Trust Attendance Improvement Lead

Star Academies is seeking a highly experienced and credible Trust-wide Attendance Lead to provide system leadership and strategic oversight of attendance across our geographically diverse trust.

You will bring:

• A strong track record of improving attendance outcomes at scale
• The confidence and credibility to challenge and support principals and senior leaders
• A rigorous, evidence-led approach balanced with empathy and inclusion
• Secure expertise in statutory compliance, safeguarding and equitable practice
• A commitment to reducing disadvantage and ensuring pupils with SEND receive the support they need to attend regularly

This role is less about direct delivery and more about setting direction, quality assuring impact, holding leaders to account and building sustainable capacity across the trust.

As Trust-wide Attendance Lead, you will:

• Set clear expectations for attendance leadership, systems, thresholds and intervention across all schools
• Use data intelligence, audit activity and QA processes to identify risk, variation and disproportionality
• Hold school leaders to account for attendance outcomes, agreeing and monitoring improvement actions
• Build attendance leadership capacity through coaching, professional development and challenge
• Ensure statutory compliance and high-quality practice in relation to persistent absence, severe absence, CME and EHE
• Act as the trust’s subject-matter expert for attendance, advising executive leaders, trustees and principals
• Ensure attendance practice is fully aligned with safeguarding, SEND, behaviour and inclusion systems, including Every Star Matters
• Lead trust-level engagement with local authorities and statutory partners
• Provide strategic oversight of legal and enforcement activity, ensuring proportionality and consistency
• Contribute to trust and board-level reporting, inspection preparation and wider system improvement work

The role requires flexibility to travel across trust schools and, where necessary, to work remotely or flexibly according to operational need.

You will have:

• Significant experience of leading attendance improvement across multiple schools or at system level
• Excellent understanding of DfE attendance guidance, statutory processes and best practice
• Strong data literacy, with the ability to translate insight into action
• The ability to challenge, influence and support senior leaders with credibility and care
• A child-centred, inclusive approach underpinned by high expectations
• The resilience and judgement to manage complex cases involving safeguarding, SEND and family vulnerability
• Full commitment to Star Academies’ vision, values and commitment to equity

Star Central, which is based at our head office in Blackburn, Lancashire, provides leadership, strategic direction and support to Star Academies, Star Talent Academy and our schools. The Star Central team includes experts from a range of professional backgrounds, who work together to provide an outstanding support service to the Star community. We support our schools to provide educational and operational excellence and to cultivate a strong Star community, with the aim of nurturing today’s young people and inspiring tomorrow’s leaders.

Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment. Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance. Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant): childcare disqualification, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), medical, online and social media prohibition from teaching, right to work, satisfactory references, suitability to work with children. You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.