Attendance Policy 2024

Pupils must arrive in school by 8:50 on each school day. The gates open at 8:40 and close at 8:50. The children go straight into school and the registers are open at this time (8:40am) until 9:00am.

The register for the first session will be taken from 8:40 and will be kept open until 9:00. The register for the second session will be taken at 1pm and will be kept open until 1:10pm.

Unplanned absence

The pupil’s parent/carer must notify the school of the reason for the absence on the first day of an unplanned absence by 9:00am or as soon as practically possible by calling the school office staff (see also section 7).

Day 1 of absence – Inform the school before 9am of the reason and expected return date of your child, plus any medical advice given or medical visits made.

Day 2 of absence - *Unless it has been agreed on day 1 that a 2+ day absence is necessary (ie. 48hrs for a sickness episode or D&V), update the school on your child’s progress, any medical advice given and confirmation of when your child will return to school especially if condition worsens.

Day 3 – 4 – As above

Day 5 onwards – Update the school on your child’s progress regularly. Medical evidence may be requested for five days’ absence or more.

Where the absence is longer than 5 days or there are doubts about the authenticity of the illness, the school will ask for medical evidence, such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence. We will not ask for medical evidence unnecessarily.

If the school is not satisfied about the authenticity of the illness, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents/carers will be notified of this in advance.

A child who has frequent absence due to illness may be offered a Support Plan or referred to the Educational Welfare Service (01482) 392146

We will mark absence due to physical or mental illness as authorised unless the school has a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness.

Planned absence

Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment.

Parents/carers should email the school office with details of the appointment plus evidence of this – for example a medical professional’s appointment card or hospital letter of appointment.

However, we encourage parents/carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

The pupil’s parent/carer must also apply for other types of term-time absence as far in advance as possible of the requested absence.

Lateness and punctuality

A pupil who arrives late:

Late is arriving after 8:50am.

Before the register has closed will be marked as late, using the appropriate code and noting the number of minutes late.

After the register has closed will be marked as absent, using the appropriate code

If a pupil is consistently late, more than 4 times in a half term (excluding exceptional circumstances), the Headteacher will make contact with the parent. This will usually be via a letter and will include the number of occasions late and the child’s attendance certificate  If the child continues to be late, then the Headteacher may invite the parents to a meeting. The Headteacher will work alongside the family to support and find ways to support punctuality.

The offer of support, including access to Breakfast Club, will always be included in correspondence.   

Following up unexplained absence

Where any pupil we expect to attend school does not attend, or stops attending, without reason, the school will:

• Call the pupil’s parent/carer on the morning of the first day of unexplained absence to ascertain the reason. If the school cannot reach any of the pupil’s emergency contacts, the school may contact safeguarding agencies, such as the police.
• Identify whether the absence is approved or not
• Identify the correct attendance code to use and input it as soon as the reason for absence is ascertained.
• Call the parent/carer on each day that the absence continues without explanation to ensure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary. If absence continues, the school will consider involving an education welfare officer

Reporting to parents/carers

The school will regularly inform parents/carers about their child’s attendance and absence levels. Parents will receive a paper attendance report termly. Any concerns will be raised half-termly. During Parent’s Evening Spring appointments – parents will receive a copy of their child’s report and class teachers will outline the child’s current attendance, highlighting and issues in terms of attendance or punctuality. End of year attendance certificates will be sent with each child’s end of year report.

Authorised and unauthorised absence

Approval for term-time absence

The headteacher will allow pupils to be absent from the school site for certain educational activities, or to attend other schools or settings.

The headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to a pupil during term time if the request meets the specific circumstances set out in the 2024 school attendance regulations. These circumstances are:

• Taking part in a regulated performance, or regulated employment abroad
• Attending an interview
• Study leave
• A temporary, time-limited part-time timetable
• Exceptional circumstances

A leave of absence is granted at the headteacher’s discretion, including the length of time the pupil is authorised to be absent for.

We define ‘exceptional circumstances’ as ‘unique’, and expect that the vast majority of holidays, events and experiences will be taken during the 13 weeks of school holidays per year.

Leave of absence will not be granted for a pupil to take part in protest activity during school hours.

As a leave of absence will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, it is unlikely a leave of absence will be granted for the purposes of a family holiday.

The school considers each application for term-time absence individually, taking into account the specific facts, circumstances and relevant background context behind the request.

Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least 2 weeks before the absence, and in accordance with any leave of absence request form, accessible via the School Office. The Headteacher may require evidence to support any request for leave of absence.

Valid reasons for authorised absence include:

• Illness (including mental-health illness) and medical/dental appointments (see sections 4.2 and 4.3 for more detail)
• Religious observance – where the day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the pupil’s parent(s) belong(s). If necessary, the school will seek advice from the parent’s religious body to confirm whether the day is set apart
• Parent(s) travelling for occupational purposes – this covers Roma, English and Welsh gypsies, Irish and Scottish travellers, showmen (fairground people) and circus people, bargees (occupational boat dwellers) and new travellers. Absence may be authorised only when a traveller family is known to be travelling for occupational purposes and has agreed this with the school, but it is not known whether the pupil is attending educational provision
• If the pupil is currently suspended or excluded from school (and no alternative provision has been made)
• Other reasons the school may allow a pupil to be absent from the school site, which are not classified as absences, include (but are not limited to):
• Attending an offsite approved educational activity, sporting activity or visit or trip arranged by the school
• Attending another school at which the pupil is also registered (dual registration)
• Attending provision arranged by the local authority
• Attending work experience
• If there is any other unavoidable cause for the pupil not to attend school, such as disruption to travel caused by an emergency, a lack of access arrangements, or because the school premises are closed

Sanctions

Our school will make use of the full range of potential sanctions – including, but not limited to, those listed below – to tackle poor attendance. Decisions will be made on an individual, case-by-case basis.

Penalty notices

The headteacher (or someone authorised by them), local authority or the police can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age, by issuing a penalty notice.

If the school issues a penalty notice, it will check with the local authority before doing so, and send it a copy of any penalty notice issued.

Before issuing a penalty notice, the school will consider the individual case, including:

• Whether the national threshold for considering a penalty notice has been met (10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks)
• Whether a penalty notice is the best available tool to improve attendance for that pupil
• Whether further support, a notice to improve or another legal intervention would be a more appropriate solution
• Whether any obligations that the school has under the Equality Act 2010 make issuing a penalty notice inappropriate

Each parent who is liable for the pupil’s offence(s) can be issued with a penalty notice, but this will usually only be the parent/parents who allowed the absence.

The payment must be made directly to the local authority, regardless of who issues the notice. If the payment has not been made after 28 days, the local authority can decide whether to prosecute or withdraw the notice.

If issued with a first penalty notice, the parent must pay £80 within 21 days, or £160 within 28 days.

If a second penalty notice is issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil, the parent must pay £160 if paid within 28 days.

A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of the issue of the first penalty notice. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time within those 3 years, alternative action will be taken instead.

A penalty notice may also be issued where parents allow their child to be present in a public place during school hours without reasonable justification, during the first 5 days of a suspension or exclusion (where the school has notified the parents that the pupil must not be present in a public place on that day). These penalty notices are not included in the National Framework, not subject to the same considerations about support being provided, and do not count towards the limit as part of the escalation process.

In these cases, the parent must pay £60 within 21 days, or £120.

Notices to improve

If the national threshold has been met and support is appropriate, but parents do not engage with offers of support, the school may offer a notice to improve to give parents a final chance to engage with support.

Notices to improve will be issued in line with processes set out in the local code of conduct for the local authority area in which the pupil attends school.

They will include:

• Details of the pupil’s attendance record and of the offences
• The benefits of regular attendance and the duty of parents under section 7 of the Education Act 1996
• Details of the support provided so far
• Opportunities for further support, or to access previously provided support that was not engaged with
• A clear warning that a penalty notice may be issued if attendance doesn’t improve within the improvement period, along with details of what sufficient improvement looks like, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis
• A clear timeframe of between 3 and 6 weeks for the improvement period
• The grounds on which a penalty notice may be issued before the end of the improvement period

Strategies for promoting attendance

• The school strategies for rewarding and improving attendance may include:
• Highlighting attendance in PSHE, Collective Worship and parents’ meetings
• Communicating attendance to families weekly via the school’s weekly newsletter:
• Rewards and recognition termly for good attendance
• Class rewards for good attendance and punctuality