Attendance and Punctuality
What is good attendance?
Good Attendance is vital if your child is to benefit fully from their education. There is a clear link between attendance and attainment. Being in school is important to a child’s achievement, wellbeing, and wider development.
At Toll Bar Primary School we expect all children to have a minimum of 96% attendance.
An attendance record of 90% might seem good but is equal to 1 day missed per fortnight.
An attendance record of 80% might seem acceptable but is equal to 1 day missed per week.
Why is attendance and punctuality important?
Excellent attendance and punctuality are important to ensure that your child achieves their full educational potential. Good attendance can have a significant, positive impact on your child’s social development, academic progress and future life chances.
In a year, there are 190 school days. This leave 175 days for holidays, shopping and fun!
What can parents do to help improve attendance and punctuality?
Parents play a very important role in ensuring good attendance and punctuality. Some things which will help your child are:
- Encourage full attendance.
- Stress the importance of full attendance to your child.
- Do not allow your child to have time off for minor complaints or illnesses: if they are well enough to be up and about, they are generally well enough to attend school.
- Monitor your child’s attendance.
- Do not take holidays in term time.
- Try to book any medical or dental appointments out of school hours where possible or make them towards the very end of the school day.
- Ensure your child is up, ready and on time to school
- Ensure all school items are ready the night before
- Set an alarm to be up on time
What to do if your child is not well enough to come to school?
All absences must be reported to the school before 9am each day and followed up with supporting evidence where possible. Evidence can be a letter, text, prescription, appointment card or prescribed medication with a named label (or something else considered suitable). Please note that an explanation given by a parent for an absence is not always sufficient for the absence to be authorised. it is down to the school to determine if the absence should be authorised or not. Please note that as part of our procedures, we may also complete routine safe and well checks which may include a visit to your home.
What happens if your child's attendance drops below 96%?
Attendance is monitored regularly and should your child's attendance become lower than our expected level of 96% we will inform you so that you are aware. Attendance can drop for many different reasons and we believe by informing parents at an early stage, this can have a positive impact and can highlight any emerging worries/concerns that your child may have and help improve attendance. If you notice your child start to have time off school, there are many things a parent can do to encourage attendance, such as:
- Talk to your child to find out why they are not wanting to be at school
- Talk to the class teacher
- Talk to the office staff
- Contact us by email (attendance@tollbar.doncaster.sch.uk
There may be a simple explanation that can be sorted very easily. Don't let your chlid get into the habit of having days off. Ensure that they have a regular routine established which will promote good attendance, help improve social skills and build their life skills for the future.
If attendance continues to decline, we will work with parents and children to help see improvements. This may involve attendance meetings with school, meetings with the Local Authority, home visits, support plans etc. We may speak to your child to gain their thoughts and feelings on attendance and punctuality. We will work with parents to identify and offer any further support that may be necessary to help improve attendance.
If attendance declines further and no improvements are made then we may issue an Education Penalty Notice (fine). Any further declines following two penalty notices in a three year period, may result in interventions from the Local Authority Welfare Service, such as Attendance Contracts, Education Supervision Orders, Notices to improve or prosecution.
We would like to encourage all children to have an attendance figure above 96% and we are here to help support you and your child in achieving this. Therefore, please feel free to contact us for any support that you think you may need.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/schools/promoting-good-attendance
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence
Helpful information:
Punctuality
The school doors open at 8.30am and the gates will close promptly at 8.45am. If you arrive with your child after this time you will have to sign in at the office.
If your child arrives to school after registration closes you still need to sign in at the office. You will be given a U mark that shows as being in school but will not count towards attendance and will mean they have an unauthorised absence - this will impact attendance. In accordance with Local Authority Regulations this will be included on any attendance monitoring done by school and can be included in the issuing of an Education Penalty Notice if the problem persists and if any identified support does not improve your child's lateness.
If you have any worries or concerns regarding punctuality please contact us to discuss this.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/schools/punctuality
Helpful information:
Persistent Absence and Severe absence
A pupil becomes a Persistent Absentee when they miss 10% of their schooling across the academic year for whatever reason. A pupil becomes a severe absentee if they miss 50% of their schooling across the academic year. Absence at this level is doing considerable damage to any child’s educational prospects. Any pupil with an attendance of 90% or below are automatically placed on the Persistent Absent List and this is closely monitored by school and the Local Authority. We need parents’/carers’ full support and co-operation to tackle these absences. With support, pupils are able to improve attendance and be removed from this list once attendance is above 90%.
Leave of absence (including holidays in term time)
Parents are urged not to take your child out of school for Leave of Absence. Any absence from school interrupts a child's learning and they may find it difficult to pick up their learning when arriving back to school after a lengthy period of time. If you still wish your child to have a period of time off school that is not for illness we need a Leave of Absence form to be completed at least 4 weeks prior to the leave request in line with our attendance policy. This is a requirement for safeguarding reasons and also means you do not need to call us for every day that your child is absent from school during this time.
On the Leave of Absence request form, you are required to give details of why you are requesting leave. This will be passed to the Head teacher and a decision will be made as to how this will be recorded on the register. You will be notified by letter of this reason.
Should you request the leave of absence for a holiday, please note that in line with government legislation no requests for holidays can be authorised except in exceptional circumstances. For School to be able to consider an exceptional circumstances request, a form from the office must be submitted at least four weeks before the proposed holiday. School will inform you of its decision at the earliest possible time. Please note that if an absence is taken which appears to look like a holiday then the school may treat this in the same way as an unauthorised holiday in term time.
All holidays will be classed as unauthorised, unless you receive written confirmation otherwise. There are no exceptions.
All holidays that are unauthorised will be referred to the Local Authority for an Education Plenty Notice (fine) to be issued. The fine will be sent directly from Doncaster council after the absence has been taken.
The Department of Education does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/schools/holidays-during-term-time
Helpful Information:
What are the Penalties?
Please be aware of the new legislation by the Government, from August 2024 the PENALTY NOTICE, for school absences across the country will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days, this will reduce to £80 if paid within 21 days.
If a parent receives a SECOND PENALTY NOTICE for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days. (no reduction if paid earlier)
Fines per parent will be capped to two fines within any three-year period for the same child.
Once this limit has been reached, other action’s may be considered like an Attendance contract, Education Supervision Order or Prosecution, these will be considered if the school attendance of the child is not secured.
Statutory Requirements, the Law and the Local Authority
Registers are legal documents; regulatory requirements placed on schools regarding the keeping of registers are to be found in the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations 2024.
Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states that parents/carers are responsible to ensure their child receives a suitable education.
Under section 444(1) and 444(1a) of the Education Act 1996, a parent who fails to ensure their child attends the school at which they are registered, is guilty of an offence.
Education Penalty Notices have been introduced under the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 as an additional sanction to address the problem of poor school attendance.
Toll Bar Primary School work together with the Local Authority to ensure that parents/carers fulfil their responsibility. There are a range of legal sanctions that may be imposed for dealing with unauthorised absence: Education Penalty Notices, Attendance Contracts and Orders, Education Supervision Orders or referral to the Magistrates Court which can recommend fines (up to £2500) or up to 3 months in prison.
Attendance changes will be implemented from 19/08/24
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance
Working Together to Improve School Attendance Booklet (from 19/08/24)
Summary Table of Responsibilities (From 19/08/24)
For information and guidance in relation to the Local Authority and school attendance, please take a look at the following website:
https://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/schools/attendance-and-pupil-welfare-service
Other useful websites in relation to school attendance:
NHS - Is my child too ill for school?
Illness Guidance
