Why we use Attend

At Denbigh School, we believe that strong attendance is essential to every student’s learning, wellbeing and success. We also recognise the importance of working closely with parents and carers to support good attendance habits and identify concerns at an early stage. 

To help us achieve this, we use Attend, a school attendance monitoring and communication system designed to help schools better understand attendance patterns, communicate effectively with families and support students in improving their attendance. 

Attend allows us to take a more proactive approach by identifying changes in attendance early, providing parents and carers with clear information about their child’s attendance and recognising positive progress. 

Our aim is not simply to inform families when attendance falls below a certain percentage, but to help parents understand what their child’s attendance means, recognise the impact of missed school days and work together towards improvement. 

By using Attend, we can ensure that our communication is more consistent, timely and supportive, helping every student maintain strong attendance and achieve their full potential.

How we use Attend at Denbigh

Attend works alongside our existing attendance processes and helps us to build a clearer picture of each student’s attendance over time. 

Attendance information is regularly updated within the system, allowing our Attendance Team and pastoral staff to identify patterns, recognise improvements and highlight where a student may need additional support. 

We use Attend to help us: 

• Provide parents and carers with regular, personalised information about their child’s attendance. 

• Identify changes or emerging attendance concerns at an early stage. 

• Recognise and communicate positive improvements in attendance. 

• Set and monitor attendance goals where appropriate. 

• Give relevant staff clearer attendance information to help them support students and families. 

• Make our attendance communication consistent and easy to understand. 

Attend does not replace the individual support provided by the school. Instead, it gives us better information to help guide conversations with students and families and determine where further support may be beneficial. 

For parents and carers, this means you may receive different communications from Attend throughout the school year depending on your child’s attendance, progress and individual circumstances. 

Daily Communication with Parents

One of the ways we use Attend is to help keep parents and carers informed when their child is absent from school. 

If your child is recorded as absent and we have not received a reason for their absence, Attend may send you an automated email or text message asking you to provide this information. 

These messages help us to: 

• Make parents aware quickly when an absence has been recorded. 

• Prompt families to provide a reason where one has not yet been received. 

• Ensure our attendance records are accurate and up to date. 

• Identify unexplained absence promptly so that the school can follow this up where necessary. 

Receiving an Attend message does not necessarily mean there is a concern about your child’s overall attendance. In many cases, it simply means that at the time the message was sent, we had not yet received or recorded an explanation for that day’s absence. 

If you have already contacted the school, there may occasionally be a short delay before this information is reflected in our attendance records. 

Parents and carers should continue to report their child’s absence each day they are absent using our usual absence reporting methods. Attend supports this process but does not replace the need to notify the school.

Monitoring Attendance and Early Attendance Support

Attend helps us to look beyond an overall attendance percentage and identify changes and patterns in attendance at an early stage. 

Throughout the school year, we use Attend alongside our own attendance monitoring to review students’ attendance and identify where additional communication or support may be helpful. 

Where attendance begins to decline, parents and carers may receive a personalised Attend communication making them aware of their child’s current attendance. This is intended as an early opportunity to work together, rather than waiting until attendance has become a more significant concern. 

Depending on the circumstances, this may lead to further contact from the Attendance Team or pastoral staff to understand whether there are any barriers affecting attendance and what support may be appropriate. 

We also use Attend to recognise when attendance is improving, helping us focus not only on absence, but on the progress students make. 

Our approach is to inform, support and encourage improvement at the earliest opportunity, while ensuring parents and carers have a clear understanding of their child’s attendance. 

Tracking Progress and Goals

Attend allows us to focus not only on a student’s current attendance, but also on the progress they are making over time. 

Where a student’s attendance needs to improve, we may use Attend to set a clear and achievable attendance goal. This helps students and families see what improvement could look like and provides a positive target to work towards. 

Rather than focusing solely on an attendance percentage, this allows us to recognise the difference that each additional day in school can make. 

Parents and carers may receive updates through Attend showing their child’s progress towards their goal and recognising improvements that have been made. 

For some students, improving attendance can take time. Our aim is therefore to recognise positive steps and sustained improvement, while continuing to work with families where further support is needed.

Further Information about Attend

Attend is an attendance support and communication system used by schools to help improve the way attendance information is understood and shared with families. 

If you receive an email or text message from Attend, it has been sent on behalf of Denbigh School using your child’s attendance information. Attend supports our communication with families, but any questions about your child’s attendance should continue to be directed to the school. 

Parents and carers can find out more about the Attend system, including how it is used to support school attendance, on the Attend website.

Find out more about Attend

If you have a question about your child’s attendance or believe that information contained within an Attend communication is incorrect, please contact the Denbigh School Attendance Team.