Attendance and Inclusion Lead with DDSL
Oakbank, Reading, Berkshire, RG7 1ER8 days remaining to apply
Start date details
1 July 2025
Closing date
23 June 2025 at 9am
Date listed
13 June 2025
Job details
Job role
- Administration, HR, data and finance
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Full time
Contract type
- Permanent
Full-time equivalent salary
- £34,305.21 - £36,600.18 Annually (Actual) NJC 28 - 31
Attendance and Inclusion Lead with DDSL job summary
Oakbank is a school of potential that drives for the betterment for all. The school is committed to a journey of transformation, where staff, students and parents are committed to improving the quality and experience of education for its community. We believe that every child deserves to not only access the full curriculum, but should thrive in their curriculums, developing academically, personally and holistically as a result of passionate and adaptive teaching, resulting in committed learning that secures successful outcomes. Our current phase of school improvement features our entire team, working together at pace to offer greater stability, more innovation and creativity. The aim is for greater consistency for all students, enabling them to manage their learning and themselves more effectively.
Our collective determination to make Oakbank a happier and higher performing school affirms our commitment to our values: integrity, collaboration and excellence. We believe in excellence for our students to give them the opportunities to have choices in their lives, empowering them to choose the future that they desire off the back of hard work.
Job Purpose
To lead and coordinate both the inclusion and attendance strategies across the school, ensuring pupils receive timely and effective support for SEND, wellbeing, and attendance. The postholder will act as Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL), working closely with pastoral teams, external agencies, and families to remove barriers to learning and promote safeguarding, inclusion, and regular attendance. To also work closely with the Local Authority to fulfil its obligations under all relevant Legislation.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
Attendance
- Assist with attendance across the school and work closely with the pastoral team (Deputy Heads of Year), and external agencies as required to improve attendance for all students.
- Conduct home visits to students in line with school policy, identifying reasons for non-attendance, working closely with families and others to break down barriers to learning and achieve regular attendance.
- Manage the process of addressing poor attendance across the school. Organising meetings as appropriate for vulnerable students ensuring all external agencies and relevant staff are invited.
- Conduct weekly safe and wellness checks (home visits) for absent student.
- Monitor the attendance of most vulnerable students at the school, including Child Looked After students, those that meet the threshold for child protection, children identified as being in need either by School staff or external agencies.
- To liaise with pastoral staff to raise concerns/problems, ensure accuracy of data and assist with improving pupil attendance
- To develop strong relationships with young people and their families using diplomacy and enthusiasm, to support and challenge, as appropriate, so as to reduce student non-attendance and exclusion from school.
- Develop attendance action plans for individual students with specific attendance concerns.
- Prepare professional reports and attend and contribute to meetings with Pastoral team and meetings concerning individual students as appropriate.
- Liaise with Senior Leadership Team to address any attendance concerns as required.
- Undertake Attendance interviews in school with individual students and external agencies.
- Ensure effective communication/consultation as appropriate with the parents of students through phone, letter and home visits as relevant, supporting with student contract outcomes.
- Liaise with the Assistant Headteacher, DHOYs and DDSLs and provide evidence of date, interventions and any other relevant information to support any Local Authority cases and meetings where poor attendance has reached the level of legal intervention.
- Provide support for families experiencing hardship by way of increasing awareness to external support agencies
- To support with the development of the provision of high-quality school attendance and welfare provision in line with all relevant legislation.
- To manage the data from the Student Absence line, messages from Parents/Carers and record on the school system ensuring accurate, recorded information and plan and implement absence calls to parents/carers and home visits as necessary where students have exceeded 5 days’ absence.
- To review, analyse and manage daily registers, communicating with Teachers where registers need updating or where support is required to complete registers in a timely manner. Feedback to SLT on maintenance of registers as necessary.
- To compile and manage Leave of Absence requests, Fixed Penalty Notices, Children of Concern letters, providing monthly reports to the Headteacher.
- To co-ordinate and manage the attendance process for mid-year admissions with due diligence for student safeguarding and wellbeing.
- To analyse and produce standard attendance reports as required by the school.
- To manage the process of all Student Leavers, Children Missing in Education (CME) and Elective Home Education (EHE) students, monitoring their status to ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of students is current and appropriate steps are taken as necessary.
- To manage the end-to-end process of Early Help Assessment (EHA) intervention; planning and conducting meetings with students and parents/carers including preparation and submission of all necessary paperwork.
- To arrange and hold Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) meetings with students and parents/carers, with recommended plans to help support students to engage in attendance staged steps, liaising with the internal safeguarding representatives, and holding meetings with external agencies as required.
- Maintain confidential records of support for all students.
Inclusion Lead and DDSL
- Supporting and liaising with the SENCO, providing insights and ideals
- Advising and supporting other members of staff including class teachers regarding student additional support
- Providing training and support for Tas and teachers
- Having oversight of the school’s provision for pupils with SEND
- Identify students who may be in need of additional support
- Plan and deliver interventions for specific pupils, both 1:1 and in small groups
- Create an environment that supports all pupils with additional needs to reach their full potential
- Track and monitor progress of pupils in need of additional support
- Supervise any member of staff carrying out interventions
- Liaise with external support agencies and professionals as directed by the SENCO and/or headteacher
- Communicate with parents about interventions/support in place for their child and their progress
Safeguarding
- Work in line with statutory safeguarding guidance (including Keeping Children Safe in Education, Prevent) and the school’s Safeguarding and Child Protection policies.
- Work with the DSL to promote the best interests of pupils, including sharing concerns where necessary
- Assist with ensuring all staff are up-to-date with the recording of Attendance information providing support and guidance as necessary with due consideration of the completion of Safeguarding and KCSIE training.
- Respect confidential issues linked to home/students/teacher following the Anthem Trust’s Data Protection Policy.
- Promote the safeguarding of all pupils in the school
This job description will be supported by the school improvement plan which will identify key distinct tasks and responsibilities for this role in the school year. These will be derived from ongoing school self-evaluation and other local/national priorities. The postholder’s duties must be carried out in compliance with the school’s policies and procedures including child protection and safeguarding procedures.
These duties and responsibilities should be regarded as neither exhaustive nor exclusive as the post holder may be required to undertake other reasonably determined duties and responsibilities commensurate with the grading of the post.
The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment.
Commitment to safeguarding
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and require all staff and volunteers to share and demonstrate this commitment. The successful candidate will have to meet the requirements of the person specification and will be subject to the relevant pre-employment checks which will, where applicable, include a health check, an enhanced DBS check, the Children’s Barred List check and satisfactory references.
Applying for the job
This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.
CVs are not accepted.
About Oakbank
- School type
- Free School, ages 11 to 16
- Education phase
- Secondary
- School size
- 522 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Oakbank website
Oakbank school is a place where every student thrives and in which our values of integrity, collaboration and excellence shine through all that we do. Our students are at the heart of the school, and we are immensely proud of their achievements and of the great opportunities our school has to offer them. We are an ambitious and successful community, where all students are supported, valued, and provided with everything they need to thrive.
We are a truly caring and supportive school community in which every student is accepted and loved and where all students are encouraged to celebrate what makes them unique. We aim to provide the very best environment for success and our consistently high expectations drive Oakbank students to achieve personal excellence in all they do. We are incredibly proud of our wonderful school community.
We have made great strides in recent times to become a highly successful school and we will not rest in our ambition of being the best that we possibly can be.
School location
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