Guidance

Communicating with parents about school attendance

Information and resources to help schools communicate well with parents and carers to support improved attendance.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 9 June 2026

Applies to England

Documents

A guide for schools on communicating with parents about attendance (designed guide)

PDF, 657 KB, 26 pages

A guide for schools on communicating with parents about attendance (accessible version)

HTML

Details

This guide includes: 

• new insights into attendance communications that work (and those that do not)

• practical suggestions about how, what and when to communicate 

• resources to share with parents, including:
  • NHS illness-absence advice
  • a series of animations
• ready-to-use:
  • letter and text message templates
  • phone call scripts
  • content on attendance topics 

Inspirational and instructive videos are also available. The leaders of 8 attendance and behaviour hub schools share their successful approaches to engaging and communicating with parents to improve attendance.

Published 9 June 2026