Attendance Manager

The Role

Smith’s Wood Academy is a large academy with just over 900 students from Year 7 to Year 11. Located in the north of Solihull, the academy serves students who live in the immediate locality.

Our vision is that every child within the Trust, regardless of their background, will attend an Academy that offers an outstanding quality of education which means to us:

• Every child is recognised as an individual and has access to first-class pastoral care because we want them to be happy
• Every child benefits from a wide range of enriching opportunities because we place great emphasis on their personal development
• Every child benefits from dedicated leaders, teachers and staff who a relentless in their ambition to improve the quality of teaching in our academies because we know excellent teaching is key to transforming the futures of our students

Smith’s Wood is currently in a transitional state and there is a collective spirit that is apparent as the Academy embarks on the next phase of continued growth and school improvement.

We have a fantastic opportunity for an Attendance Manager to join our dedicated team.  Playing a key part in the continual development of monitoring and tracking student attendance.

You will be able to identify the factors that are impeding good attendance, co-producing an integration plan that would be implemented in partnership with the internal team to create sustained improvement of attendance.

Outstanding communication skills are required as this role can link in with outside agencies, charities, create sessions for parents within school to look at factors such as Parenting (Malachi), Solihull Approach, Sleep, Bullying, SEND, illness and behaviour. 

We believe that every child should leave school proud of the young adult they have become, and that every youngster attending our Trust deserves the opportunity to thrive in an atmosphere where high expectation meets endless possibilities.

 Applicants will join a well-led and motivated team committed to continuous improvement.

 The successful candidate will:

• Carry out all the attendance tracking, data analysis, home visits, administer the ELIT processes, information evenings etc.
• Lead on whole school campaigns with staff and quality assuring the effectiveness of these campaigns.
• Ensure the signposting of the importance of attendance is visible across the school and on the agenda of every meeting.
• Liaise with families and establish an integration plan/ action plan for targeted students to improve attendance considering any push/pull factors identified.
• Liaise with the wider Pastoral team ensuring any pastoral support agreed in any integration plan is actioned and its effectiveness monitored.
• SEND TAs to support teachers in lessons to help find ways to fill in any learning gaps that any low attendance may have created for students with low attendance.
• Maintain overall responsibility for managing the attendance team and quality assure their work.
• Celebrate and reward students who make positive progress.
• Develop and enhance the practice of others
• Strategically lead and oversee Refocus, ensuring its continued growth

In return we will offer you:

•  Access to support and guidance from other subject leaders across the MAT and form subject expertise within the Academy SLT
• Bespoke Continual Professional Development (in the academy and online via the National College)
• Perkbox example benefits;
• Discounts at nationwide retailers
• Gym discount
• Cinema discounts
• Employee assistance programme
• Up to 4 structured counselling sessions per year
• A MAT wide focus on staff well-being

This is an exciting time to join us, and a great opportunity to be involved in the next stage of development of this strong team. Over the last few years, there has been a real drive to develop collaborative planning of a well sequenced knowledge rich curriculum in order to ensure our curriculum is inclusive and all students can achieve highly.

This is an ideal opportunity for a colleague who is ambitious, creative and enthusiastic about helping students to learn in a strong supportive environment.

Fairfax Multi-Academy Trust is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will therefore be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure via the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) as well as providing evidence of qualifications.

 

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020). This means that certain convictions and cautions are considered ‘protected’ and do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Guidance about whether a conviction or caution should be disclosed can be found on the Ministry of Justice website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-guidance-on-the-rehabilitation-of[1]offenders-act-1974

 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-guidance-on-the-rehabilitation-of%5b1%5doffenders-act-1974

Benefits

Other
Cycle to Work
Employee Assistance Programme
Green Car Scheme
Perkbox discount platform	Discounts on a variety of online and high street stores, supermarkets and more
Perkbox Wellness hub	A variety of wellness content to proactively support your health and wellbeing
Salary sacrifice in relation to Technology

Qualifications

Qualification Title	Grade
5 GCSEs including Maths and English (grade 4-9) or equivalent		Essential
Degree in a relevant subject		Desirable

Skills

Personal Attributes
Commitment to Trust aim and values	Essential
Committed to Continuous Professional Development (CPD)	Essential
Promotes a culture of Safeguarding	Essential
Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, parents and students	Essential
Ability to work effectively within a team environment	Essential
Ability to work effectively within a team environment	Essential
Abilities, Skills and Knowledge
Awareness of child protection/safeguarding with up to date training (or willingness to undertake training)	Essential
Leadership
Adaptable - ability to adapt style to a variery of situations and people	Essential
Experience
Experience of working in an educational environment	Desirable
Experience/Knowledge
Knowledge of school standards and procedures or willingness to train	Desirable
Relevant Experience
Experience of dealing with sensitive and confidential student information	Essential