Attendance

Parents, carers and families play a highly significant role in attendance. Most children depend on you to bring them to school. Our relationship with you, our parents, carers and families, is vital.

Equally, good attendance begins with children believing that school is a place where they are safe, well- supported and belong. A sense of belonging, engagement and participation in all that school has to offer can be dependent on the relationship between the children and staff and between the children. Positive relationships between staff and pupils, and children and their peers are key factors in whether they want to attend school.

Why is it important for children to attend school?

Having a good education is important in ensuring that children have the best opportunities to flourish and thrive. Regularly attending school has a positive effect on children and young people and a strong impact on their learning including their development of literacy and numeracy skills. In 2018/19, just 40% of persistently absent (PA) children in Key Stage 2 achieved expected KS2 standards, compared with 84% of pupils who regularly attended school.

Being absent from school means a lost learning opportunity as lessons missed can mean a loss of key information and skills such as developing independence, teamwork and cooperation. If children do not attend school regularly, they may struggle to keep up with schoolwork.

Good attendance also has a positive impact on emotional and physical wellbeing. Attending school is important for social development. Spending time with other children in and outside of the classroom, builds and maintains friendships, develops conversational skills, confidence and self-esteem.

Celebrating our children's attendance achievements is another way to keep our children motivated and engaged. We celebrate attendance through our children's ‘small wins’ every single day as well as weekly class prizes and individual attendance recognition awards.

Some children find it harder than others to attend school. At all stages of improving attendance, we will work together with families and other agencies where appropriate, to put the right support in place to identify and remove barriers to attendance, engagement and participation in school life.

You can help by:

Please be alert to any particular reasons for growing or sudden reluctance to attend school such as complaints of boredom, problems with schoolwork, feeling worried, friendships, bullying- and discuss these with us.

If you suspect or know that your child is unhappy at school, contact us as soon as possible so that we can work with you to resolve any difficulties.

Illness:

If your child is ill or absent for any other reasons, please follow the schools’ procedures for notifying absence including contacting us on the first day of every absence and any subsequent days that your child is unable to attend (please see our attendance policy on our website or call into the office if you would like a copy).

The NHS has very helpful guidance to help you decide if your child is well enough for school, the guidance can be found at ‘Is my child too ill for school?’

- https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Your child(ren)'s wellbeing is our highest priority and if they are struggling or unwell, we will always call you to come and collect them.

Medical Appointments:

Please make every effort to make routine medical or dental appointments out of school hours or during the holidays. If this is not possible, please try to ensure your child attends school before and after the appointment.

Punctuality:

Please ensure your child arrives at school on time. Arriving late at school can be disruptive for your child, the teacher and the other children in the class. If getting to school on time is problematic, please speak to us as soon as possible so that the solutions can be explored.

Holidays:

Please think carefully about the hours of learning lost when children miss school and book all holidays outside of term time. Family holidays during term time will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances.

In addition:

Talk with your child about how important it is to attend school.

Continue to take an interest in your child’s education- asking them about their day and recognising their efforts and achievements at school.

Inspire them to think about what they would like to be when they grow up, and how school can help with that.

Ensure they have a good sleep routine.

What is Emotionally Based School Non-attendance?

Some children manage to come into school but are not attending lessons, therefore not engaging in the full aspect of school life. In some other cases, non-attendance becomes so entrenched, due to emotional factors, that children can experience lengthy absences from school. This is known as Emotionally Based School Non-attendance. The term ‘non-attendance’ is used rather than ‘refusal’ or ‘avoidance’, as children in this situation often want to go to school and aren’t choosing to refuse or avoid - they simply feel/ believe they can’t attend. Avoiding a situation, perceived to be threatening, brings about a temporary sense of relief that then acts as a powerful re-enforcer for the avoidance of anxiety. The relief ‘rewards’ the avoidance behaviour and at the same time strengthens the belief in not being able to cope with the situation. This can lead to a vicious circle which increases anxiety over time.

As a school, it is important that we consider how environmental and contextual factors may be promoting and/or maintaining non-school attendance. These include, for example, curriculum, teaching and learning, meeting additional needs and the promotion of wellness and resilience. Support plans will be tailored to explore and identify reasons known for school non-attendance and will include targeted, evidence-based interventions, strategies and actions to meet the needs of a child who is experiencing negative mood, feelings, attitudes and/or general anxiety linked with school-related activities. The support plan will follow a ‘plan, do, review’ cycle. Specialist advice and support will be sought from partners such as educational psychological services, educational welfare services.

Concerns about attendance

Attendance is monitored very closely and any child whose attendance falls below our tracking threshold of 97% is flagged so action can be taken to help prevent their attendance falling below 90% -the persistent absence threshold set by Government (19 days). A score of 90% in a test would be a fantastic result but 90% attendance means that a child will have missed around 100 lessons over a school year.

If attendance concerns arise, parents/carers will be asked to come into school to discuss their child(ren)’s absences and ways in which we can support you to improve their attendance.

School works closely with the Local Authority Education Welfare Services to help you and your child overcome any barriers or issues relating to attendance.

What does the law say?

The law (Section 444 of the Education Act 1996) entitles all children of compulsory school age to a full-time education that is suitable to their age, aptitude and any special educational need they may have. Parents have a legal responsibility to make sure their child receives that education by attendance at a school unless they are home educated. Where parents have decided to register their child at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. The school day is split into two sessions – a morning and an afternoon. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open unless, for example:

Your child is too ill to attend that session / that day

You have asked in advance and have had permission from the school. This is usually for a specific day and due to exceptional circumstances

It is a day that you are taking part in religious observance

Tameside Council is required to have a local Code of Conduct for issuing penalty notices for non-attendance at school. These must be adhered to by all schools, the police and any local authority officer issuing a penalty notice.

New Statutory Guidance

In the next stage of the Government’s plans to improve school attendance, new regulations came into force in August 2024.

A national framework for when Local Authorities need to consider if it is appropriate to issue a penalty has been introduced. It states that unauthorised absences of ten sessions (5 days), within a rolling period of ten school weeks is the threshold for this consideration. A school week is defined as any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be reached with any combination of unauthorised absence within ten school weeks such as holidays taken in term time and arriving late after the register closes (30 minutes after it is opened). These sessions can be consecutive or not. The period of ten school weeks can also span different terms or school years (for example, two sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further eight within the Autumn Term).

The new guidance states only two penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a three-year rolling period and any second notice within that period is charged at a higher rate:

The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.

A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.

There is no right of appeal by parents against a penalty notice.

A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within three years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those three years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution but may include other attendance legal interventions. If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500.

Once three years has elapsed since the first penalty notice was issued, a further penalty notice can be made.

A penalty notice may also be issued where parent(s) allow their child to be present in a public place during school hours without reasonable justification during the first five days of a fixed period or permanent exclusion. We must have notified you of the days the pupil must not be present in a public place. This type of penalty notice is not included in the National Framework and therefore not subject to the same considerations about support being provided or count towards the limit as part of the escalation process in the case of repeat offences for non-attendance. These penalty notices are charged at £120, reduced to £60 if paid within 21 days

Further information can be found at https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/08/19/fines-for-parents-for-taking-children-out-of-school-what-you-need-to-know/