Attendance

Attending school every day will help give your child the best possible start in life.

Going to school every day means:

• making friends
• having lots of fun
• building lasting relationships
• time to play
• taking part in exciting activities

You can help us to help your child by encouraging regular school attendance.

Your child's education is very important; attendance habits established in the foundation years of education can affect their entire school life.

• If your child is too ill to attend school or is absent for any other reason, please contact the school on the first day of absence.
• If you are in any doubts as to whether to send your child to school please contact the school as soon as possible for advice (see also the documents below for helpful information)

Setting good attendance patterns early on will also help your child later on. Although it seems a long way off at the moment, future employers want to recruit people who are reliable. Children who have a poor school attendance record may have less change of getting a good job.

What happens if a child does not attend school regularly?

By law, all children of compulsory school age (between 5 and 16) must get a suitable full time education. As a parent you are responsible for making sure this happens and if you fail to ensure a child of compulsory school age attends school regularly, legal action may be taken by the Local Authority.

LEAVE DURING TERM TIME

PLEASE THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE TAKING YOUR CHILD OUT OF SCHOOL DURING TERM TIME.

In law you must ask permission for your children to miss school, well in advance of the planned absence. Parents can request a leave of absence but, by law, this can only be authorised if the circumstances are exceptional. Parents who take a child of compulsory school age out of school without permission from the school may be issues with a penalty notice.

TO HELP YOUR CHILD DO WELL IN SCHOOL, YOU SHOULD:

Arrange family holidays/leave of absence to coincide with school holidays wherever possible.

Avoid times when there are important examinations or tests (check with school).

Always ask the school well in advance for permission.

Be aware of the potential impact on your child's education.

Our school attendance policy can be found

Good Attendance

Changes to how schools manage attendance

The changes come into effect on 19^th August 2024

Important Update – Changes to Education-related Penalty Notices

Information for Parents

You may be aware that the Department for Education has recently announced national changes to penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence in term time. These changes will come into effect on 19 August 2024.

The governing Board of this school has previously decided not to issue penalty notices to any parents for unauthorised absence. From 19^th August, governing boards cannot take this stance.

If parents/children meet the thresholds from September onwards, our governing board is in the position of needing to issue penalty notices.

It has been very rare over the years for holiday requests to be granted as ‘authorised’. Rarely do the reasons given by parents meet the threshold for extenuating circumstance. Going forward holiday/absence forms must be completed and handed into the office. If a family considers their circumstances to be extenuating, then they should speak to Mrs Cunliffe before booking holidays in term time if there is a chance to avoid penalty notices being issued. 

School leaders have been instructed that if there is a suspicion that families are on holiday when they say children are ill, home visits should be carried out. You can see that there is increasing pressure on schools to ensure good attendance and schools are being held to account.

The changes to be aware of are:

• Penalty notices issued for offences that take place after 19 August 2024 will be charged at a new rate of £160 per parent per child. This can be paid at £80 if paid within 21 days.
• Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.
• The threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered is set at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period. This may include absences as a result of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years.
• A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).

Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds.