Attendance Mentoring Programme
"This significant new investment will help thousands of children back into the classroom and marks an important step towards truly turning the tide on persistent absence, helping us drive high and rising standards in every school."
- Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP
Welcome to the official website for the Attendance Mentoring Programme, where you will find information about the latest updates on the Department for Education and Etio’s work towards improving school attendance for thousands of pupils in England.
Our mentors work closely with their assigned school to provide the best possible support to their pupils, ensuring collaboration and communication is at the heart of the school and programme relationship. Data will play a large part in the programme and we aim to utilise it in conjunction with continuous feedback not only to support the longer term understanding of barriers to attendance but to evolve and adapt our delivery to best meet the needs of the pupils.
Our mentoring programme is an expansion of an existing pilot programme, built to assist pupils who are persistently absent from school. We are working across 10 areas in England identified by DfE and a selection of schools from within that area. Each area has an assigned Area Manager who will work collaboratively with local authorities, schools and other key stakeholders to really understand and embed themselves in both the educational landscape and the wider community.
Why are we doing this work?
Attendance mentoring provides support for the pupils who need help to improve their attendance in school, and supporting them to go into school more often, working across 10 priority areas in England. Absence from school can significantly impact the attainment and life outcomes of young people, which is why we are so passionate about this programme and our ability to contribute to the breaking down of barriers to attendance by working with persistently absent pupils through a targeted, one to one mentoring approach.
With identified reduced attainment levels at both KS2 and KS4, an increased chance of falling into risky behaviour that may impact wider communities, alongside a higher likelihood of becoming NEET post-16, ensuring that pupils are given the opportunity to attend school and feel supported is more important than ever.
Who are our delivery partners?
To deliver our goals for attendance mentoring , Etio and the DfE are working in partnership with ImpactEd, The Thrive Approach, Oasis and The Learners Collective . Working together, we are committed to our combined goal of improving attendance for thousands of pupils across England. As experts in education, we will work together to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable young people.
ImpactEd
Our data partners, working with us to ensure that we can access the data both to identify the eligible pupils we can work with but also to provide the data to DfE and the Evaluator to support the measuring of impact.
Thrive
Responsible for delivering the majority of the training for our Attendance Mentors, ensuring they are equipped to support pupils to their maximum potential.
Oasis
Providing bespoke support for pupils, particularly focusing on families and how we can support them in addition to the mentoring.
The Learners Collective
Delivering training to equip mentors with the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver impactful, pupil-led mentorship – with trust and belonging at the core of their practice.