Attendance and Welfare Officer

We are seeking a committed, compassionate and highly organised Attendance & Welfare Officer to play a key role in improving student attendance, supporting vulnerable learners, and strengthening relationships between school and home. This is a vital pastoral role at the heart of the school. You will work closely with students, families, pastoral leaders and external agencies to remove barriers to learning and ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive.

Key Responsibilities:

• Monitor, track and analyse whole-school attendance and punctuality
• Follow up daily absences and conduct first-day response procedures
• Work directly with students and families to address attendance concerns
• Carry out home visits where appropriate
• Develop attendance improvement plans for targeted students
• Liaise with pastoral staff, safeguarding team, and senior leaders
• Prepare attendance reports and documentation for meetings and panels
• Support students experiencing welfare or safeguarding concerns
• Build strong, positive relationships with parents/carers and external agencies
• Promote a culture of high attendance across the school community

Our ethos is ‘Aspiring and Achieving Together’. Whilst we are committed to ensuring that every student makes excellent progress, this concept stretches well beyond academic performance. We firmly believe that every aspect of school should equip learners to be successful in all areas of their lives, both now and for their future. Indeed, every single decision or action taken improves the life chances of all our learners. This is underpinned by ensuring The Westleigh School is a safe, nurturing and happy environment: put simply, The Westleigh School is a great place to learn and a great place to work.

Uniting with The Shaw Education Trust brings with it new opportunities and a wealth of resources to supplement our mission to improve outcomes for all our students. Colleagues will have access to a large range of well-established training opportunities, such as a fully funded L5 Instructional Coaching qualification or Accelerated Leadership training, for those aspiring to Middle Leadership. Outstanding teachers will also achieve Trust Professional Advocate designation, which provides exciting opportunities to support colleagues within both The Westleigh School and across other SET schools to share best practice. With this brings the opportunity to engage in the cross-trust peer review and Trust CPD programme.

All candidates are required to provide a supporting statement on the formal application forms which states clearly your reasons for applying, skills and experience for this position.

At Shaw Education Trust, we believe every role holds the power to transform a life. Whether you’re supporting behind the scenes, inspiring in the classroom, or leading with vision, you’ll be part of something extraordinary. We are a dynamic and growing family of Primary, Secondary, and Special Schools, proudly serving communities from Birmingham to Bury. Our mission is to unlock opportunity for every young person—whatever their background, ability, or starting point.

Our people are our greatest asset, and we are deeply committed to their growth. Through high-quality training, apprenticeships, talent acceleration, and research opportunities, we empower our staff to thrive as skilled, confident professionals and we champion wellbeing, value every voice, and create a culture where you feel supported, motivated, and inspired to make a real difference.

You will join a collaborative network of schools where shared expertise and professional community fuel success. Every academy in our Trust has an equal voice, and every colleague plays a vital part in shaping tailored learning experiences that raise aspirations and build brighter futures.

At the heart of our work is a deep respect for the children and young adults we serve—our “precious cargo.” We are proud to "exactly like nothing else” and bridge the gap between education and the wider world, preparing every student for further education, employment, or training in inclusive environments where integrity, equality, and opportunity thrive.

If you have the heart, passion, and drive to help shape lives and create futures filled with promise, we would love you to join our incredible team.

Support. Teach. Lead. Belong. Thrive.

Together, let’s make the remarkable happen.

In our secondary schools, we pride ourselves on our innovative approach to curriculum design, to ensure all our schools have breadth and ambition for all students, regardless of their starting points and barriers. Standard curriculum models don’t always engage all students, so we constantly seek to innovate and provide better opportunities to develop both knowledge and skills for life. We want our students to believe their curriculum is bold, exciting, purposeful, and ultimately leads to something meaningful for them. Some examples of our innovation include moving towards an extended school day, to provide a world class enrichment programme and more opportunities for essential skills like reading and cultural capital. We are also introducing vocational and technical pathways, which run through the normal school curriculum but attract support from leading employers and universities to develop work-readiness in our students, so that they can progress onto T Levels and apprenticeships.

Our secondary schools are currently driving ‘PedTech’ across the sector: we believe teaching and technology should go hand-in-glove and are passionately committed towards providing a fully digitally enhanced curriculum. We are very close to achieving full 1:1 device delivery and are sprinting towards better use of iPads in lessons to enhance the experience and learning.

Shaw Education Trust offer the following employee benefits with your Teaching or Support Staff employment:

• An excellent Local Government Pension Scheme (Support Staff) / Teachers Pension (Teaching Staff)
• Generous holiday entitlement from your first day of employment (37 days holiday rising to 39 days after 5 years’ service including Bank Holidays)
• Access to Medicash Health & Wellbeing Plan: Enjoy health services designed to support your well-being.
• Free DiscountForTeachers Scheme for all staff (Support and Teaching), Exclusive discounts to save money with a wide selection of discounts and exclusive offers from hundreds of the biggest brands.
• Free Eye Tests
• Cycle to work scheme
• Access to our Institute of Education and fantastic opportunities to help you grow, contribute and flourish in your role and in the Trust.

We know our people are the key to our success and so we’re committed to ensuring the employment experience at Shaw Education Trust is a rewarding one.

Colleagues within the Trust benefit from:

• Access to a full range of courses both in-house and professionally accredited. These courses include a variety of the National Professional Qualifications and the Early Career Teacher Programme delivered by Shaw Education Trust as a delivery partner for Ambition Institute.
• Experienced leadership and subject-specific support.