Attendance
Click here to read our Attendance Policy
We are a school that sets ourselves high expectations in all areas and attendance is no exception. Attending school is extremely important for children’s social, emotional and educational development and children who miss a lot of time at school can suffer in the long term from significant gaps in their learning. We need your support to ensure that children’s education is not effected through missing time from school.
The link between attendance and attainment is clear:
• In 2018/19, just 40% of persistently absent (PA - less than 90%) children in KS2 achieved expected KS2 standards, compared with 84% of pupils who regularly attended school.
• 36% of PA children in KS4 got 9 to 4 in their English and maths GCSEs, compared with 84% of regular attenders.
And it’s never too late to benefit from good attendance:
• More than half (54%) of pupils who were PA in Year 10 and then rarely absent in Year 11, passed at least 5 GCSEs, compared to 36% of pupils who were persistently absent in both years.
But attendance is important for more than just attainment:
• Regular school attendance can facilitate positive peer relationships, which is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing.
Attendance in the first week of school in September sets up attendance throughout the year (and it's time to start preparing for back to school now):
• Evidence from a Children’s Commissioner report showed that children who miss one of the first few days of the new term for unauthorised reasons are much more likely to miss long periods of their schooling than their peers who attended those first few days. These children had a predicted overall absence of almost 45%, or 31 days across the term.
• In the 2022/23 academic year, of those who had at least one day of absence in the first week of term, 55.5% went on to be persistently absent
There are 190 school days which your child should attend school. This leaves 175 Non School Days a Year – 175 days to spend on family time, visits, holidays, shopping, household jobs and other appointments.
What can parents do to help?
Ensure your child attends school every day and on time.
If your child is not well enough to attend contact the school on the first day of absence and all subsequent days of absence.
Make routine dental and medical appointments outside of school time or at weekends.
Take family holidays during the school holidays. We are unable to authorise term time holidays, this can lead to fines/prosecution.
Try to attend parents’ evenings and school events. Take an interest in their school work, including helping with homework. If they know it matters to you it will matter to them.
Have set times for going to bed and waking up so your child gets plenty of sleep and is up in good time to get to school on time.
Stop using electronic devices one hour before bedtime.
Have clothes and school bag ready the night before.
Celebrate your child’s achievements at school and their good attendance.
If your child doesn’t want to go to school, find out why speak to us and we will try and work through the problem together.
If you need help speak to us we can support you.
The Attendance Policy can be found in the Policy section of the website.
Absences
It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their child attends school every day. If your child is absent from school for any reason you must telephone/email the school office on the first day of absence. If we don’t receive a message, we will telephone or send a school spider app or email message to you to find out why your child isn’t in school. When your child returns to school please send in a letter explaining your child’s absence. If no reason is given, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
Extended Absence
If your child is off for 3 days or more with an illness we will require a doctor’s note or appointment card with the child’s name. We will also require a doctor’s note or appointment card for all absences of pupils whose attendance is below 95%. If these are not provided the children’s absence will be marked as ‘unauthorised’.
Punctuality
A growing number of children are regularly arriving late to school in the mornings. It is very unsettling for the children to try and join in with a session that has already started. Please could you help us by getting your child to school on time.
Classes are collected off the playground by their teacher at 8.45am. The school gates are locked at 8.50am.
Children not in class by 8.55am will be marked as late and after 9.10 as an unauthorised mark. Any late children after the close of the school gate need to be signed in at the office by an adult.
Please be aware that arrival after the close of the register at 9.10 am is recorded as an unauthorised late. A series of unauthorised absences could lead to being issued with a Penalty Notice.
Medical Appointments
Routine medical/dental appointments should be made for after school or in the school holidays.
If you do take your child for a medical appointment during school time, we will need to see proof of this appointment (an appointment card, prescription or even prescribed medicine will be fine).
Notice to Improve
A Notice to Improve is a final opportunity for a parent to engage in support and improve attendance before a penalty notice is issued. If the national threshold has been met and support is appropriate but offers of support have not been engaged with by the parent or have not worked, a Notice to Improve should usually be sent to give parents a final chance to engage in support. A Notice to Improve does not need to be issued in cases where support is not appropriate and an authorised officer can choose not to use one in any case, including cases where support is appropriate but they do not expect a Notice to Improve would have any behavioural impact (e.g. because the parent has already received one for a similar offence).
Holidays in term time
Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996 empowers the local authority to issue Penalty Notices in cases of unauthorised absence from school. This means that when a pupil has unauthorised absence of 10 sessions (5 days) or more, in a 10-week period (where no acceptable reason has been given for the absence) or if their child persistently arrives late for school after the close of registration, their parents may receive a Penalty Notice. Following the implementation of DfE legislation on 19th August 2024, there is a new national framework for Penalty Notices for school absence.
For the first offence committed under the new legislation, the rate of a penalty notice is now £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
For the second offence committed under the new legislation, the rate of a penalty notice is now £160 with no option for the second offence to be discharged at the lower rate of £80.
There is now a limit of 2 penalty notices that can be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period. If there is a third offence committed within this timeframe, another tool will be considered such as prosecution to answer an offence under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996: failure to ensure regular attendance. Conviction of an offence under section 444(1) may result in a fine of £1000. Under section 444(1A), convictions may result in a fine of £2,500, a community order, electronic tagging or a custodial sentence and a criminal conviction recorded.