Attendance – Let’s Aim High!
Attendance Impacts on Attainment
It will be no surprise to you that during our pupil progress meeting we see a direct correlation between those children who make good progress and those who attend school regularly.
Not being in school has a negative impact on the progress children are making in their learning. By missing out on regular schooling some children are having to constantly try to play catch up. Having chunks of knowledge missing really disadvantages your children compared to their classmates (for instance if they miss out the lesson that explains what a fraction is they will really struggle when they start doing calculations involving fractions with different denominators).
What is good attendance?
90% attendance sounds good, but this means that your child is missing:
- One half day each week
- Nearly four weeks every school year
- Over one school year in a school career
We want all our students to aim for 100% attendance and punctuality. We define good attendance as consistently over 96.0%:
100% Excellent Attendance
Over 96.0% Good Attendance
Attendance Letters
Each half term we look at whole school attendance, including all the reasons for absence and we will contact, by letter, those parents whose child has an attendance level below 90%.
We aim to work with parents/carers to help improve a child’s attendance so that all children can benefit from being in school regularly and achieving their full potential. You may have had discussions with your child’s class teacher at parents evening last term regarding their attendance.
Please see our Attendance Policy and Attendance Tiers for further information.
Don’t be Late
It is really important that your children are in school, on time every day.
Children who are regularly late can never recover certain essential parts of their school day such as: settling down to get ready to learn, early reading time, the lesson’s introduction, important announcements, discussions, questions, explanations and the thinking that makes learning come alive and gets them ready for the rest of the day.
You may think that your child is only missing a few minutes in the morning but a pupil who is 10 minutes late every day, will miss over 31 hours of teaching during the year. That’s a large number of teaching hours that cannot be replaced.
Thank you to the vast majority of families who ensure that children are on time every day.
From 8.40am, children come in to school and are expected to read quietly. In this time we target readers as part of an early morning intervention. Punctuality is important because children who arrive after this time are missing valuable reading time which is crucial to their progress.
It is also important that parents are on time at the end of the day too.
If you are going to be late please contact the school office so we can let your child know. This will help reduce any anxieties they may have and allows us to get them to the office for your arrival.
Sickness
Children do get ill which does mean they may need to have a few days off of school. I am aware however that sometimes children are missing school when they could actually be in. Sometimes it is worth children coming into school and giving it a go! The traffic light guidance below may help you decide if your child is well enough to come into school.
If your child is having a regular, reoccurring medical issue please let us know. We could get the school nurse involved and hopefully address your child’s medical needs and improve their attendance.
Who to Contact
If you need to talk to someone about your child’s attendance and punctuality, please see one of our office staff who will sign-post you to the best member of staff to support you.
To report your child’s absence please download the Studybugs app, or call the office 01273 418416.
Medical Appointments
We request that, where possible, routine medical and dentist appointments are arranged outside school hours as these appointments will affect your child’s percentage attendance.
We do understand that some appointments, such as hospital consultations are not always possible to arrange outside of school hours. However, if your appointment time allows your child to come to school for registration and then leave later this will have a positive impact on their attendance. Likewise, if they are able to be back in school after their appointment this will also have a positive impact. Please ensure that you provide the school office with letters or texts which evidence these appointments.
Holidays in Term Time
We fully understand that it is cheaper to go on holiday during term time but as a school we can only authorise an absence during term time in exceptional circumstances. A cheap deal is not deemed an exceptional circumstance.
On 1st September 2013, the Government rules changed in relation to holidays or trips during term time. We are no longer allowed to authorise leave for holidays or trips during term time.
Parents need to be aware that if their child is out of school for holidays or trips, legal action for unauthorised absences can be taken.
- Each parent/carer will receive a Penalty Notice of £120.00 for each child. This will be reduced to £60.00 if paid within 21 days of the fine being issued.
- Any such Penalty Notice or prosecution may relate to your child’s attendance record both prior to and subsequent to this letter.
- Each parent/carer may receive a court summons, which may lead to a criminal record and a fine.
- Your child is also at risk of losing their school place
The Government have made it very clear that children have 13 weeks holiday from school to use to go away.
Unauthorised Absences from school – Fixed Penalty Notices
The school adheres to the Brighton and Hove City Council’s Code of Conduct with regards to student attendance. It may therefore be necessary to issue fixed-penalty notices in some circumstances.
Fixed Penalty Notices are issued by Brighton and Hove Council in line with the current DfE guidance ‘Working Together to improve school attendance’. This guidance is statutory and came into effect on 19th August 2024.
The national threshold for triggering a Fixed Penalty Notice is met when a pupil has been recorded as having had unauthorised absence for 10 or more sessions (5 or more school days) in a period of 10 school weeks.
The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.
