Management Information Sheet
Improving School Attendance and Tackling Truancy
The DfES announced during the Autumn Term 2004 the Government's commitment to improve attendance. A key element, highlighted the proposed strategy to improve school attendance and tackle truancy, is the important relationship attendance has with pupil attainment and raising school standards.
As part of the Government's strategy local authority schools are required to set annual attendance targets. Within this process local authorities will need to agree targets with individual schools in their authority, collecting targets and submit them to the DfES annually. You will have received recently a letter from me (MI 39/05) detailing the new statutory requirements and the process for collecting annual targets.
To support this process we are arranging briefing meetings to discuss government strategy for attendance. A series of briefing meetings will be held at the Norwich Professional Development Centre and West Norfolk Professional Development Centre. Please could you nominate a representative from your school to attend one of the briefing meetings as it is important that the DfES strategy is fully explained and we can support you in adhering to the new statutory requirements. Please could you complete on the Website http://www.esinet.norfolk.gov.uk/advisory/attendbrief/default.asp and indicate a first and second choice of venue and date and as soon as all replies are received, confirmation of the meeting you will be attending will be sent to you.
If you have any further questions about this matter please do not hesitate to contact Terry Cook at the Norfolk Education Advisory Services, Professional Development Centre, Woodside Road, Norwich, NR7 9QL, Telephone 01603-433276 Ext 178.