Senior Attendance Lead
Grace College
Gateshead
- Expired
- Salary:
- Competitive
- Job type:
- Full Time, Permanent
- Start date:
- To be confirmed
- Apply by:
- 17 February 2025
Job overview
At Grace College, we are committed to addressing the national challenge of improving school attendance, particularly in the context of post-pandemic recovery. We are looking for a passionate and visionary leader to help drive change within our school community and ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed through consistent school attendance.
As a Senior Attendance Lead, you will be responsible to the Assistant Vice Principal: Student Support for leading, championing and improving school attendance to ensure that students attend and that 97% attendance is the norm for most students, with a particular emphasis on:
- Supporting the AVP in setting a clear vision for improving and tackling absence through the leadership of the school’s improving attendance strategy
- Making sure all teaching and non-teaching staff know the importance of good attendance, are consistent in their communication with students and parents, and receive the training and professional development they need
- Setting high expectations for the attendance and punctuality of all students and communicating these regularly to students and parents through all available channels
- Visibly demonstrating the benefits of good attendance through school life, including through visual culture, Good Morning Grace and tutor activities and assemblies
You will be responsible for establishing and maintaining effective systems for recording and responding to daily absences and making sure these processes are followed by all staff, liaising with students, parents/carers and external agencies where needed. This will include:
- Line managing the Attendance Support Officers to ensure that when students do not attend college, action is taken in line with the attendance policy to ensure students are safe
- Ensuring that the Attendance Support Officers and the Attendance Administrator maintain an accurate school attendance register through regular quality assurance, using this information to report to external agencies where necessary, including the local authority
- Overseeing the Child Missing in Education (CME) processes, statutory reporting of medical absence and legal intervention to ensure that when absence is prolonged, this is addressed in line with statutory guidance
You will also ensure that absence from school does not impact continuity of learning by having a strong grasp of attendance data through regular monitoring and analysis and implementing intervention. Students whose attendance is of concern will be addressed and improved, with an emphasis on:
- Analysing attendance data each day to ensure that appropriate action is being taken to address poor attendance, strategically deploying Attendance Support Officers to areas of need
- Using data to ensure that for students whose attendance is poor, the staged response outlined in the attendance policy is followed, reporting regularly to the Senior Leadership Team on attendance data, improvements and actions required to address this
- Building strong relationships with parents/carers when students regularly do not attend and working with them to create intervention and curriculum reintegration plans, reporting to the Senior Leadership Team on the efficacy and impact of these strategies, including visiting the home when necessary
Salary: The salary will be competitively placed on the leadership spine for a successful applicant who holds QTS up to a maximum of L10 (£62,224). We are also inviting applications from applicants who do not hold QTS but have suitable and equivalent experience and qualifications; the successful applicant would be placed at a competitive salary point on the support staff scale.
As an 11–19 secondary school serving nearly 1,300 students in central Gateshead, we have a clear vision for excellence in character education, the examined curriculum and in service to our community, grounded in our strong Christian ethos. We are part of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation, which opens exceptional opportunities for knowledge sharing and career development. We have a clear model for school improvement to provide an outstanding education for all students and are relentless in the pursuit of this goal. You will be central to delivering our strategy as you transform both the school and our students’ futures.
Join us, and in addition to working with committed and helpful colleagues, the Trust can offer access to the following benefits:
- Defined benefit pension scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Access to our exclusive Benefits Hub
- Daily lunch allowance
- Free parking
- Employee-centred and family-friendly policies and practices that support you in and beyond the workplace
- Enhanced sick pay, maternity leave and paternity leave (dependent on length of service)
- Cycle scheme
- Funded eye tests and glasses for DSE users (subject to T/Cs)
For further information and to apply, please click here.
Closing date: 9.00am on 17th February 2025.
Interview date: w/c 17th February 2025.
Grace College is committed to the safeguarding of children and all staff are expected to ensure that the College is a safe and secure environment for our students. All applicants are referred to the Safeguarding Statement, which is to be found within the Policy section of the Grace College website.
About Grace College
Grace College is an 11-19 secondary school serving over 1200 students in central Gateshead. The school is committed to creating an outstanding learning community where students excel in their academic, cultural, co-curricular and personal lives. The College joined the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) in April 2019 as the fifth school providing a holistic education focused on developing character in and beyond the classroom. ESF seeks to: provide and support schools in which students and staff have the opportunity to work hard to achieve their personal best; encourage personal, moral and spiritual development within a Christian framework and create and sustain educational environments where everyone is equally valued.
Our schools are committed to assisting economic regeneration and prosperity in the north-east, and to improve the quality of community life through our work with young people. We aspire to impart wisdom to the next generation by educating young men and women in a school culture which prioritises the pursuit of knowledge and the development of character. We serve communities of students, staff and parents who hold many different religious and ideological positions who unite around our core beliefs and core values, which are underpinned by our Christian ethos.
We value academic excellence, but we hold personal best to be of far greater importance. It is our experience that by developing a strong work ethic, holding a growth rather than fixed mind-set, and being provided with outstanding tuition, students may go on to achieve considerably more than they might have imagined possible. We seek to be intentional about character education, our aim being that our students will, in the future, become servant-hearted leaders. Students starting here encounter consistent rules, role models and traditions, which help them feel part of the college community and to begin to take responsibility for others. As students grow older we expect more of them and in the Sixth Form expect our students to take on at least one formal leadership role in the college as well as beginning to serve in the wider community.
Our hope is that all students leave the college as well-rounded, qualified individuals who are able to articulate a viewpoint and back it up with substantial knowledge and understanding. Students are encouraged to achieve academic excellence to access first-rate employment opportunities or to gain access to outstanding universities across the country.
Grace College provides opportunities for colleagues to collaborate and develop professionally with others across ESF. We are committed to an extensive, high quality programme of professional development and to opportunities for career progression. Working within ESF provides an ideal opportunity for ambitious educators who aspire to future senior leadership and will benefit from input through our National Teaching School designation.
If you share our passion for excellence and would like to find out more then please contact us to make arrangements to visit the school.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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