ROLE PURPOSE

Attending LSA is central to our core mission (to diversify the creative industries), and we therefore have an approach that puts students attending at the core of our strategy and build policy, systems and processes that serve the cohorts we want in the school. If we want better outcomes, it is imperative that our students want to, need to, and are able to attend LSA. The Attendance Manager will lead this agenda across the school, owning the systems, the data and the relationships that drive attendance up at LSA.

This role is key to achieving attendance improvement across LSA, ensuring that absence is identified quickly, patterns are understood and acted on, and that students who are not attending are noticed and supported as soon as changes in their attendance happen. You will manage LSA’s day-to-day attendance operation, lead individual casework for students with persistent absence, and work closely with pastoral, curriculum and SLT colleagues to steer a culture in which attendance is understood as a professional expectation.

This is a role that sits at the intersection of data, relationships and school culture. The Attendance Manager will manage the Attendance and Student Support Officer, produce regular reporting for senior leaders, and be the school’s expert voice on attendance strategy and improvement.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Attendance monitoring and data

• Manage LSA’s attendance monitoring systems, ensuring registers are processed and any absence or lateness is identified accurately and promptly each day.
• Follow up on pupils absences and lateness by email/Arbor/telephone or other means, on a daily basis, making appropriate referrals where necessary.
• Ensure all unexplained absences are accounted for; seek the reason for absence via contact with home if required.
• Check the timely completion, accuracy and correct coding on registers in line with our coding policy.
• Analyse attendance data regularly to identify patterns and students of concern, including persistent absence and unexplained absence
• Produce regular attendance reports for the AP for Learning and Curriculum and SLT, highlighting concerns and trends
• Manage the first-day absence process, ensuring unexplained absences are followed up and recorded consistently

Student and family engagement

• Build positive, professional relationships with students whose attendance is causing concern, working to understand barriers and agree action
• Lead attendance meetings with students and families where escalation is required, working in partnership with the relevant Head of Year or PPD Lead
• Make home/community visits to students and parents/carers where appropriate.
• Develop and implement individual attendance improvement plans for students with persistent or significant absence
• Work sensitively with students facing complex personal circumstances, including mental health difficulties, caring responsibilities or other barriers to attendance

Pastoral and staff partnership

• Support Heads of Year and tutors to use attendance data effectively, providing briefings, guidance and individual student information
• Support transition points and new arrivals.
• Work in close day-to-day partnership with the Pastoral Manager and PPD Leads on students where absence is linked to welfare or personal need
• Liaise with external agencies where attendance involves complex welfare or safeguarding concerns, in coordination with the Pastoral Manager and DSLs
• Identify and escalate attendance patterns that may indicate safeguarding concerns, working within LSA’s safeguarding structure

Strategy and school improvement

• Work with the AP for Learning and Curriculum to develop LSA’s whole-school attendance strategy and implement the Attendance Policy
• Monitor the impact of attendance interventions and report on their effectiveness
• Promote a culture across the school in which good attendance is understood as a professional expectation, connected to students’ readiness for the workplace and further study
• Ensure all attendance processes comply with relevant statutory guidance, including the DfE’s Working Together to Improve School Attendance framework

Line management

• Line manage the Attendance and Student Support Officer, providing clear direction, regular support and developmental oversight
• Ensure the Officer’s day-to-day work is well coordinated with the wider attendance system and pastoral team

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

The post would suit someone with experience in an educational attendance, pastoral or student support role, who is confident working with data systems and equally comfortable having a difficult conversation with a family as producing a report for SLT.

The successful candidate will:

• Be aligned with LSA’s attendance approach via connection and belonging.
• Be highly organised, proactive and calm under pressure
• Be confident working with MIS and data systems, with strong attention to detail
• Build trust quickly with students, families and colleagues, acting with both rigour and empathy
• Have strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Understand the particular dynamics of post-16 attendance — including the complex personal, emotional and motivational barriers students can face — and be able to respond with sensitivity and firmness in equal measure
• Bring genuine commitment and rigour to reducing absence and improving outcomes for all students
• Consistently look for ways to strengthen LSA’s approach to attendance.

To apply please visit the London Screen Academy website