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Attendance and Punctuality
Attendance Winners
School Attendance-Covid Update September 2020
Regular and punctual attendance is essential. Parents / guardians must ensure that their children do not miss school for any reason other than genuine illness.
All absences, for any duration, must be reported and explained by a the parent/guardian to the school either by telephone, letter or in person. Absence letters must be written, dated and signed by the pupil's parent/guardian.
Pupil's who are absent for medical including dentist appointments should bring the appointment card to the school office as evidence.
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:
- Do not achieve well in exams
- Find it difficult to maintain friendships
- Are more likely to become involved in crime
- Miss out on opportunities in further education and the world of work
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:
- Issuing penalty notices: Each parent receives a penalty notice for each child who has unauthorised absence. The penalty is £60 or £120 depending on how soon payment is made. So, if there are two parents and two children the total penalties could be up to £480. Failure to pay may result in prosecution.
- Taking parents to court for unauthorised absence: Education Act 1996 Section 444(1) - court can fine each parent up to £1000 per child, order payment of prosecution costs and/or impose a Parenting Order.
- Taking parents to court for persistent unauthorised absence: Education Act 1996 Section 444(1A) - court can fine each parent up to £2,500 per child, order payment of the prosecution costs, impose a Parenting Order and/or sentence a period of imprisonment of up to 3 months.
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.
Could You Be An Attendance Hero
All children benefit from regular and punctual school attendance, which is essential to every child’s academic, social and personal development. Being absent from school means a lost learning opportunity. Like you, we want our children to achieve their full potential; therefore, we open our gates . We are currently operating a staggered start and finish times as a result of COVID-19. In 'normal times' the gate opens at 8:45am for a 8.55 start. The school day finishes at 3.10 pm and 2.10pm on a Friday.
LATENESS TO SCHOOL
According to DfE guidelines, registers must be closed after a certain time in the morning. Therefore, if a student arrives after 9.15am, they cannot receive a late mark but have to be marked as absent for the whole morning session. If the lateness is due to a legitimate reason e.g. a medical appointment, the absence can be authorised. Otherwise, the session is marked as an unauthorised absence. A letter is sent home to parents informing them of this and the fact that they could be liable for a fixed penalty notice if the child receives 10 or more unauthorised absence sessions.