The reason we wish to do this project is to improve the attendance of our children. Our attendance is below the national average of 96%, and consistently fluctuates between 94% and 95%. We want to give our children the best start in life, and despite our best efforts, we are not having the impact that we want on attendance or persistent absenteeism. Our objectives are:- for key staff to visit another setting in the EU in order to job shadow, looking at good practice and how it is implemented for impact- for key staff to be trained in different approaches and strategies to removing barriers to attending school- to develop relationships with key staff from other EU settings met during CPD sessions, so that support and common approaches to introducing the new strategies can be discussed and further developed as an on-line group- to improve attendance (and therefore learning) to at least the national average, and reduce the percentage of persistent absentees so that it is in line with national averageThere will be 3 members of staff attending, who are all on the senior leadership team. It will involve the Headteacher, the Inclusion Manager and the special educational needs co-ordinator. The Headteacher has the strategic overview of school improvement and developing school policies. She has many skills, including communicating to a wide range of audiences and strategic planning. She has been Headteacher for 9 years, and is seconded to work for the Local Authority one day a week to support school improvement.The Inclusion Manager, is responsible for attendance. She has worked tirelessly to improve attendance at the school, and has excellent research skills, as she has implemented many ideas from other schools at Fiddlers Lane. She works with many stakeholders, including disengaged parents, so has excellent communication skills.The special educational needs co-ordinator is involved in removing any barriers to attendance with many of our children. She works closely with the Headteacher and Inclusion Manager in order to develop practice and procedures in the school. She is also a Specialist Leader of Education, and as such is used to working in other schools.All 3 members of staff would initially visit Collegio Sagrada Familia for job shadowing for a week. We want to get the full view of a week and the impact their strategies have on attendance, including how they use attendance data, how they work with parents, and any particular strategies and the impact of them. We can also see the structure of the week in relation to checking attendance, and how any disengagement is dealt with. We will coincide our visit with one of the 6 parent sessions they hold on emotional intelligence to further develop our knowledge.We have also identified 2 courses we would like to attend, linked to improving attendance at school and reducing early leaving. Both courses have been identified from the school education gateway. The first one is entitled 'Mindfulness: cultivating awareness' and is held in Seville from 13/2/17 - 17/2/17. This is about developing inner calm and therefore helping overcome anxieties, as well as developing trust, something some of our children struggle with due to eg child protection issues, which then impacts negatively on attendance. The second one is entitled 'Coaching in educational contexts to reduce early school leaving' and is held in Madrid (4th - 10th March 2017). This is a course developing the use of EFT, and will be of great benefit for the children we have identified within school as being anxious and therefore non-attenders. Both courses, along with the information gathered when we were job shadowing, will inform our attendance policy and practice.We expect the project to impact positively on the attendance of our children, not just next year but in the future, increasing our attendance to at least in line with national average, and reducing the amount of persistent absenteeism. In doing so it will improve the learning and outcomes for our children, and also their life chances. We also expect it to improve parental engagement with the school, in particular around improving attendance. Improved attendance will benefit the children, not just with their learning, but also with life skills, as they will recognise the importance of consistent attendance as they progress through life.