Cumbria Education Trust is pleased to announce that Workington Academy has been designated as a lead school in the roll-out of a new national attendance initiative.
The government’s Department for Education (DfE) will shortly issue all schools with ‘attendance baseline improvement expectations’ – minimum attendance targets informed by artificial-intelligence analysis of each school’s context (including location, pupil needs and deprivation).
While these targets will not be published or used directly by Ofsted, schools that do not meet them will be referred for support through the regional RISE (Regional Improvement for Standards & Excellence) behaviour and attendance hubs. Workington Academy will play a leadership role in this agenda, helping to guide best practice, support other schools in the region and raise standards of attendance across the Trust and beyond.
Mark Bedford, Headteacher at Workington Academy, commented, “We are fully committed to supporting schools in developing their strategic priorities to deliver good and improving attendance for all pupils. Alongside this, we are able to provide strong leadership on developing relational approaches to improving behaviour.
“Workington Academy has developed a robust set of systems and processes to tackle poor attendance and behaviour, working with a range of agencies to provide a safety net for families. We work in collaboration with all stakeholders to support every young person to attend, engage and fulfil their potential.”
We believe that by working together, sharing expertise and raising expectations for attendance, we can ensure every pupil is present, engaged and thriving. We look forward to the positive impact the programme will have for pupils, families and schools across the region.
You can read the full article from Schools Week here – Attendance: AI-generated targets to be set for all schools