Teach-Primary-Issue-19.4

www.teachwire.net | 37 L E ADERSH I P C ornwall Education Learning Trust (CELT), along with many schools across the country, is focusing on improving attendance rates, bringing them back to pre- Covid levels. Keen to make a real change, we dug straight in with some data analysis, and found we needed to investigate SEND children’s attendance before we developed an overall strategy. Essentially, we knew we needed to do things differently. First things first We challenged ourselves with the following theory of change: If we foster trusting, respectful relationships with our communities and families focused on a shared commitment to the children, then we will be better informed, and develop deeper, more effective relationships to provide support and challenge. More children will feel a sense of belonging, be motivated to access school and achieve highly. Our work has initially focused on the town of St. Austell, which includes one of our primary schools and one secondary school. Although, when we shared our theory with our SENDCos, several other schools within our Trust were keen to engage. The first step was to really listen to our parents of children with SEND. We did this in a variety of ways. For example, we met parents individually, held parent/carer cafes and thought carefully about matching staff who had THIS WAY! School improvement advice for headteachers and SLT MIDDLE LEADERS | CPD | SUBJECT LEADERSHIP Improve community relationships? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED