Attendance Support Officer

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**1. MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB**
To support students with poor attendance by offering a highly bespoke package, liaising appropriately with families and removing any significant barriers to attending school.

**2. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES, TASKS & DUTIES**:
**Attendance**

i To work closely with families and students to remove any significant barriers to attending school.

Ii To work closely with the attendance administrator to analyse patterns, intervening when necessary.

iii To liaise with the relevant pastoral teams, providing updates on specific students with regard to their attendance.

iv To work with external agencies and attend relevant meetings where improving attendance is the primary concern.

**Student well-being**

i To ensure that student well-being is properly monitored, recorded and reported to the relevant members of the Pastoral Team.

ii To liaise with external agencies regarding student well-being as necessary.

Iii To liaise with the pastoral teams and the SENDCO in relation to student well-being as necessary.

iv To liaise with parents in relation to student well-being as necessary.

**General**

i To ensure that student records are up to date and accurate and that all statutory requirements are met.

Ii To attend daily work-flow meetings with the Deputy Headteacher, Care & Inclusion

**3. SUPERVISION / MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE**
No. reporting - Direct: None Indirect: None

**4. CREATIVITY & INNOVATION**
- Subject to supervision, established procedures, practices and routines, the postholder is required to use initiative to manage their own workload and to respond in creative ways to different situations.
- Will be required to deal with complex problems as they arise when dealing with student attendance and punctuality.
- The postholder will follow documented school procedures and legal guidelines in relation to students such as the Home Visits and Lone Working guidelines and DfE guidance on the use of reasonable force.
- Ability to give advice to and seek information from students/parents on a daily basis.
**5. CONTACTS & RELATIONSHIPS**
- Dealing with issues which may not be straightforward and may require diplomacy and tact to resolve, particularly in relation to contact with some of the most behaviourally challenged students in the school.
- Meets students and parents in potentially stressful situations.
- Communicates effectively with students, parents, external agencies, all colleagues, especially school Pastoral Team, Senior Leadership Team and Subject Leaders, to enable information to be shared in a confident, calm and firm manner.
- Takes part in team, whole school and multi-agency meetings, including meetings with
Police and Social Services.

**6. DECISIONS - discretion & consequences**
- Judgement is required when providing solutions to problems:

- Decides when to intervene to deal with issues affecting attendance and punctuality as they arise.
- Decides how to manage immediate issues affecting attendance and punctuality on and off the school site.
- Decides when to seek additional support and advice, depending upon the possible gravity of individual situations.

**7. RESOURCES - financial & equipment**:

- (Not budget, and not including desktop equipment.) _
Description Value
Normal Office Equipment

**8. WORK ENVIRONMENT - work demands, physical demands, working conditions & work context**
**Work demands**

**Physical demands **
- Work requiring normal physical effort.**Working conditions**
- Mainly working either in a normal office environment or patrolling the school site.
Occasional home visits may be required.
**Work context**
- Work potentially involves some risk to personal safety from a minority of students but postholders must follow school guidance on Lone Working and Home Visits and legal guidelines such as DfE guidance on the use of reasonable force.
**9. KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS**
- A good understanding of the current barriers that students face with regards to attending school
- Knowledge of a range of computer software packages.
- Ability to work under pressure to deadlines.
- Knowledge of Health and Safety issues.
- Ability to input, understand and present data.
- Requires persuasive, influencing skills for dealing with staff, governors, and external agencies.
- Understanding of SEND issues.
- Understanding of Safeguarding issues
- A pro-active record of CPD.
- Full knowledge of Health and Safety policies of the school.
- Knowledge of normal child development and children’s personal development needs.
- Knowledge of strategies that promote good behaviour, discipline and attendance.
- Knowledge of developmental progression in the emotional curriculum.
- Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams.
- Experience of participating fully in planned interventions programmes for children with emotional and behaviour difficulties.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Time management and organisation skills