ABSTRACT
All schools have children who are sometimes absent for reasons other than a strictly ‘unavoidable’ cause. As is outlined in Chapter 3, a great deal can be done by staff, with sensitivity, good organisation and proactive intervention with both pupils and parents, to ensure that promoting good attendance is at the heart of the school’s ethos. Much of the time, this range of responses will be sufficient to deal with the overall strategic tasks and the vast majority of individual children’s situations. But for some schools, and for some children, wider and more complex issues are a major element of their absence profile, so rather more will be required.
