that nearly one-third of UK secondary pupils are missing school due to anxiety, it’s not surprising that attendance issues are a top priority for school leaders.”
In reviewing feedback on our content, we’ve observed that schools find strategies tailored to individual cases particularly valuable, alongside our policy-focused content. Notably, there has been an uptick in schools seeking to appoint attendance officers. And headteachers recruiting these roles are keen on interview questions about effectively communicating attendance expectations to pupils, engaging with hard-to-reach parents, and persuading pupils who are apprehensive about attending school.
What’s noteworthy about this for CEOs is that having a trust-wide attendance policy only goes so far; schools often require context-specific support. There’s real importance in assessing whether each school within the trust is grappling with similar attendance challenges, or whether individual schools need tailored assistance to address their unique circumstances.