Attendance Policy

 Policy details

Academy: Co-op Academy Smithies Moor

Document owner: Catherine Brackenbury

Approved by the Local Governing Body: January 2023

Shared with Staff: February 2023

Review January 2024

Contents

Rationale        3

Aims        3

Legislation and Guidance        4

Responsibilities        4

Safeguarding and Children Missing Education        5

Procedures        6

Attendance register        6

Unplanned absence        6

Planned absence        6

Following up absence        7

Reporting to parents        7

Authorised and unauthorised absences        7

Approval for term-time absence        8

Improving attendance        8

Challenging low attendance        9

Legal sanctions        10

Attendance monitoring        10

Monitoring arrangements        10

Links with other policies        11

Appendices        11

Appendix 1: Attendance codes        11

Appendix 2: The types of scenarios when medical evidence may be requested:        13

Appendix 3: Exceptional circumstances        13

Appendix 4: Summary of registration procedures        14

Appendix 5: Application for exceptional leave during term-time        14

Appendix 6  Additional information about contextual groups        16

Appendix 7: Persistent Absence        16

Appendix 8: Deletion of pupil from the admission register        17

Appendix 9: Health Protection for schools, nurseries and other childcare facilities (Public Health England information)        17

Rationale  

Good attendance is essential for pupils to acquire the knowledge they need and to develop socially and emotionally. Attendance below 96% is a concern as it reduces a pupil’s chance of success.

Parents of registered pupils have a legal duty under the Education Act 1996 (section 444) to make  sure that children of compulsory school age attend school on a regular and full time basis. We will support parents to perform their legal duty to ensure their children of compulsory school age attend regularly, and will promote and support punctuality in attending lessons.

For children of non-compulsory school age, we will apply the principles of this policy to encourage good attendance and punctuality from the outset.

Attendance is a key whole-school improvement issue: it has a direct relationship with the attainment of individuals and groups of students and the standards thereby achieved by the school.  

All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to a full time education which is suitable  to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. Regular, punctual attendance is valued and positively encouraged for all of our pupils. As such, children whose attendance is good will be rewarded regularly. Improved attendance and timekeeping will also be recognised.

Aims

We aim to:

• ensure that all children attend school regularly and on time to enable them to take  full advantage of the educational opportunities available
• promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence
• ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled
• act early to address patterns of absence
• ensure that promoting good attendance is a priority for all those associated with the school including parents, pupils,  teachers and governors

Legislation and Guidance

This policy meets the requirements of the  Working together to improve school attendance  from the Department for Education (DfE), and refers to the DfE’s statutory guidance on school attendance parental responsibility measures. These documents are drawn from the following legislation setting out the legal powers and duties that govern school attendance:

• Part 6 of The Education Act 1996
• Part 3 of The Education Act 2002 
• Part 7 of The Education and Inspections Act 2006
• The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 (and 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 amendments)
• The Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

This policy also refers to the DfE’s guidance on the school census, which explains the persistent absence threshold.

Responsibilities

The Trust and the Local Governing Board

The governing board is responsible for monitoring attendance figures for the whole school on at least a termly basis. It also holds the headteacher to account for the implementation of this policy.

The Headteacher

The Headteacher is responsible for:

• Implementation of this policy at the school
• Monitoring school-level absence data and reporting it to governors and the trust
• Supporting staff with monitoring the attendance of individual pupils
• Issuing fixed-penalty notices, where necessary

The Attendance Strategic Lead  and BCL attendance officer

The School Attendance Officer:

• Monitors attendance data across the school and at an individual pupil level
• Analyses and reports attendance data to the headteacher each half term
• Works with pastoral team to tackle and avoid persistent absence
• Arranges calls and meetings with parents to discuss attendance issues
• Advises the headteacher when to issue fixed-penalty notices

Senior Learning Mentor

• Follows the first day procedures for absence, supported by the administration team.
• Provides formal and informal support for identified pupils and their parents/carers
• Feedback weekly to the attendance strategic lead regarding attendance of pupils causing concern
• Actively promotes attendance incentives and make suggestions for strategies to improve attendance  

Class teachers

     Class teachers are responsible for:

• Recording attendance on a daily basis, using the correct codes, and submitting this information to the school office.
• Implementing the curriculum effectively. Leaders have deliberately selected content to promote careers, ambition and economic security. Teachers must ensure that they make appropriate links between attendance and achievement at school and how these aspects support pupils’ opportunities in their adult lives.
• Actively promoting own class and whole school attendance incentives, and making suggestions for strategies to improve attendance.
• Approach attendance and punctuality issues with pupils rigorously and sensitively.
• Ensure that pupils returning to class after an absence or lateness  are approached with sensitivity, are checked on and integrated into learning.

School admin staff

School admin staff take calls and class chart reporting absence messages from parents about absence and record it on the school system SIMS. They will make first day calls to parents and complete the home visit log that is sent directly to BCL for daily visits.  

They will encourage parents to bring their child to school if only mild ailments are reported. Similarly with medical appointments – admin staff encourage parents to arrange appointments outside of school times.

Safeguarding and Children Missing Education  

A child going missing from education or attending inconsistently is a potential indicator of abuse or neglect. Similarly, absences for pupils who are identified as vulnerable can be a safeguarding concern. School staff will follow the school’s procedures for dealing with children that go missing from education, particularly  on repeat occasions, to help identify the risk of abuse and neglect, including sexual exploitation, and  to help prevent the risks of their going missing in future.  

School will make the local authority aware of every registered pupil who fails to attend  school regularly and any children who have been absent from school, where the absence has been  treated as unauthorised for a continuous period of not less than 10 school days. - Education (Pupil  Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 regulation 12.  

The Strategic Attendance Lead and the Designated Safeguarding Leads will work closely to manage risks,  ensure appropriate multi-agency involvement where necessary, so that children and young people  receive the appropriate level of early help or statutory intervention to ensure they attend school  regularly.  

Link to Kirklees website - Children Missing in Education

We will make reasonable enquiries for pupils who aren’t attending or who are leaving. This includes:

• Completing home visits including speaking to neighbours to confirm the family has left
• Telephoning all known contacts
• Speaking to school friends and/or their parents
• Requesting copies of flight information
• Asking for the address the family is moving to
• Checking which school a child is expected to attend
• Requesting working contact details for parents including email addresses

Once pupils meet any of the criteria listed here, the Head of Academy will refer to the local authority CME team:

• Pupil has not returned to school for 10 days after an authorised absence
• Pupil has been absent without authorisation for 20 consecutive days
• Pupil has moved to another local authority but have not enrolled at a new school
• Pupil has left the country*

*In line with local authority guidance, pupils who leave the country are always referred to the CME team, regardless of whether or not parents/carers provide a forwarding address.

Procedures  

Attendance register

Pupils must arrive in school by 8.50am on each school day. The school external doors are opened at 8.45am The register for the morning session will be taken at 8.50am and will be kept open until 9am. The register for the afternoon session will be taken within 10 minutes of children starting their afternoon lessons.

Unplanned absence

The pupil’s parent/carer must notify the school on the first day of an unplanned absence by 8:50am or as soon as practically possible.

Parents must either call the school office, call in-person to the office or send a message through the Class Charts app to report their child’s absence. Parents calling the school office will either speak to the school admin staff or leave a voice message. If a parent of a pupil on the monitoring list (i.e. with attendance below 93% or a previous history of low attendance) has not spoken directly to a member of staff, a member of staff will call them back to discuss the absence with them.

We will mark absence due to illness as authorised unless the school has a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness.

If the authenticity of the illness is in doubt, and/or if the child has low attendance (90% or below) the school will ask the pupil’s parent/carer to provide medical evidence, such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence. We will not ask for medical evidence unnecessarily.

If the school is not satisfied about the authenticity of the illness, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents/carers will be notified of this in advance.

Planned absence

We encourage parents/carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment.

The pupil’s parent/carer must also apply for other types of term-time absence as far in advance as possible of the requested absence.

Lateness and punctuality

A pupil who arrives late:

• after 9am but before 9.20am will be marked as late, using the appropriate ‘L’ code
• After 9.20am will be marked as absent, using a U code.

Administrators will greet parents/carers and pupils arriving late through the main office entrance and will record on SIMs the reason given for lateness.

Following up absence 

Where any child we expect to attend school does not attend, or stops attending, by 9.30am the Learning Mentor/School Admin staff will:

• Follow up on their absence with their parent/carer to ascertain the reason, through a phone call
• Ensure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary
• Identify whether the absence is approved or not
• Identify the correct attendance code to use
• If a parent is not contactable and there is an existing safeguarding issue a home visit will be carried out. If the child’s safety could not be verified, 101 would be called and a welfare check would be requested.
• If a parent is not contactable and there are no safeguarding concerns, further attempts through BCL home visits will be made. At 10am other contacts will be called. If there is no information by 12pm, a home visit will be carried out. If the child’s safety could not be verified, 101 would be called and a welfare check would be requested.
• During home visits, if there is no response, BCL will contact the parents by phone. A report will be sent to the academy with the contact made with the family and any further actions.

Reporting to parents

Teachers report on attendance to parents on three occasions throughout the academic year. Two of these are as part of parents’ evenings where the teacher gives the child’s current attendance and outlines the impact this has had on their learning. At the end of the school year, the end of year attendance figure is shown.

Weekly texts are sent to parents of all children who have attended for 100% that week. This will be sent on a Friday afternoon.

Class attendance rates will be communicated to parents each half term via the newsletter and by child specific attendance letters.

Authorised and unauthorised absences

Every half day of absence from school has to be classified by the school as either authorised or  unauthorised. Authorised absence is where the Headteacher has either given approval in advance  for a pupil of compulsory school age to be away, or has accepted an explanation offered afterwards  as satisfactory justification for absence. All other absences, including persistent lateness, must be  treated as unauthorised.  

Absence can only be authorised by a person designated to do so by the Headteacher. [see The  Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 (SI No. 2006/1751) – Reg 7(1)].  

Approval for term-time absence

The headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to pupils during term time if they consider there to be ‘exceptional circumstances’. A leave of absence is granted at the headteacher’s discretion.

We define ‘exceptional circumstances’ as when:

• The leave would be of unique and significant emotional, educational or spiritual value to the child
• The benefit of the leave would outweigh the loss of teaching time
• The leave would be for a one-off, never-to-be-repeated experience.

The school considers each application for term-time absence individually, taking into account the specific facts, circumstances and relevant context behind the request. This includes the child’s previous attendance to that date including previous academic years.

Valid reasons for authorised absence include:

• Illness and medical/dental appointments
• Religious observance – where one day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the pupil’s parents belong.  If necessary, the school will seek advice from the parents’ religious body to confirm whether the day is set apart
• Traveller pupils travelling for occupational purposes – this covers Roma, English and Welsh Gypsies, Irish and Scottish Travellers, Showmen (fairground people) and Circus people, Bargees (occupational boat dwellers) and New Travellers. Absence may be authorised only when a Traveller family is known to be travelling for occupational purposes and has agreed this with the school but it is not known whether the pupil is attending educational provision

Improving attendance

Our school rewards good attendance and challenges low or falling attendance. We understand that low attendance is detrimental to children’s life chances. We therefore take the following steps:

• Weekly 100% attendance text sent home
• Half termly certificates for good and improving attendance in celebration assembly.
• Individual attendance improvements will be celebrated with certificates for pupils.

We raise the profile of attendance through:

• Curriculum links to careers through all subjects
• Our PSHE curriculum
• Assemblies
• Displays for attendance

Legal sanctions

The school or local authority can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age.

If issued with a fine, or penalty notice, each parent must pay £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. The payment must be made directly to the local authority.

Penalty notices can be issued by a headteacher, local authority officer or the police.

The decision on whether or not to issue a penalty notice may take into account:

• The number of unauthorised absences occurring within a rolling academic year
• One-off instances of irregular attendance, such as holidays taken in term time without permission
• Where an excluded pupil is found in a public place during school hours without a justifiable reason

If the payment has not been made after 28 days, the local authority can decide whether to prosecute or withdraw the notice.

Attendance monitoring

The school’s overall attendance and punctuality is reported to the Head Teacher on a half termly basis. It is reported to governors at AGC meetings. This monitoring is broken down so comparisons can be made between whole-school, disadvantaged, pupils with SEND, different classes and other key areas.

The Senior Learning Mentor monitors pupil absence on a weekly basis. The Senior Learning Mentor will record the attendance of persistent absentees on a weekly basis through the PA tracker document and communicate this with the pupil and the parent/carer.

This analysis is used by leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of this policy and guide their future actions in improving attendance.

Monitoring arrangements

This policy will be reviewed as guidance from the local authority or DfE is updated, and as a minimum every year by the Head Teacher. At every review, the policy will be approved by the full governing board.

Links with other policies

This policy links to the following policies:

• Child protection and safeguarding policy
• Behaviour policy

Appendices

Appendix 1: attendance codes

The following codes are taken from the DfE’s guidance on school attendance.

Note: during 2020-21, an X code is used when a child is required to miss school for Covid-19 related reasons such as needing to self-isolate.

Appendix 2: The types of scenarios when medical evidence may be requested:

  ▪ Attendance is less than 90%.  

▪ There are more than two illness periods of absences in one term.

▪ The same reasons for absence are frequently repeated.  

▪ Where there is a particular medical problem and school may need evidence to seek additional  support/provide support.  

• Where patterns of repeated absences has been identified

Appendix 3: exceptional circumstances

Procedure for requesting a planned absence  

• All leave of absence requests will be unauthorised unless the circumstances are exceptional and  the parents/carers can evidence that there are exceptional circumstances as to why the leave  has to be during school time. A parent/carer should complete an Exceptional Leave form  (available from the school office) and submit this to the school at least four weeks prior to the  date required. School will respond to the request within two weeks. The cost, convenience or  availability of a holiday will not be considered to be an exceptional circumstance.
• Absence for Religious Observance may be agreed by the Headteacher, but will not exceed two  days in any school year.
• Parents or carers who repeatedly take their children out of school without permission may be  issued with a Penalty Notice and they may face a possible prosecution in court.
• If the Headteacher deems that the reasons for the request are exceptional and authorises the  absences a reply confirming that the request has been authorised will be sent to the parent/carer.  
• If the Headteacher deems that the reasons are not exceptional and the leave of absence will not  be authorised, a reply informing the parents of this decision for each child and warning of the  legal implications of the absence being taken will be sent to each parent.
• If once notified in writing of the decision to unauthorise the leave of absence, the absence is taken  it will be marked as an unauthorised absence on the pupils register. If the trigger of 10  unauthorised absences (sessions) is met then the absences should be referred immediately to  the Children Missing Education Team (CME) at the Local Authority for consideration and could  result in the issue of a fixed penalty notice.  

Appendix 4: Summary of registration procedures

Appendix 5: Application for exceptional leave during term-time

     Our policy

Requests for absence in term-time will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

Absence in term-time will only be authorised if parents or carers make a request to the school in  advance on the appropriate form and can show that there are exceptional circumstances as to why  the leave has to be during school time. The cost, convenience or availability of a holiday will  not be considered to be an exceptional circumstance.

Pupils who exceed the 20 days unauthorised absence could face being taken off roll for the academy.

Parents or carers who repeatedly take their children out of school without permission may  be issued with a penalty notice and face possible prosecution in court.

Appendix 6  - additional information about contextual groups

Families of members of the Armed Forces

Families of members of the Armed Forces are likely to move frequently – both in UK and overseas  and often at short notice. Schools and local authorities should contact the MOD Children’s Education  Advisory Service (CEAS) on 01980 618244 for advice on making arrangements to ensure continuity  of education for those children when the family moves.  

Children of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) Families  

Research has shown that many children from these families can become disengaged from  education, particularly during the secondary school phase. Pupils are particularly vulnerable at  transition from primary to secondary where a GRT pupil leaves school without identifying a new  destination school. Schools should inform the CME team as soon as they become aware that a  secondary school application will not be made for a GRT pupil. Although many are settled, some  GRT families move regularly and their children can be at increased risk of missing education.  Schools should work with families to minimise disruption to GRT pupils’ education, for example if  the family need to travel in order to work, they should be supported to dual register with other  schools.  

Appendix 7: Persistent Absence  

The definition of persistently absent (PA) pupil is a pupil with 10%  or more absence (90% or less attendance). The table below, derived from the census guidance,  gives an indication of the minimum number of sessions a pupil would miss by each half term to be  classed as PA.  

Appendix 8: Deletion of pupil from the admission register  

Schools must notify the local authority when they remove a pupil from roll in line with the Removing  Pupils from Roll:

Guidance for Schools.  

All schools must inform their local authority of any pupil who is going to be deleted from the  admission register where they:  

▪ have been taken out of school by their parents and are being educated outside the school system,  eg: elective home education (EHE). Schools must not seek to persuade parents to educate their  children at home as a way of avoiding excluding the pupil or because the pupil has a poor  attendance record  

▪ have ceased to attend school and no longer live within reasonable distance of the school at which  they are registered  

▪ have been certified by a medical professional as unlikely to be in a fit state of health to attend  school before ceasing to be of compulsory school age, and neither he/she nor his/her parent has  indicated the intention to continue to attend school after ceasing to be of compulsory school age  

▪ are in custody for a period of more than four months due to a final court order and the proprietor  does not reasonably believe they will be returning to school at the end of that period  ▪ have been permanently excluded.

Appendix 9: Health Protection for schools, nurseries and other childcare facilities (Public Health England information)

Exclusion table

*denotes a notifiable disease. It is a statutory requirement that doctors report a notifiable  disease to the proper officer of the local authority (usually a consultant in communicable  disease control).