Attendance at School
What does an absence from school mean for your child?
If a child is consistent at gaining 90% attendance it sounds pretty good but what does it mean?
90% attendance a year means they are missing the equivalent of:
- ½ day of school missed every week
- 4 weeks of school missed a year or
- 1 whole year over the child’s school life
Research by the DfE suggests that a child absent from school for 17 days each academic year equals a whole GCSE grade drop in achievement.
What is the impact?
Even a few days absence can impact on a child’s progress:
Children with less than 6 days absence = 91% achieved at least 5 GCSEs
Whereas those with more than 12 days = 36% achieved at least 5 GCSEs
So, 90% is not as good as it first seemed.
Illness and Appointments
If your child is going to be absent due to illness, please inform the school office before 9.00am. If your child has not arrived at school on time and we have not been informed we will ring to check they are safe and see why they are not in school.
If your child has a medical or dental appointment, please inform the school office beforehand.
Children must be collected from the school office for appointments, where they should be signed out before leaving school. If a child returns to school during the day, they must be signed back in.
Absence for Exceptional Circumstances
You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly. If your child accrues 10 consecutive sessions of unauthorised absence you may be liable for a penalty notice (one days absence equals two sessions and a five day absence is equal to 10 sessions) or if you accrue 10 unauthorised sessions over a 13 week period.
An unauthorised absence is any absence that the Headteacher has not given permission for or where an explanation has not been provided by the parents.
Parents must complete a request for absence from the school in exceptional circumstances form and submit this to the school, allowing for sufficient time to enable the school to consider the request and inform parents of the decision.
Where parents do not follow the school's procedures of submitting a request and simply remove their child without seeking prior approval, a warning may not be given and you may be liable for a penalty notice.
If your request is declined or you do not follow the correct procedure and you still take your child out of school each parent within your household may be issued with a £60 penalty notice for each child you have taken out of school. If a penalty notice remains unpaid after 21 days it will increase to £120. If after 28 days it remains unpaid you may be summonsed to appear before Magistrates to explain why your child has unauthorised school absences and you may be liable for a fine of up to £2500.
For further information please read the ERYC Information for Parents document.
Further details and an ’Absence from School for Exceptional Circumstances Request Form’ are available from the school office.
Absence data
We are required to report on the rates of authorised and unauthorised absences for the school.
2019/20 Authorised absences 3.4% Unauthorised absences 0.6%
2020/21 Authorised absences 3.1% Unauthorised absences 0.4%
2021/22 Authorised absences 4.9% Unauthorised absences 0.7%
2022/23 Authorised absences 4.4% Unauthorised absences 0.9%