Attendance

The school gates open at 8:40am

School starts at 8:45am and finishes at 3:15pm (6.5 hours per day/ 32.5 hours per week)

Children are classed as being late if they arrive after 8:55am and must sign in at the main office.

Parental Responsibilities

Parents should ensure pupils are at the school gate school between the times of 8.40am – 8.55am for morning registration. The gate will be closed promptly at 8.55am. If your child arrives after this time, please enter school by the main door at the school office. If your child arrives from 9.05am and up to 9.30am for the morning session will be marked late, ‘L’.

Any pupil arriving after 9.30am will be marked as late after register closes. This is regarded as an unauthorised absence and is marked as a “U “code for the session.

This procedure must be followed in the event of your child being absent from school:

In the first instance a telephone call must be made to the school office and a message left on the absence line before 9.30am. You need to notify school of who is absent, the year your child is in, give brief details of why they are absent and how long they may be absent for.

If a telephone call has not been received by the school office by 9.30am school will telephone you as part of our established first response system.
For all other absences please ring each day to provide a brief update of why your child needs to have a continued absence from school.

School work in close conjunction with the Local Authority and all of our registration records are maintained electronically as stipulated by them.

If your child is ill and they need to stay at home, please only keep them off for as long as absolutely necessary. If you are unsure of whether to keep them off, how long they should be off for or when to send them back, please contact your medical professional. Additional advice can be sought by telephoning school.

Please send your child to school as much as you possibly can and be assured that if they are unwell, we will look after them here and send them home if necessary.

Dental and Medical Appointments

Parents and Carers are asked most earnestly not to arrange these during school sessions, except in cases of urgency, so that considerable interference with schoolwork is avoided. Please do not keep children out of school all day unless absolutely necessary.

Persistent Absenteeism

Government expectations is that all pupils are to have a minimum level of attendance of 97%. A pupil who is persistently absent is one who misses 10% or more of their schooling for any reason from the beginning of the school year to the end of any given half term period as indicated below;

School half terms Persistent Absence at 10% Number of days off

September to October 7 or more sessions 3.5 days

September to December 14 or more sessions 7 days

September to February 20 or more sessions 10 days

September to Easter 25 or more sessions 12.5 days

September to May 31 or more sessions 15.5 days

For the academic year 2023- 2024, the attendance target, in line with government guidance, is for ALL pupils to achieve 97%.

If your child ‘s attendance falls below 90%, meaning they are persistently absent, we may ask for evidence from a medical professional to authorise any future absence. If this is not provided to school, then we will have to un-authorise future absence meaning that you may be at risk of receiving an Educational Penalty Notice Fine.

Late Arrival to School

School will continue to work with parents to reduce the number of lates and improve attendance. Thank you for all your efforts in helping to ensure your child arrives on time for school each day.

When children arrive late, it often has a negative impact on their day. They miss the social elements of arriving to school with their friends, and some children become anxious entering the classroom when the lesson has already started, and the class register has been taken.

Your child’s punctuality is IMPORTANT; arriving 5 minutes late every day adds up to over 3 days lost each year.

Arriving 10 minutes late every day is equal to 33 hours lost in 1 year.

Arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks a year.

30 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 19 days a year.

19 days lost a year through being late means 90% attendance. 90% attendance through school life is equal to a whole year of school being missed.

Regular school attendance is essential to enable your child to maximise the educational opportunities available to them. It is the school’s responsibility to provide the best education possible for your child and they can only do this if your child attends regularly.

Attendance and the Law

As a parent, you have legal responsibility to make sure that your child attends school regularly. We monitor all absence thoroughly and have introduced a “traffic light system”. If your child’s attendance falls between 95% and 91%, they are in the Amber category and are monitored at School Action level.

If their attendance is at or below 90%, then they are in the Red category, meaning their attendance is a significant cause for concern. At this stage your child is classed as a persistent absentee at both school level and Local Authority level; this could result in Attendance Enforcement involvement. The Local Authority may become involved if any difficulties cannot be resolved at School Action Level. They will work with families to help improve attendance.

If your child has a poor attendance record, parents could be fined up to £2500. Parents could be given a parenting order, which means they will have to attend a parenting class, or a fixed penalty notice of £80 per parent per child (£160 if not paid within 28 days).

The Local Authority can issue a penalty notice to parents or carers if a child has missed a number of sessions without permission from the school. This may happen if your child falls within one or more of these categories within a 10-week period;

· 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence

· persistently arrives late for school after the close of registration

Regular Absence and Holidays During Term Time

From 1 September 2013, the Department of Education changed the regulations regarding requests for family holidays during term time.

This change meant there is no legal entitlement for parents to take their children on holiday during term time. These regulations also make it clear that Headteachers may not authorise leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.

Paragraph 3 (1) of Schedule 13 to the 1986 Order states that it is the duty of a parent of a registered pupil of a school to secure their regular attendance at school. This applies to all children of compulsory school age who are on roll in a school. As a parent you are legally responsible for making this happen.

Additionally:

All requests for leave of absence in term time must be made 6 weeks in advance in writing on the Leave of Absence Form available from the school office and school website and when required accompanied by supporting documentation.
The approval of leave of absence does not set a precedent for similar future requests and the frequency/duration of such leave periods will be considered as factors in any decision.
The Local Authority will use the full range of sanctions available where leave of absence is taken without the permission of the school.

I am sure that you will support the school by ensuring requests for ‘leave of absence’ are only made in exceptional circumstances.

Please find listed below our attendance policy and penalty warning information

Attendance Policy

Leave of Absence Form