Attendance

General principles

Good attendance means that children usually make good, consistent progress in their school work.

We rely on our partnership with parents to ensure that this is achieved.

Parents must contact the school if their child is absent by phoning the school office on the first day of absence. If we are uncertain about the whereabouts of a child we MUST, by law, contact the police

The school must be informed of any planned absence in advance. Any request for essential absence should be made to the school in writing. If a child needs to be taken out of school during the day for an appointment, parents must complete a form available from the school office.

Absence

If a child is ill or absent for any reason parents MUST contact the school by telephone (24hr answer phone) as soon as possible on the first day of the absence.

If the school does do not have prior notification of absence we will contact parents by phone and/or text to confirm the child’s whereabouts. If we are unable to contact parents we may contact the Police.

The law requires that all schools must now show the difference between authorised and unauthorised absence.

To notify us of a planned absence during school hours please use the following form:

Absent during school hours notification

Authorised absence can be:

Sickness
Medical or dental appointments which cannot be arranged outside school hours
Days of religious observance
Holidays with parents – In exceptional circumstances only up to 10 days

Unauthorised absence is:

Truancy
Staying at home to look after younger children or sick relatives
Going shopping or having hair cut
Any absence which the school has not been informed about, either by letter or telephone
Any family holiday of more than two weeks

LEAVE OF ABSENCE REGULATIONS

The Government issued new regulations in September 2013 regarding Leave of Absence; The Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended by Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

Head teachers shall not grant any Leave of Absence during term time unless they consider there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.
Parents do not have any entitlement to take their children on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must establish that there are exceptional circumstances and the Head Teacher must be satisfied that the circumstances warrant the granting of leave.
Head Teachers will determine how many school days a child may be absent from school if the leave is granted.
The school can only consider applications for Leave of Absence which are made by the resident parent i.e. the parent with whom the child normally resides.
Applications for Leave of Absence must be made in advance and failure to do so will result in the absence being recorded as “unauthorised”. This may result in legal action against the parent, by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice.
Applications for Leave of Absence which are made in advance and refused will result in the absence being recorded as “unauthorised”. This may result in legal action against the parent, by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice, if the child is absent from school during that period.
The Attendance, Compliance and Enforcement Service have the authority to consider issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for Leave of Absence in line with the Warwickshire County Council’s Non-School Attendance and Penalty Notices Code of Conduct. (A copy of which can be found at https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/pupilnonattendance).

Each application for a Leave of Absence will be considered on a case by case basis and on its own merits.

PLEASE RETURN WITH A COVERING LETTER EXPLAINING THE EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Application for Leave of Absence

Lateness

Being late into school can be distressing for the child and disrupts the normal morning registration process for the whole class.

Our school day starts at 8.55am. Registers are taken by the teacher directly onto SIMS at 9.00. Pupils who are not present for registration will be marked as Late (before registration closes). If they arrive post 9.30 this will be changed to Late (after registration closes) which is an Unauthorised Absence and an explanation will be required.

Children arriving at school after 8.55 am must be brought into school by the main entrance door and signed-in in the visitor book by their parent.

We contact parents to raise a concern when 5 incidents of lateness of either type occurs. A letter will be sent to parents and a follow up meeting held is necessary to discuss ways to improve timekeeping.

Monitoring Attendance

Registers are taken by teachers directly onto SIMS at the beginning of morning and afternoon school.

Office staff record absences using absence codes as defined in SIMS to correctly record the type of absence.

We aim to encourage 100% attendance in school and have a target of at least 95%. We contact parents to raise a concern when cumulative attendance for the school year falls below 90%. A letter will be sent to parents and a follow up meeting held is necessary to discuss ways to improve attendance.

If necessary the Head Teacher will refer an individual issue with the Local Authority Attendance, Compliance and Enforcement (ACE) service.