Attendance Policy

KILDWICK CE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Learning to Live, Living to Love, Loving to Learn

School Attendance Policy

This policy should be read alongside other school policies which support learning.  This policy has been produced with regard to the DfE statutory guidance (applicable from 19.08.24) ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’.

School vision on attendance and the importance of school attendance

Our vision is to build strong relationships and work jointly with families, listening to and understanding barriers to attendance and working in partnership with families to remove them and develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance.

Improving attendance is everyone’s business. The barriers to accessing education are wide and complex, both within and beyond the school gates, and are often specific to individual pupils and families. Good attendance begins with school being somewhere pupils want to be and therefore the foundation of securing good attendance is that school is a calm, orderly, safe, and supportive environment where all pupils are keen and ready to learn.

Some pupils find it harder than others to attend school and therefore at all stages of improving attendance, schools and partners should work in partnership with pupils and parents collaboratively to remove any barriers to attendance by building strong and trusting relationships and working together to put the right support in place. Securing good attendance cannot therefore be seen in isolation, and effective practices for improvement will involve close interaction with schools’ efforts on curriculum, behaviour, bullying, special educational needs support, pastoral and mental health and wellbeing, and effective use of resources, including pupil premium. It cannot solely be the preserve of a single member of staff, or organisation, it must be a concerted effort across all teaching and non-teaching staff in school, the governing body, the local authority, and other local partners.

Roles and responsibilities

School and our day to day process for managing attendance:

• The school day begins at 9am and finishes at 3:30pm
• Morning registration takes place between 8:55am and 9am
• If a child arrives after 9am but before 9:10am when the register formally closes, they will receive an L code
• School asks Parents/Carers of late children to bring their children to the school office as all other school doors/gates will be locked. Staff will record how many minutes late the pupil is and the reason they are late on Scholar Pack. Parents/Carers who consistently bring their children to school late will be called in to a meeting with the Headteacher.
• If a child arrives after 9:10am and a suitable reason has been given, a U code - unauthorised absence - will be used
• If a child arrives after 9:10am and the reason for absence has not yet been established, an N code will be used until school can establish the reason for the child’s absence. Once the reason for the absence has been ascertained, the correct absence code should be entered but no more than 5 school days after the session
• If a child arrives after 9:10am but before the end of the session a U code – unauthorised - will be used
• When no reason for absence is established or the school is not satisfied that the reason given is one that would be recorded using one of the codes statistically classified as authorised, then an O code will be used
• Afternoon registration takes place from 12:45pm for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. And 1.30pm for KS2.
• If a child arrives after 12:50pm but before 12.55pm or after 1.30pm but before 1.35pm when the register formally closes, they will receive an L code. The same process and codes for the morning session will apply to the afternoon session.
• Notifications by Parents/Carers of pupil absences are recorded on Scholar Pack to track attendance.
• Our Admin team are responsible for first day calling and recording information received if parents have not contacted the school
• If no contact and/or explanation for absence from Parents/Carers has been received on the second day, the headteacher will begin the process to establish contact
• School will ask the Police to make a Welfare Call or make a referral to Social Care if Parents/Carers continually fail to answer phone calls or give reasons for absence for children with poor attendance
• Staff use Scholar Pack to record attendance and the school uses the Department for Education absence and attendance codes as outlined in Working together to improve school attendance
• Children may be marked as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances e.g. serious disruption to travel caused by the weather or an emergency school closure.
• The Headteacher or appropriate senior leader has responsibility for considering all leave of absence for exceptional circumstances including holidays, and will only authorise such requests in exceptional circumstances as stated in Working together to improve school attendance
• Poor attendance is monitored and if necessary, Parents/Carers will be asked to an informal meeting with the School Attendance Champion (Headteacher) to address the problems
• Parents of children who go below 93% attendance will be contacted by the Headteacher notifying them of this and asking to work together to improve the attendance
• Persistent Absence - With effect from 1st September 2015, a pupil will be deemed to be a ‘persistent absentee’ where their attendance falls below 90%. Missing this amount of school has a significant, detrimental impact on a child’s learning. Parents/Carers will be asked to attend a meeting with the Headteacher to identify how we can work together to improve their child’s attendance
• The Headteacher/School will liaise with the Early Help Service if a Family Outreach Worker is involved with the family.
• Promotion of regular school attendance will take place on a daily basis
• Parents/Carers will be asked to provide medical evidence for children with poor attendance due to illness.
• Regular analysis of attendance and absence data will take place to identify pupils or cohorts that require support with their attendance and put effective strategies in place.

Pupils:

• All pupils should be aware of the importance of regular school attendance. If a pupil is having difficulties which might be preventing them from attending school regularly, they should speak to their class teacher or headteacher.
• Pupils are expected to attend school regularly and to be on time for registration and ready to learn.

Parents and Carers:

• If a pupil is prevented from attending school because of sickness (both physical or mental health related) it is the responsibility of the parent to contact the school on the first day of their child’s absence. An I code will be given in this instance. If contact is not made with the school, an unauthorised mark - Code N - will be given until sufficient written or verbal confirmation of the absence is received.
• Pupils arriving late should be brought to the school office. Parents/Carers of pupils who are regularly late will be invited to school to discuss and support offered as appropriate.  
• Wherever possible, Parents/Carers should avoid making medical/dental appointments for their children during school hours.
• If a Parent/Carer wishes to request a leave of absence they should complete a Leave of Absence During Term Time Request Form found on the school website here.
• A Parent/Carer wishing to apply for a leave of absence for exceptional circumstances will need to apply using the Leave of Absence During Term Time Request Form.
• In line with our school vision, we will seek to work with families and local partners to resolve attendance issues.
• ‘As absence is so often a symptom of wider issues a family is facing, schools, trusts and local authorities should always work together with other local partners to understand the barriers to attendance and provide support. Where that is not successful, or is not engaged with, the law protects pupils’ right to an education and provides a range of legal interventions to formalise attendance improvement efforts, and where all other avenues have been exhausted, enforce it through prosecuting parents. Attendance legal intervention can only be used for pupils of compulsory school age and decisions should be made on an individual case by case basis’ – Working together to improve school attendance – August 2024

1. The law on school attendance and the right to full-time education

Under the 1996 Education Act, parents and carers are responsible for ensuring their children attend school regularly and punctually. Failure to do so could result in legal intervention taking place

The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.

Where Parents/Carers decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.

This is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances. The pupils with the highest attainment at the end of key stage 2 have higher rates of attendance over the key stage compared to those with the lowest attainment. At key stage 2, pupils not meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths had an overall absence rate of 4.7%, compared to 3.5% among those meeting the expected standard. Moreover, the overall absence rate of pupils not meeting the expected standard was higher than among those meeting the higher standard (4.7% compared to 2.7%).

All schools can grant a leave of absence when a pupil needs to be absent from school with permission. All schools are expected to restrict leaves of absence to the specific circumstances set out in regulation 11 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and schools maintained by a local authority and special schools not maintained by a local authority must do so.

2. Attendance legal intervention

Where a family chooses to take a holiday during term time which is not authorised, the absence will be coded as unauthorised - G code - and legal intervention may take place where 5 or more days of unauthorised absence are recorded.

If leave of absence is taken without the request having been agreed, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised with the appropriate code. This may result in legal intervention taking place.

Legal intervention may take place where there have been at least 10 sessions of unauthorised absence during the previous 10 school weeks. This includes unauthorised late arrivals, coded U, which count as unauthorised absence for the whole session.

In compliance with the Education Act 436A (Chapter 2 Part 6) the school will, after making appropriate checks, report all Children Missing from Education to the Local Authority, Education Welfare Service, who has a duty to investigate the whereabouts of such children and negotiate their prompt return to suitable education.

For further guidance please refer to:

NYC: - School Attendance | CYPSinfo (northyorks.gov.uk)

Working together to improve school attendance: applies from 19^th August 2024 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance

3. Who to contact for support with attendance

If you have concerns about your child’s attendance, the first person to speak to would be the class teacher of the child. They can be contacted via the school office. If this contact has not led to improved attendance, then Parents/Carers may be signposted to contact the headteacher to further continue the supportive process.

The school telephone number is 01535 633682. The school admin email is [email protected]

4. Attendance targets

Each school has an annual attendance target set by Senior Leadership and Governors. It is expected that the whole school community will work together to achieve this target which, for Kildwick CE VC Primary School it is 97%

Attainment is strongly linked to attendance, and research has shown that if pupils are to achieve their full potential, they must attend school regularly.

Attendance Codes used in School