Attendance and Punctuality Information

Attendance officer

Contact: Mrs N. Butt

Introduction

At St. Andrew’s C.E. Primary School we are committed to providing quality education for all our pupils. This can only be achieved with full attendance and the school will do its best to ensure maximum possible attendance, so that any problems that arise with good attendance are identified and remedied as soon as possible.

For your child to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly, on time and every day that the school is open. Pupils should only be absent if it is completely unavoidable.

Why Regular Attendance is so important

Learning: Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence seriously affects their learning. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of others in the same class. Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at the school is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from the school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

Safeguarding: Your child may be at risk of harm if they do not attend the school regularly. Safeguarding the interests of each child is everyone’s responsibility and within the context of this school, promoting the welfare and life opportunities for your child encompasses:

Attendance
Behaviour
Health and Safety
Access to the Curriculum
Anti-bullying

Failing to attend the school on a regular basis will be considered safeguarding matter.

If in a school year, your child is late every day by…	Your child will have lost approximately…
5 minutes	3 days of learning
15 minutes	2 weeks of learning
30 minutes	19 days of learning

If your child’s attendance during the school year is…	Your child will have lost approximately…
100%	0 days of learning
95%	9 days of learning
90%	19 days of learning
85%	28 days of learning
80%	38 days of learning

Our expectations

We expect the following from all pupils:

That they will attend the school every day it is open, achieving a minimum of 97% or above attendance, unless they are genuinely ill.
That they will be appropriately prepared for the day.
That parents will inform school of any problems which affect attendance or punctuality.

We expect the following from parents/carers with regards to attendance and punctuality:

To ensure pupils attend the school regularly, on time and be aware of their legal responsibilities. School starts promptly at 8.50am.
To ensure parents/carers contact school immediately whenever their child is unable to attend a full reason must be provided to ensure the correct register coding is applied.
Medical evidence must be provided where children have significant periods of absence for illness related reasons. Where children have obtained at least 15 days absence due to illness related absences we have a duty to inform the Local Authority Attendance Team.
To ensure that pupils who have mild illness ailments attend school, and parents understand that should their child be absent under this category this will be marked as unauthorised.
To ensure that their child is appropriately prepared for the day and arrives on time, ready to learn.
To contact the school in confidence whenever they have a problem concerning attendance or punctuality to enable support to be offered.
Not to arrange a holiday in term time.
To respond appropriately to members of the attendance team if attendance concerns are raised.
To make every effort to arrange dental and medical appointments outside of the school day.
That a minimum of three different emergency contact numbers are given to us and if changed, the school is informed immediately. This is an important safeguarding requirement.

Parents can expect the following from School:

An Early Help supportive approach when problems emerge in relation to attendance and punctuality.
Regular, efficient and accurate recording of attendance.
Early contact from the school when a pupil fails to attend the school without providing good reason or when a pupil is truanting.
Prompt response to any barriers or issues that we are notified of.
Support when there is a problem of long-term illness through the offer of Early Help and multi-agency support for families.
Monitoring and follow up procedures from the Senior Leadership Team and the Attendance Officer.

These are instigated:

When attendance drops below 97%.
We have identified patterns of repeated absence or lateness.
When lateness is an issue.

The Law relating to attendance

Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states that ‘the parent’ of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him / her to receive efficient full time education suitable:-

To age, ability and aptitude and
To any special educational needs he/ she may have. Either by regular attendance at school or otherwise’

Furthermore, the Education Act 1996 and subsequent amendments to legislation give schools and local authorities the powers to take legal action against parents to enforce attendance at the school they are registered to attend.

The Law relating to safeguarding

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 places a duty on Local Authorities and governing bodies to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State with regard to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and students under the age of 18.

Lateness

Morning registration will take place at the start of school at 8:50. The registers will remain open for 30 minutes. Any pupil arriving up to 20 minutes after this time will be late (L Code) and any time after 20 minutes will be marked as having an unauthorised absence (U code) unless there is an acceptable explanation.

Pupils who are constantly late are disrupting not only their own education, but also that of others. Where persistent lateness gives cause for concern, a member of the Senior Leadership Team or the Attendance officer will contact you to discuss how we can support you to improve this.

Pupils arriving after the start of school before the end of the registration period will be treated for statistical purposes as present but will be coded as late before registration closed.

Understanding types of absence

Every half-day absence from the school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents), as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of an absence is always required. Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from the school for a good reason like genuine illness, medical/dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, emergencies or other unavoidable cause. Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which no “leave" has been given. This type of absence can lead to the School and or the Local Authority using sanctions and/or legal proceedings.

This includes:

Parents/carers keeping children off school unnecessarily.
Absences which haven’t been properly explained.
Children who arrive at school too late to get a mark.
Holidays

Whilst any child may be off school because they are ill, sometimes they can be reluctant to attend school. Any issues with regular non-attendance need to be discussed between the school, the parents and the child. If your child is reluctant to attend, excusing them from attending makes the situation worse as it gives the impression that attendance does not matter. Please refer to our School Attendance policy for full details.

Illness

If your child feels unwell in the morning please consider giving them appropriate pain relief/medication and send them to school.

NHS Guidance - Is my child too ill for school?

Any medication should be taken to the school office who will administer it providing a parent/carer has completed the school Medication Consent Form. Your child should be in school if they have a minor illness such as a headache, cold, sore throat or period pain.

If your child is too unwell to attend school, for example they cannot get out of bed, then please ring the school to notify us of their absence. Please ensure that your child returns to the school as soon as possible, even if they are not 100%.

If your child is absent from the school for 2 days or longer please provide medical evidence, i.e. an appointment card, prescription, medication.

Medical Appointments

A full day’s absence will not be authorised for a medical appointment unless for exceptional circumstances. Please arrange all appointments outside the school day.

If the appointment is unavoidable, your child must come to school before and after the appointment.

We will need to see proof of the appointment to enable us to authorise the absence.

Requests for absence during term-time

The law gives no entitlement to parents to take their child on out of school during term time. Any application for leave must only be in exceptional circumstances and the Head Teacher must be satisfied that the circumstances are exceptional and warrant the granting of leave. Head Teachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.

If the request is denied school will inform the parent/carer of the reason by letter or email. If the parent/carer chooses to continue with the leave it will be coded as an unauthorised absence.

A Penalty Notice will be issued by the Local Authority following your child's absence. Penalty notices are issued at £80 per parent* (if paid within 21 days) and £160 (if not paid within 28 days) for each child. If you do not notify us but we have evidence that your child has been on holiday, a fixed penalty fine may still be issued. Note that the fine is paid to the Local Authority, not the school.

The laws on attendance changed on 19th August 2024. The law is very clear that attendance at school is a right of every child and where a parent fails to meet this requirement statutory action will be taken.

Please note that where there is broken school week such a school inset day or a statutory bank holiday and pupil fails to return, these days will be included in any request for statutory action.

Responding to non-attendance

Where we have had no contact from a parent/carer the school will respond in the following manner

First day telephone contact/text will be implemented for all pupils after 9.30am, further attempts at communication may also be made. If no response we may carry out a home visit to conduct a safe and well check.

With continued non-attendance the case will be brought to the attention of the Attendance Officer. Further action may include participation in attendance improvement initiatives, home visits and/or meetings between the school, parents/carers and pupils and, if appropriate, other agencies in an attempt to identify and solve the problems which are preventing the pupil from attending the school. In cases where attendance does not improve appropriate action will be taken.

Moving to a new setting

It is important that if families decide to send the child/children in their care to a different school they must inform us as soon as possible. Your child/children must continue their education at our school until their start date at the new school. Schools may be reluctant to take a child onto roll where attendance is low and so it is imperative that they continue to attend.

A pupil will not be removed from the school roll until we have received confirmation that they have started at the new school and the following information has been received and investigated.

The date the pupil is leaving this school and starting a new school.
The address of the new school, and confirmation from that school that the pupil has been admitted.
The child’s new home address.

The pupils’ school record will then be sent on to the new school as soon as possible. In the case of movement abroad records will be provided for the pupil to take with them.

In the event that the school has not been informed of the above information, the family will be referred to the Local Authority as a ‘Child Missing Education’. The school will complete a ‘Common Transfer File’ (CTF) for all pupils leaving the school for another school.

Attendance Policy

DfE Working together to improve school attendance Manchester City Council School Attendance Code of Conduct

St Andrew's C of E Primary School