Attendance
Strategy
2015
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Attendance Strategy
The Manchester College
Attendance Strategy
The Manchester College places a high value on learners’ attendance. We believe
that regular and punctual attendance is an imperative to enable our learners
to achieve their full potential. Research consistently demonstrates the high
correlation between attendance and academic performance and success, while
absence is often the greatest single cause of underperformance and lower
achievement.
This strategy has been produced by The Quality Team and it applies to all
curriculum departments within the college. It is designed to support a relentless
focus on continually improving learners’ attendance and provide a toolkit for
implementing methods of improvement.
All learners should aspire to have 100% attendance and punctuality which will:
• Improve their retention, achievement and success
• Increase the potential for achieving higher grades
• Increase their progression opportunities
• Prepare them better for the world of work
• Strengthen their employability skills and prospects
• Increase their future earnings potential.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Processes for attendance and punctuality monitoring will be continually reviewed
and adjusted where necessary to ensure compliance with The Manchester
College Strategic Plan.
Attendance Strategy 3
Essential standards
• The importance of attending all sessions, arriving punctually and being
prepared for learning will be explained to students during induction to ensure
they are aware of the influence this has on their potential to learn, achieve and
prepare for the world of work whilst at The Manchester College.
• All teachers and personal tutors must monitor the attendance and punctuality
of their students for all sessions, including tutorials, PSD, functional skills and
directed study, ensuring that non- attendance is followed up in line with TMC
attendance policy.
• Students who are late without providing advance notification must be
challenged as to the reason(s) for their lateness and settled into learning
quickly without disruption to other learners. (Their reasons should be recorded
and monitored on the session plan and reviewed in tutorials).
• Students will be offered support to improve their attendance and/or
punctuality through the Behavior Support and/or ‘At Risk’ process. Whenever
appropriate, learners will be set personal targets for improving their
attendance and/or punctuality in their progress reviews and these will be
recorded in their LIP.
• All teachers are responsible for completing their registers electronically at the
start of each session (within the first 10 minutes) and for recording lateness.
• Registers will be monitored for 100% completion on a weekly basis through the
departmental management structure and will be an element captured in the
departmental compliance matrix.
• Attendance and punctuality will be reported to, and monitored by, the
Principalship through the Performance Monitoring and Review (PMR) process.
• Within each curriculum department, managers will ensure that challenging but
realistic targets for attendance and punctuality are set for each course and
at departmental level. These targets will be capable of ensuring College-wide
targets would be met.
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Attendance Strategy
Barriers to Good Attendance and Punctuality
• Learners are placed on wrong
course or programme and/or
slow response to transfer onto
a more appropriate programme
• Poor timetabling (e.g. a break of more
than one hour between lessons is
viewed as too much, and anything less
than 15 minutes is seen as too little)
• Failure of responsible staff to
contact absentees promptly
• Timetabling early starts for courses
with high proportion of learners with
care responsibilities or scheduling
courses over too many days
• Lack of encouragement and
support from parents who
would prefer their son or
daughter to work for a living
rather than continue with his or
her education
• Insubstantial induction which does
not thoroughly embed the correct
behaviour from the start of the
programme
• Taking holidays in term time
• Failure of Personal Tutors or student
mentors to establish a good rapport
with the learners
• Transport difficulties – bus
passes are not always
appropriate
• Sickness
• Failure of teachers and/or
student experience staff to
provide the necessary and
appropriate support
• Lack of learning support where needed
• Personal / family problems
• Work commitments
• Dislike of subject, lecturer or
tutor
• Boredom / lack of motivation
• Failure to praise good or
improving attendance,
punctuality or behaviour.
• Overly critical / inappropriate handling
of lateness, poor punctuality or
behaviour.
Attendance Strategy 5
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• Insufficiently close monitoring
of students’ attendance during
the winter term and especially
when students have completed
their first assignments before
half term as many students fail
to return to the college after
the half-term break
• Financial hardship (especially among
19+ learners)
• Learners who start courses late
are more likely to have a poor
attendance record than those
who joined them at the start.
• As it is not always easy to impress
upon employed, part-time students
the importance of giving due priority
to their college studies as well as
their work commitments, attendance
rates may rise if they are limited to a
maximum of 10 hours study time.
• Research demonstrates
that learner attendance that
falls below 92% causes a
deterioration in performance
• Attendance rates for functional skills
and theory lessons tend to be lower
than those for practical sessions
Attendance Strategy
Strategies for improving attendance and punctuality
The table below includes a comprehensive range of possible actions departments
may choose to take depending on circumstances. Some actions have a financial
cost and so their availability will be subject to budget availability.
Actions may include but are not limited to:
Outcome
Suggested actions
1. Learners must
understand
and believe
that each day
of attendance
matters
• Full-time students meet
with their personal tutors
at the start of each day of
timetabled attendance.
Departmental Action
• Teachers and support
staff are role models – e.g.
punctual and ready to start
each session with purpose,
utilizing an engaging and
interesting activity. It is vital
learners feel that there is
good reason to be there and
to bond with the group inclusion is a major factor in
retention.
• Learners must feel they
will miss out if there is any
assumption they can ‘catch
up’ easily by reviewing
materials on Moodle.
• Produce and display ‘league
tables’ for course attendance.
• Ensure the review of students’
attendance is a routine and
critical part of the tutorial
process, highlighting any links
between poor attendance
and failure to achieve targets.
2.Early
Interventions
• Identify ‘at risk’ learners
and implement appropriate
strategies in class and in
tutorials to re- engage
learners.
Attendance Strategy 7
Outcome
Suggested actions
3. Utilise the
personal
tutor and/
or a student
mentor
• Personal tutors and student
mentors must form good
relationships with their
learners and be able to act as
their ‘critical friend’.
• Personal Tutors and student
mentors must make extensive
use of LIP, email and text
messages to help manage the
attendance of learners
4. 100% staff
commitment
• Strategies for improvement
work best when improving
attendance is seen as
everyone’s responsibility.
Use reception checks at the
beginning of the day and
‘corridor walks’ in between
sessions. All staff should
challenge lateness and any
apparent lack of purposeful
activity.
5.Extracurricular
support
• While good support is
essential to learners’
success, it is also necessary
for learners not to feel it is
acceptable to be absent and
‘catch up’ later.
• Good employability skills
such as attendance and
punctuality must be a priority
for development and, again,
the responsibility of every
member of staff.
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Attendance Strategy
Departmental Action
Outcome
Suggested actions
6.Targeted
Financial
Support
• Increase flexibility and quality
of childcare facilities (whole
College responsibility).
Departmental Action
• Increase personal Tutors and
student mentors knowledge
of what additional support
funding can be used for.
• Precise targeting of hardship
funds to students who
are experiencing financial
difficulties.
7.Appropriate
Timetable
• It is preferable for learners
to turn up late rather than
not to attend at all and many
learners who are consistently
late for lessons may have
sound reasons for being
so. Ensure the class profile
is detailed and referred to
appropriately.
• Consider the style of
dealing with lateness. If too
confrontational it may have
adverse consequences, and
an aggrieved student may
then drop out altogether.
Attendance Strategy 9
Outcome
Suggested actions
8. Rewards and
incentives
• • Reward students with
100% attendance rates or
most improved attendance
and punctuality with for
example:
- cash awards, vouchers,
tickets for the cinema,
restaurants, group trips,
contribution to student
overseas exchange trips.
• Extra monthly draws and
prizes.
• Competitions – by dept.,
campus, course.
• Enterprise activities.
• Lunchtime activities.
• Use of attendance
thermometer on campus –
name, photograph and prize.
• Congratulatory letter/email
from Curriculum VP.
• Praise Cards.
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Attendance Strategy
Departmental Action
Outcome
Suggested actions
9.Implement
sense of
community,
belonging
and caring in
the college
• Free tea and toast provided
before 8.30 a.m.
Departmental Action
• Use of a common room or
communal space.
• Introduction of clubs, extracurricular events.
• Whole group/dept/crosscollege enrichment activities.
• Encourage the sharing of
activities across departments
to increase fraternity aspect
of college attendance.
10.External/
Industry
Speakers
• Regular external speakers to
add further interest and a
different perspective.
• Reaffirm the importance of
punctuality and attendance
as essential employability
skills.
11.Industry
Endorsement
• Attendance endorsement
from partner employers (e.g.
Wella, Jaguar).
12.Use
Technology
• Allow learners to take
advantage of learning
opportunities, which may
increase their social mobility
and economic welfare.
Linked strategies, policies and procedures:
• Attendance and Punctuality Policy
• Procedure for Attendance and Punctuality Reporting and Monitoring
• Financial Support for Learners aged 16-18
• Financial Support for Learners aged 19+
• Behaviour Support and Disciplinary Policy
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The Manchester College is committed to equality
of opportunity, non-discriminatory practices and
supporting individual learners.
This information is also available in a range of
formats, such as large print, on request.
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Attendance Strategy