Before attendance work restarts, check who the school should contact, whether the details work, how each family can access the message, who will make contact and what happens next. Then test the first-day absence route and the safeguarding hand-off. Seven careful checks now can prevent a September concern being met by a dead number, an inaccessible letter or three colleagues making the same call.
This checklist is for attendance leaders, school leaders, pastoral teams, family-support staff, DSLs and SENCos in England. It is accurate on 14 August 2026. It supports the school's attendance, safeguarding, data-protection and local procedures; it doesn't replace them.
Run one contact preflight before the first attendance message
The Department for Education's July 2026 statutory attendance guidance expects schools to build respectful relationships with families, listen to barriers and keep the best-placed contact consistent where possible. Its June 2026 communication guide adds a plain lesson: support-first, personalised messages with a clear route to a person land better than blame or a recital of school metrics.
Confirm which adults the school holds on the record
Check the admission record against updates already received through the school's approved route. The 2024 pupil-registration regulations require specified parent and address information, including at least one emergency telephone number for each parent with whom the pupil normally lives. Family arrangements can be complex. Staff should follow the school's information-sharing and safeguarding rules when deciding who is appropriate to contact and what can be shared.
Verify the live route and a reasonable fallback
Mark the last date a telephone number, email or address was confirmed. Where reasonably possible, the DfE advises holding more than one emergency contact number for each pupil. A second number is a way to reach a responsible adult. It isn't blanket permission to share every detail with every contact.
Record how communication can be accessed
Ask about the workable channel, language, literacy, interpreting, accessibility and timing needs. The DfE communication checklist recommends simple language, translations, visuals, short documents or face-to-face contact where these improve access. Record the family's stated preference and any limits. Don't infer preference from whether one message received a reply.
Test the school's own contact details and first-day route
Check the number or inbox families are told to use, the person covering it and the route for urgent information. The attendance policy should identify the Senior Attendance Champion, day-to-day attendance contacts, support contacts and first-day follow-up process. DfE guidance expects schools to contact parents on the first day when no reason for absence has been provided and to make further contact when an absence continues unexplained.
Separate the universal message from the individual conversation
A start-of-term message can explain the policy, routines and named support contact. An individual conversation should reflect the pupil's circumstances and what the family has already said. Use a warm, child-centred opening, one clear purpose and a practical offer of help. Percentages may inform staff review, but days, lessons and lived school experiences are often clearer to families.
Carry forward open support and agreed actions
Read the relevant communication, attendance, SEND, health, pastoral and safeguarding records that authorised staff need for this contact. Keep each source distinct. List the agreed action, its owner, the family's role, any school adjustment and the review date. A tidy new-term template must not quietly erase an unresolved transport issue, an agreed morning check-in or a promised call.
Agree what staff do when contact does not succeed
Define the next attempt, owner, time and approved channel. Record facts such as “telephone rang with no answer” or “email returned undeliverable”. Silence doesn't establish parental disengagement, a safeguarding concern or the reason for absence. Unexplained absence still requires timely follow-up. If known information creates an urgent welfare concern, staff should follow the child-protection policy and take it to the DSL or deputy without delay.
Walk one invented contact record through the checks
This made-up Year 8 record combines common decisions; it isn't a school or customer case. The attendance view shows two late arrivals and one unexplained absence near the end of the summer term. An older email says mornings have been difficult. One stored telephone number now fails, while the communication log shows that a parent previously asked for text first because of shift work. A SEND review records an agreed quiet arrival route for September.
The pattern cannot explain the absence. The attendance lead checks the contact update route, asks the authorised parent to confirm the workable number and offers a call at the stated time. The SENCo confirms whether the arrival adjustment is ready. The pupil is invited to say whether transport, the entrance or something else is making mornings harder. The team records one owner and a five-school-day review point.
A later reply may change the plan. It might confirm a new number, identify a barrier the school can address, correct an earlier note or show that the chosen channel is unworkable. It might also leave important questions unanswered. The record should preserve that uncertainty.
Keep failed contact inside the human safeguarding route
Failed contact alone does not prove neglect, harm, avoidance or that a family has moved. The September 2025 children-missing-education guidance says a pupil who remains registered at a school is not a child missing education solely because they are persistently or severely absent. It also expects immediate enquiries when an on-roll pupil's unexplained absence raises questions about whereabouts.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 remains in force until 31 August 2026. It treats repeated or prolonged absence as a possible warning sign that needs an appropriate safeguarding response. KCSIE 2026 comes into force on 1 September 2026 and retains that boundary. Neither version turns a missed call or an attendance percentage into an automatic referral.
Staff should combine the live facts with what is already known, apply the school's child protection policy and local procedure, and involve the DSL when the evidence warrants it. Urgent concerns follow the established safeguarding or emergency route. Attendance software must not make that judgement.
Where Student Radar fits
Student Radar's pupil profile includes a Communication Log for calls, messages and attempted contacts in an ordered timeline. Where the Connect package is enabled, authorised staff can use targeted messages or structured questions. Attendance Playbooks can keep an agreed support step visible for staff review.
These shipped features can help a school keep contact evidence beside attendance and support records. They don't verify parental responsibility, decide whether sharing is safe, explain an absence, predict future attendance, send a legal notice automatically or replace the attendance lead, SENCo or DSL. Use the pre-term attendance-code check for register preparation, and the summer attendance and safeguarding plan for proportionate holiday arrangements. To review the workflow, request an attendance-focused walkthrough.
Sources and further reading
- Working together to improve school attendance, Department for Education, published 6 May 2022; updated 9 July 2026.
- A guide for schools on communicating with parents about attendance, Department for Education, published 9 June 2026.
- School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, made 27 February 2024; in force from 19 August 2024.
- Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities and schools, Department for Education, updated 8 September 2025.
- Keeping children safe in education, Department for Education, updated 7 July 2026; the 2025 edition applies until 31 August 2026 and the 2026 edition from 1 September 2026.