At the Rosary School, we encourage all our pupils to be an Attendance H.E.R.O.
At the Rosary Catholic School we recognise the importance of being in school on time everyday and encourage all our pupils to be an attendance hero. Each half term we celebrate attendance with a disco for those children in school everyday, on time. We realise that illnesses do happen and there are times when children can't attend and so we also have our class reward for the class with the highest attendance for the half term.
How to help your child.
Please ensure your child is in school on time everyday. Breakfast club is open from 8.25am every morning with the school gate opened at 8.35am. Registration is at 8.55am and anyone arriving after this time is marked as late. Children arriving late miss out on learning time and disturb the learning of their classmates.
First Day Contact
If your child is going to be absent from school for any reason at all, please contact the school office on the first day of your child’s absence.
Failure to contact the school may result in:
a call from our school office
a home visit from our Pastoral Support Manager
Continued absence and/or failure to contact the school may result in:
prosecution through the courts
police intervention
Please note: The Rosary Catholic Primary School has a duty of care once your child enters the education system. If we do not know why a pupil is absent and we are concerned by the unknown absence the school may have no alternative but to contact the police and report the pupil as missing.
It is important that you contact the school as soon as possible and maintain communication with school throughout your child’s absence.
Holiday Requests
Did you know?
Pupils only spend 190 days each year in school.
Pupils who lose time from school do not do as well as they could.
A 2013 amendment to The Education (Pupil Registration)(England) Regulations 2006, means that Headteachers can’t authorise leave during term time. Court action could result in you having a criminal record.
Please consider carefully before taking children out of school for holidays.
Monitoring Attendance
As a school we monitor attendance on a weekly basis; this information is shared through our newsletter. If attendance falls below 90% you will receive a letter to inform you that it has become a concern and attendance will be carefully monitored. If attendance continues to decline, parents will be invited into school to discuss issues that may be impacting attendance and informal support offered. If despite this support, attendance continues to decline, families will be invited to work with school using an Early Help plan. If school based support does not have the intended impact, it may sometimes in the best interest of the pupil to refer to the LA legal department. In these circumstances the following will apply.
Section 23(1) Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2007: Penalty notices may be issued to the parent of pupils who have unauthorised absence from school for first offences. (In cases of excessive absence, or repeat offences, whether for ongoing absence or leave in term time, the matter may be referred straight to Court)
The amount of the penalty is £60.
If this is not paid within 21 days, the amount rises to £120.
If not paid within 28 days, the Local Authority may prosecute under section 444(1) unless it comes to our attention that the penalty notice had been issued in error.
Section 444(1) Education Act 1996: “If you are the parent of a child of compulsory school age who fails to attend school regularly, you are guilty of an offence.”
The court can fine each parent up to £1,000 per child, order payment of the prosecution costs, impose a victim surcharge, and/or make a Parenting Order.
Section 444(1A) Education Act 1996: If in the above circumstances you, the parent, know that your child is failing to attend regularly at the school and fail without reasonable justification to cause him/her to attend, you are guilty of an offence.”
The court can fine you up to £2,500 per child and/or sentence you to a period of imprisonment of up to 3 months, impose a victim surcharge and order payment of the prosecution costs.
Please note that:
Penalties and prosecutions are in respect of each parent for each child.
‘Parent’ includes any person who is not a parent of the child but who has parental responsibility for the child (and applies whether or not that person lives with the child) or who has care of him/her.
Our aim is to support you and not to prosecute families.
How do we monitor attendance?
For those children with attendance between 86% - 90% a letter will be sent to parents to make them aware that attendance is an issue. Parents will be given 4 weeks to improve attendance to above 90%; this will be monitored by the attendance team.
For children with attendance between 81% - 85%, the pastoral team will monitor every 3 weeks. This will allow parents a period of time to improve attendance, once above 86%, monitoring will be extended to 4 weeks.
For children with attendance between 76% - 80%, the pastoral team will be monitoring every 2 weeks and will be tracking improvements over the 2 week period.
For children with attendance below 75%, the pastoral team will monitor weekly.
All staff understand their role in safeguarding children and if attendance declines rather than improves, parents will be invited to a meeting and referrals made to the appropriate agencies if in the best interest of the child.
Arriving Late
When your child is late arriving at school, they miss the teacher’s instructions and the introduction to the lesson. This has a negative impact on your child’s education and is disruptive to their classmates. Your child may also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late. Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child.
It is important your child is in school every day. Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life. How does your child compare?
Attendance during one school year |
equals this number of days absent |
which is approximately this many weeks absent |
which means this number of lessons missed |
90% |
19 days |
4 weeks |
100 lessons |
80% |
38 days |
8 weeks |
200 lessons |
70% |
57 days |
11.5 weeks |
290 lessons |
It is a parent’s legal responsibility to ensure their children receive appropriate education. Failing to send your child to school regularly without good reason is a criminal offence. Absence disrupts the education of the individual pupil and the whole class. Are you aware that children who do not attend regularly:
Absence can only be authorised by the Head Teacher, within the boundaries set by the Education (Pupil Registrations) (England) Regulations 2006. Please remember that parental illness, going shopping, visiting family, truancy, not wanting to go to school, alleged bullying (speak to school immediately to resolve the issue) are not acceptable reasons to be absent. All of these will be recorded as unauthorised absence, including if your child arrives at school after the close of registration. Leave in term time will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. Legal action that may be taken include:
We would like to thank those parents who make sure their child is attending school regularly and are therefore benefiting fully from their educational opportunity.