The Department of Education has set out clear guidelines which schools are all expected to implement and explains the roles and responsibilities of both the school and families when it comes to attendance. This information is available to read in our Attendance Policy which is available on our school website.

The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable for their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent/carer to make sure their child receives that education by attendance at school. There is also a legal duty to ensure their child attends school regularly.

We do understand that there are times when your child might not be able to attend school due to illness, however we will work closely with our families to ensure that every child has good attendance and therefore a good opportunity to achieve to their full potential.

It is important that your child arrive(s) to school on time as it encourages the best start to their school day. Arriving late into school regularly can affect a child’s self-esteem as they have to enter a classroom when the children have already started work or an assembly with all year groups sat listening. Academically, a lot of the teaching of Maths and English is done in the morning which your child will miss the benefits of if they arrive late regularly, also class instructions and the structure for the day is shared at the beginning of the day.

In terms of what the impact of poor attendance looks like please see the information below.

• As a school, we will monitor attendance closely and work with families to resolve any poor or concerning attendance. Parents will all get termly attendance shared with them and the school will contact parents/carers as soon as attendance is dropping below good.
• We will work closely with families to support them and breakdown any barriers inside or outside of school which are affecting the attendance. This includes supporting the child through seeing our Listening Post, Family Support Worker or coming in early to be met by staff, offering families Early help, parenting courses etc.
• We will put plans in place with families which will be reviewed regularly to ensure that attendance is improving. This will involve monthly meetings with one of the Senior Leadership Team to work together to support and improve attendance and signposting parents to other services who may be able to help them if they are struggling to get their child into school.
• Where absences persist and all of the voluntary support is not working or not being engaged with, we will work together with the attendance officer and inclusion in putting a formal parenting contract in place or an education supervision order.
• Where all other avenues have been exhausted and support is not working or not being engaged with, following the Department for Education document, school will have to enforce attendance through statutory intervention or prosecution to protect the pupil’s right to an education.