Attendance
This is a brief summary of the main points of the Singleton Schools Attendance policy.
Aims
Our attendance policy aims to:
- Develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance.
- Have a clear school attendance policy which all staff, pupils and parents understand.
- Support pupils and their parents / carers in the establishment of the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality.
- Ensure that all pupils have full and equal access to the best education that we can offer in order to increase learning.
- Regularly monitor and analyse attendance and absence data to identify pupils or cohorts that require support with their attendance and put effective strategies in place.
- Build strong relationships with families, listen to and understand barriers to attendance and work with families to remove them.
- Enable pupil to progress smoothly, confidently and with continuity through the school.
- Make parents / carers aware of their legal responsibilities
Being at School
School education lays the vital foundations of child’s life. It has been proved that regular non-attendance can severely impede academic and social development. Parents / carers and the school staff should work in partnership in making educational success and in ensuring that all children have full and equal access to all the school has to offer. This is a successful school and your child plays their part in making it so. We aim for an environment which enables and encourages all members of the community to reach out for excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.
School Opening and Closing times
- Classroom doors open at 8:40a.m when all children come into school – we expect children to be in school at this time.
- Morning Registration closes at 8.50am
- Registers are marked by 8.50am and your child will receive a late mark ‘L’ if they are not in by that time.
- Children arriving after 8.40am are required to come into school via the school office. Parent/carer they must sign them in and provide a reason for their lateness which is recorded.
- At 9.10am (30 minutes after the start of the school day) the registers will be closed. In accordance with the regulations, if your child arrives after that time, they will receive a mark that shows them to be on site – ‘U’, but this will not count as a present mark and it will mean they have an unauthorised absenc
- The afternoon session starts at 1:00pm
- Afternoon Registration is 1.00pm
- Registers are marked by 1.05pm and your child will receive a late mark if they are not in by that time.
- The school day finishes at 3:15pm
When a child arrives on time:
- Registration takes place quickly and smoothly
- An activity is put on the board or out around the classroom
- The day gets off to a good start for everyone
- Everyone hears the information given and is included in important explanations and discussions. This ensures that everyone knows what to do and what is expected of them
When a Child Arrives Late:
- It interrupts concentration
- It wastes valuable learning time
- The teacher repeats information / instructions whilst others have to wait
- The late child is at an immediate disadvantage because they may have missed important teaching points, missed discussions where ideas are shared and will be generally unsettled
Late arrival at school is monitored by the Family Learning Mentor, who then reports directly to the Head and the Governing Body. If a pattern arises of children regularly arriving after 8:50am then parents will be invited in to school to discuss this and the attendance team at LCC made may informed.
All children must be picked up at 3.15pm; our staff have a variety of commitments after school –running clubs, staff meetings and courses and it should not be assumed that they are available to supervise children after this time. We do however have a 3rd party provider ACORNS who run the before and after school club provision.
Late collection will monitored by the Family Learning Mentor.
Taking the Register
By law schools must take a morning register and afternoon register and record the attendance or absence of every pupil.
During school hours the school staff are legally in loco parentis and therefore must know where the pupils are during the school day. If a pupil has to leave school for any reason during the school day, the parent / carer must contact the school with an explanation. Pupils leaving the school site during the day must sign out at the school office.
Pupil’s attendance and punctuality is recorded and will be passed on to a future school as necessary.
When Your Child is absent
By law, schools must record absences and the reasons given for the absence.
Absence Procedures:
If your child is absent you must:
- Contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence, either by phone or you can call into school and report to reception by 9:05am.
If your child is absent we will:
- Telephone you on the first day of absence if we have not heard from you;
- Invite you in to discuss the situation with our attendance lead and/or head teacher if absences persist;
- Consider using parenting contracts or panel meetings in order to identify barriers to regular attendance and agree targets for improvement;
- Refer the matter to the local authority school attendance team, where appropriate;
- Consider requesting that the local authority issue penalty notices in accordance with LCC’s Code of Conduct, or use other legal sanctions, as appropriate, in order to improve attendance.
Examples of Authorised Absences:
- Genuine illness of the pupil
- Hospital / dental appointment for the pupil
- Death of a near relative
- Religious observance (Faith of the parent / carer)
Examples of Unauthorised Absence:
- Sickness of a parent or other family member
- Inadequate clothing for school
- Child being used as a carer
- Problems with transport
- Non urgent medical treatment – eg. dental check-up, doctors’ appointments for minor ailments (these should be made after 3:15pm when school finishes).
- School refusal or truancy
- A birthday treat or shopping trip
- Family holiday
Whenever a child is absent from school, the parent / carer should:
- Contact the school before 9:05am on the first day of absence. If no notification of absence is received, the school office will contact the parent / carer to ascertain the reason
- Where possible let the school know in advance of any planned absences e.g. hospital appointments
- Where possible make medical / dental appointments out of school hours.
Are you aware that . . .
Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of others in the same class.
Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.
Attendance during one school year | Equals days absent | Which is approximately weeks absent | Which is this is the number of lessons missed |
95% | 9 days | 2 weeks | 50 lessons |
90% | 19 days | 4 weeks | 100 lessons |
80% | 38 days | 8 weeks | 200 lessons |
70% | 57 days | 11.5 weeks | 290 lessons |
Leave in Term Time:
Taking a child out of school in term time will affect their schooling as much as any other absence and we expect parents to help us by not taking children away in school time. Remember that any savings you think you may make by taking a holiday in school time are offset by the cost to your child’s education.
There is no automatic entitlement in law to take leave during school time.
All applications for leave must be made, 6 weeks in advance, by the parent of residence using the ‘Request for leave of absence’ form, available from the school website. These will be discussed in the Monthly Governors SHE meeting.
It is important that parents understand that leave in term time will not be agreed by us at any time unless circumstances surrounding the request can be evidenced, by parents, to be exceptional. Therefore, parents are advised to provide school with any relevant information regarding their request at the point of application if they believe the circumstances are exceptional. Information provided after a decision has been made may not be considered.
The Government has amended key legislation relating specifically to the authorisation of leave in term time which comes into force on 1st September 2013. This decision has been made to encourage schools to take a firmer stance on unnecessary absence and to dispel the myth held by many parents that there is an entitlement to time off school for holidays in term time.
The new legislation means that as of 1st September 2013 Headteachers cannot authorise any leave of absence during term time unless they are satisfied that there are “exceptional” circumstances to warrant the granting of leave.
Lancashire County Council attendance department explained the following examples are classed as exceptional circumstances:-
- Parents in Afghanistan – who miss school holidays
- Police – who annual leave can be dictated by certain, circumstances i.e. Riots/ critical incident or Olympics last year where annual leave holidays were all cancelled.
- Parents whose holidays are inflexible – in this circumstance parents would have to give schools the contact names of their employers to clarify this. (e.g. where a factory closes down for a set date a year and holidays cannot be taken out of this time)
Encouraging Regular Attendance
Pupils will receive school awards for regular or improved attendance.
How You Can Help
You can help your child by:
- Ensuring that you have everything they need ready for school the night before
- Ensuring regular bedtimes and wake up times on school days
- Ensuring they arrive at school punctually
- Talking to a member of the school staff if there is a problem
Attendance information for parents
Significantly above expectations = Above 99%
Above average expectations = 97%-99%
Average = 95% – 97%
Below expectations = 92% – 95%
Significantly below expectations =Below 92%
Please note if your child’s attendance drops below 93% then our Family Learning Mentor will contact you.
As a school we currently have attendance targets of 96%