Working Together to Improve School Attendance August 2024

The Department for Education's (DfE) guidance titled "Working Together to Improve School Attendance" provides clear information for parents on their role in ensuring regular school attendance for their children. Here’s a summary of the key points:

Importance of Attendance: Regular school attendance is crucial for children's education, social development, and future opportunities. The guidance emphasises that good attendance habits formed early in life can positively impact academic achievement and future employment prospects.

Parents' Responsibilities: Parents are legally responsible for ensuring their child attends school regularly. This includes supporting punctuality, avoiding unnecessary absences, and promoting the importance of consistent attendance.

Communication with School: Parents should maintain regular communication with the school regarding their child's attendance. This includes notifying the school promptly of any absences and discussing any barriers to attendance with school staff. Schools are expected to be proactive in addressing attendance issues and will work closely with parents to support improvements.

Understanding Absences: The guidance differentiates between authorised and unauthorised absences. Authorised absences include illness or other exceptional circumstances, while unauthorised absences might occur when a child skips school without a valid reason. Parents should strive to minimise unauthorised absences.

Support Available: If a child is struggling with attendance, schools can offer various forms of support, including pastoral care, counselling, or referrals to external agencies. Parents are encouraged to engage with these resources to help improve their child’s attendance.

Consequences of Poor Attendance: The guidance outlines potential consequences for poor attendance, such as fines or legal action.

However, the primary focus is on collaboration between parents, schools, and local authorities to resolve issues before reaching this stage.

Working with the School Community: Schools will work with parents, local authorities, and other stakeholders to foster a culture that values attendance. This collaborative approach aims to address any issues affecting a child’s ability to attend school regularly.

Overall, the guidance urges parents to prioritise their child's attendance, work closely with the school, and seek help when needed to ensure their child benefits fully from their education.

Attendance

Regular attendance is crucial to the education of children.

When your child is unable to attend school, we do need to hear from you on that day.  Please telephone the school first thing in the morning to let us know and to inform us of the reason for the absence.  

We are legally required to identify reasons for absence and classify them as authorised or unauthorised.  These figures have to be published annually.

Authorised absences include:

Illness

Medical/dental treatment

Exclusion

Unauthorised absences are any absences for which the reason is not known or permission has not been given, and includes:

• Holidays during term time, unless there are very exceptional circumstances
• Care for siblings
• Sick relatives
• Visits to relatives, long weekends away
• Shopping etc
• Inability to get to school for reasons of transport

We are obliged to monitor attendance in school.  If a child’s attendance rate drops below 90%, parents are informed and we may liaise with the Education Attendance Officer as necessary.

Holidays

In accordance with new government guidelines, authorisation for absence from school for family holidays will only be given by the Headteacher in very exceptional circumstances. 

Punctuality

It is important that children are punctual so that they do not miss the beginning of each school day. This time can be important because information is often given out which ensures the smooth running of the day and helps pupils feel part of the school community.

Although the school operates a 'staggered' start time from 8:40am-8:45am, the official school opening time is at 8.45am (for all year groups) and pupils should be in school at this time.  It is essential that your child is ready for registration at 8.45am prompt.  All entrances with the exception of the main school entrance will be closed at 8.45am. 

Pupils arriving after registration closes will have to report to the office where they will need to be signed in, their names will be entered into the “late book” to enable us to monitor punctuality and attendance.

The “late book” is monitored daily to identify the pupils who are persistently late. 

If your child is persistently late you will be invited to a meeting with school staff and the Education Welfare Office (if appropriate) to discuss the situation and support will be offered if appropriate.