Attendance Policy

Contents

1. CONTACT DETAILS
2. PROCEDURE STATEMENT
3. AIMS OF THE PROCEDURE
4. LEGISLATION AND GUIDANCE
5. PARTNERSHIP EXPECTATIONS
6. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
7. ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES
8. AUTHORISED AND UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE
9. CHILDREN MISSING EDUCATION (CME)

1. Contact List – September 2023

1. Procedure Statement

Calverley CE Primary School seeks to ensure that all its pupils receive an education which enables them to reach their full potential. There is a strong link between good attendance and increased attainment. Pupils who regularly attend school make much better progress socially and academically. Regular attendance enables pupils to adapt better to routines, schoolwork, and friendship groups.

The school aims to work in partnership with parents and other agencies to ensure that every child can get the best out of the educational opportunities provided.  

By working in partnership with parents and other agencies, we ensure that we have clear and robust strategies in place to manage and promote regular attendance for all students at the school.

We are committed to a whole school approach to attendance and a partnership relationship with parents and carers.

This attendance procedure is part of broader suite of safeguarding policies and should not be viewed in isolation. Safeguarding policies include the Child Protection Policy, Anti-bullying policy and behaviour policy.

3. Aims

3.1 The school aims to ensure that:

• Appropriate action is taken in a timely manner to safeguard and promote children’s welfare.
• All staff are aware of their responsibilities with respect to Attendance and understand the correlation with safeguarding.
• Parents, carers, and pupils are informed about the procedures for attendance and take an active role in promoting good attendance and punctuality.
• Pupils who achieve attendance and punctuality targets throughout the academic year are recognised and rewarded.

3.2 The responsibilities set out in this procedure apply (as appropriate) to all members of the school community including pupils, parents, staff, and governors. It is fully incorporated into the whole school ethos and culture.

4. Legislation and guidance

4.1 This procedure is based on the Department for Education’s guidance, Working together to improve school attendance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 2022

4.2 The Education Act 1996 states that:

• All pupils of compulsory school age receive a suitable full-time education by regular attendance at school or otherwise. 
• The Local Authority must provide school places to parents who wish their children to be educated at school.
• The school must complete attendance registers at the beginning of the morning session and during the afternoon session. 
• The school must report to the Local Authority pupils who are absent for more than ten days without explanation. 
• The Local Authority has a duty to ensure that parents fulfil their legal responsibilities.
• Failure by parents to ensure the regular attendance at school of a registered pupil is an offence punishable by law. 

Education Act 1996 (legislation.gov.uk) - Part 6

Education Act 2002 (legislation.gov.uk) - Part 3

6 Roles and responsibilities

At Calverley CE Primary School we work in an Attendance team with The Headteacher, the office administration team and the safeguarding team (including the Pastoral Lead)

6.1 Headteacher

The Head is responsible for:

• Ensuring every member of staff knows and understands their responsibilities for safeguarding and how this links with poor school attendance – ensuring compliance with Keeping children Safe in Education 2023. Keeping children safe in education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Developing good support for children with medical conditions (including the use of individual healthcare plans), mental health problems and special educational needs (SEND).  Ensuring compliance with Statutory Guidance for governing bodies of maintained schools and proprietors of academies in England December 2015 - Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions - Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

• Ensuring every member of staff knows and understands their responsibilities for attendance.

• Ensuring accurate completion of admission and attendance registers.

• Ensuring staff are actively working to maximise attendance rates, both in relation to individual pupils and whole school attendance.

• Having clear processes in place to address persistent and severe absence - pupils who are severely absent may be at risk of CCE/CSE/grooming etc. and this cohort must be made the top priority for action and support.  Ensuring all staff are aware of any potential safeguarding issues, ensuring joint working between the school, Children’s Social Work Services and other statutory safeguarding partners.  Often severely absent pupils have additional needs and therefore it is vital that schools ensure all appropriate services are informed and aware of the pupil’s absence so suitable support can be considered, and education provided/accessed.
• Ensuring that all staff adopt a consistent approach in dealing with absence and lateness.
• Monitoring and analysing data and trends.
• Reporting to the Governing Body and Trusts the attendance figures and progress to achieving the set targets.
• Reminding parents of their commitment to this procedure.
• Building and modelling respectful relationships with staff, pupils, families, and other stakeholders to secure their trust and engagement. Making sure there is a welcoming and positive culture across the school.
• Open and honest communication with staff, pupils, and families about their expectations of school life and performance so that they understand what to expect and what is expected of them.
• Liaising with other agencies working with pupils and their families to support attendance, for example, where a young person has a social worker or is otherwise vulnerable.
• Sharing information on and working collaboratively with other schools in the area/cluster, LAs, and other partners when absence is at risk of becoming severe or persistent.
• Ensuring the school attendance procedure is applied fairly and consistently and recognises the individual needs of pupils and their families who have specific barriers to attendance. Schools should consider their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

6.2 The School Attendance Team

The School Attendance Team is responsible for:

• Implementing the procedure with the Head.
• Offering a clear vision for attendance improvement.
• Championing and improving attendance.
• Ensuring the practice that is in place to address persistent and severe absence is robust.
• Evaluating and monitoring expectations and processes
• Oversight of data analysis -

• Monitoring and analysing attendance data regularly to allow early intervention to address issues. This includes, raising concerns with other agencies like children’s social care and early help services which are working with families.
• Robust school systems are in place which provide useful data at cohort, group, and individual pupil level to give an accurate view of attendance, reasons for absence and patterns amongst groups such as:

• children who have a social worker including looked-after children
• young carers
• children who are eligible for free school meals
• children who speak English as a second language
• children who have special educational needs and disabilities

• Keeping the Head and all school staff informed of attendance figures and trends by providing regular reports to enable them to track the attendance of pupils and to implement attendance procedures.
• Compiling attendance data for the Head, the Governing Body and the Local Authority.

• Ensuring a positive working relationship with the School Attendance Service is fostered, including attending Attendance Targeted Support Meetings.
• Communicating messages to pupils and parents.
• If required, holding regular meetings with the parents of pupils whom the school (and/or Local Authority) consider to be vulnerable or are persistently or severely absent to discuss attendance and engagement at school.
• Undertaking home visits in line with school’s safeguarding responsibilities to engage families and ensure children are safe.
• Identifying pupils who need support from wider partners as quickly as possible and make the necessary referrals.
• Making sure escalation procedures to address absence are initiated proactively, understood by pupils and families, implemented consistently and their impact reviewed regularly.

6.3 Teaching staff

Teaching staff are responsible for:

• Ensuring the effective whole school culture of high attendance is underpinned by setting an example of punctuality and good attendance.
• Implementing the procedure and ensuring it is applied fairly and consistently.
• Ensuring that the registers are taken at the start of the morning session and once during the afternoon session and are accurate and up to-date.
• Informing the school attendance team of any concerns.
• Emphasizing with pupils the importance of punctuality and good attendance.
• Reminding parents of their commitment to this procedure where appropriate.
• Building respectful relationships with staff, pupils, families, and other stakeholders in order to secure their trust and engagement. Making sure there is a welcoming and positive culture across the school.
• Modelling respectful relationships and appropriate communication for staff and pupils. This will help relationships between pupils and staff to reflect a positive and respectful culture. All staff members should: 

• treat pupils with dignity
• build relationships rooted in mutual respect and observe proper boundaries
• take into consideration the vulnerability of some pupils and the ways in which this might contribute to absence
• handle confidential information sensitively
• understand the importance of school as a place of safety where pupils can enjoy trusted relationships with staff and pupils, particularly for children with a social worker and those who have experienced adversity

• Promote the next lesson and the sequence of the lesson to motivate pupils to be in the classroom.
• Promote rewards and celebrate progress but continue to outline sanctions.
• Apply rewards and sanctions consistently.
• Proactively promote attendance practice as part of staff induction.

Attendance administration staff are responsible for:

• Ensuring the recording of attendance and absence data is accurate.
• Ensuring robust day-to-day processes are in place.
• Tracking and following up absence and poor punctuality (implement punctuality routines such as late gate or sign in procedures).

• Carrying out robust first day calling procedures including priority routines for vulnerable children including children with a social worker. If absence continues without explanation, the safeguarding team will be alerted in order to make further contact.  Identifying any absences that are not explained for each session and contacting parents to understand why, and when the pupil will return to school.
• Where absences are recorded as unexplained in the attendance inputting the correct code as soon as the reason is ascertained, but no later than 5 school days after the session.
• Keeping parents informed on a regular basis of their child’s attendance and absence record
• Implementing children missing education (CME) procedures when appropriate.

Attendance Pastoral Staff are responsible for:

• Holding regular meetings with the parents of pupils whom the school (and/or Local Authority) consider to be vulnerable or are persistently or severely absent to discuss attendance and engagement at school.
• Identifying pupils who need support from wider partners as quickly as possible and making the necessary referrals.
• Undertaking home visits in line with safeguarding responsibilities to engage families and ensure children are safe.
• Identifying and, where possible, mitigating potential barriers to good attendance in liaison with families and relevant support agencies.
• Where pupils have additional vulnerabilities, which may require multi-agency meetings trying to arrange those meetings outside of lesson time, where possible.

The Attendance Team between them are responsible for:

For pupils at risk of persistent absence

• Providing regular attendance reports to facilitate regular reviews with leaders (including special educational needs coordinators, designated safeguarding leads and pupil premium leads) for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
• Initiating and overseeing the administration of absence procedures.

This should include: 

• letters home
• attendance clinics 
• engagement with local authorities and other external agencies and partners
• working with families and the community to identify which methods of communication work best, recognising potential barriers in hard-to-reach families and finding methods that work and are understood
• consideration as to whether further interventions are required in line with the statutory guidance on parental responsibility measures 
• providing regular reports to leaders on the at-risk cohort
• providing regular reports/caseloads to local authority attendance team or independent attendance organisations to raise awareness of emerging at-risk pupils

For pupils who are persistently absent

• Developing and implementing persistent absence action plans with pupils and families which address barriers and help establish positive attendance routines.
• Identifying tailored intervention which meets the needs of the pupil.

• Leading daily or weekly check-ins to review progress and impact of support, make regular contact with families to discuss progress.
• Liaising with school leaders (designated safeguarding, SENDco and pastoral leads) on referrals to external agencies and multi-agency assessments.
• Coordinating and contributing to multi-agency meetings to review progress and agree on actions.
• Working in partnership with School Attendance Service and other agencies to ensure the appropriate use of statutory parental responsibility measures.
• Providing regular reports to leaders on the impact of action plans and interventions.  

7 Attendance procedures  

7.1 Registration 

• Registration takes place each morning at 9:00 am and each afternoon at 12:30am for KS1 pupils and 1:15pm for KS2 pupils pm.  

• Class teachers will enter a present mark (/) on the register for each pupil present and an absent mark for any pupil that is absent.

7.2 Responding to lateness  

• Pupils arriving in the classroom after 9.00am when the register has been taken are deemed to be late and will be marked as L code.
• From 9.15am and 1:30pm the pupil is deemed to be Late/absent. Any pupil arriving in school after these times will be marked U. In case of emergency the register shows the pupil is on the premises, but they will not receive a present mark toward their overall attendance.

• Parents/carers will be contacted by school if their child is persistently late: the school defines this as late on average of once a week.

7.3 Responding to absence

• Repeated absences will lead to detailed monitoring by the school attendance staff:
  • Whole school attendance patterns will be reviewed every half term to identify those pupils with attendance that is:
    • Persistently absent for the year to date
    • Persistently absent that half term
    • Showing 50% or more broken weeks in a given period
    • More than 1% unauthorised absence
    • Persistently late

• A review of these pupils will identify those with:
  • Known medical issues which have been authorised by the school and are deemed to either be unavoidable or not problematic
  • Absence for authorised or unauthorised special leave/holiday
  • Attendance which is deemed to be problematic
• School will organise meetings or phone calls with parents or carers to review and discuss attendance with a view to seeing improvements. 
• Targets for improvement will be clear and communicated to pupil and parent or carer. 

• School will work with parents to organise support to remove barriers to regular attendance. 
• Where there are persistent patterns of illness which have not improved to meet targets, parents may be asked to provide medical evidence to verify the illness such as evidence of doctor’s appointments.  Absences for illness without this may be unauthorised.
• Where the school identifies 10 or more unauthorised absences in any 12 week period, the FAST TRACK process will be considered.
• Where the school identifies persistent patterns of lateness (late on average once a week over the monitoring period) the school will work with parents to set a target for punctuality.  Where targets are not met and punctuality is before registers close, the school will consider moving the close of register for the pupil closer to 9am, thus rendering lates after this time unauthorised and therefore subject to potential further (legal) action.  Parents will be warned and then informed of both in writing.

• If attendance does not improve, school will refer to the local authority for legal action.

7.4 Requests for planned leave in exception circumstances

In considering any request for leave, the DfE advise that the following considerations are made to help inform decisions and policy.  These should be communicated to parents and carers.

Only exceptional circumstances warrant granting a leave of absence. A leave of absence should not be and from certain types of school must not be, granted unless it has been applied for in advance by the parent who the pupil normally lives with and the headteacher believes the circumstances to be exceptional. Schools must consider each application for a leave of absence individually taking into account the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind each request. Where a leave of absence is granted, the school will determine the number of days a pupil can be absent from school. A leave of absence is granted entirely at the headteacher’s discretion.

Guidance for parents on requesting leave for exceptional circumstances is included in Appendix 2

7.4 Working with the Local Authority School Attendance Service

• School works in partnership with the statutory School Attendance Service to devise a strategic approach to attendance through Register Checks and Targeted Support Meetings.
• The Headteacher/Attendance Champion (SLT) and the Attendance school staff will meet with an Attendance Improvement Officer from the School Attendance Service when required, to discuss and improve attendance for persistently absent or severely absent pupils.
• Action plans will be developed for persistently and severely absent pupils.
• If parents/carers do not proactively engage with support offered through the action plan, then formal legal intervention may be requested from the School Attendance Service.

Statutory intervention can include

• Penalty Notices

• Parenting Order

• Education Supervision Order

• Prosecution

8 Authorised and unauthorised and absence

8.1 Authorised absence

Authorised absence is defined as:

• Genuine illness

• Medical or dental appointment (where possible routine appointments should be arranged out of school time)

• Bereavement – (Headteacher’s discretion)

• Religious observance (The day must be exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parents belong)

• Approved leave in term time where there are exceptional circumstances, as agreed by the Headteacher.
• The pupil has a local authority licence to take part in a public performance and the school has granted leave of absence 

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

The following is taken largely from Leeds City Council Guidance for Schools on managing school attendance

2.3 Requests for planned leave in exceptional circumstances

This guidance aims to help headteachers/principles, governing bodies, and parents/carers to understand what could be deemed as an exceptional circumstance. To ensure that, as far as possible, a clear and consistent approach to leave in term-time is adopted.

From 1st September 2013, amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 made clear that headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 apply to all maintained schools, academies, free schools and independent schools.

Headteachers/principles may, on occasions, make a judgement that there are genuine and exceptional circumstances pertaining to a request to take a pupil out of school during term time.  Headteachers/principles should consider all requests for term time leave on their own merits.  There is no formal list of exceptional circumstances, but examples could include:                        

• death of parent/carer or sibling of the pupil

• life threatening or critical illness of parent or sibling of the pupil
• leave for armed forces personnel who are prevented by operational duties to take their leave at any other time
• leave of absence already granted by a previous school.
• Shift patterns: some industries and smaller businesses continue to utilise staggered, fixed leave periods for employees. This is an issue for parents/carers to raise with their employers, and for headteachers to consider.     

In considering any request for leave, the DfE advise that the following considerations are made to help inform decisions and policy.  These should be communicated to parents and carers.

Only exceptional circumstances warrant granting a leave of absence. A leave of absence should not be and from certain types of school must not be, granted unless it has been applied for in advance by the parent who the pupil normally lives with and the headteacher believes the circumstances to be exceptional. Schools must consider each application for a leave of absence individually taking into account the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind each request. Where a leave of absence is granted, the school will determine the number of days a pupil can be absent from school. A leave of absence is granted entirely at the headteacher’s discretion.

In Leeds, we also advise schools to consider the timing of the leave in the school calendar and that a planned request for leave during key transitions or exam periods should always be declined

Other categories of absence that should never be considered exceptional are:

• Availability of cheaper holidays
• Birthdays or birthday celebrations
• Trips to see sporting or musical events
• Day trip
• Shopping or visit to hairdresser
• Over-sleeping
• Taking a long weekend
• Family celebration

In addition, the school has considered the following circumstances which will not normally be considered exceptional:

• Different holiday dates for siblings in other schools
• Holidays taken during term time due to family experiences
• Caring for or visiting relatives who are sick, excepting the critical or life-threatening illness of a parent or sibling
• Leave for funerals or weddings except 1 day for funerals/weddings in the UK and 3 days for funerals/weddings overseas.  Evidence of the date of the wedding/ funeral may be requested.
• Travel to and from authorised sporting or performance events in which the pupil is participating other than on the day of the event, unless overseas in which case 1 day travel either side of the event may be authorised. Evidence of participation showing the date will be required.
• Leave for religious purposes.  This can only be authorised if the day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parents belong.  If requested, verifiable evidence of why the leave is required to take place during term time must be supplied.

In addition, a pupil’s prior attendance will also be taken into account when considering authorising exceptional leave.  Attendance which is already below (or likely to cause the pupil’s attendance to be below) the current school target and particularly below the threshold for persistent absence (90%) is less likely to be granted.

Parents should also note that children must not be withdrawn from school before the end of the school day except for in exceptional circumstances.  Parents intending to do so must request leave in advance and outline why they believe the circumstances to be exceptional in relation to this procedure.

Penalty Notices

Absences of 10 or more unauthorised absences (half days) in a 12-week period are likely to be subject to an immediate fixed penalty notice where these are coded G (family holiday not agreed).

The penalty notice application will be submitted by eForm within 10 school days of the child returning to school and include the registration certificate showing that the child has returned to school following the unauthorised holiday or declined exceptional leave.

• The child must be of statutory school age at the time of the offence.
• The registration certificate needs to show 10 or more unauthorised absences (half days) in a 12-week period 

If a penalty notice remains unpaid then the School Attendance Service will pursue legal action under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.