Attendance Procedure

Transcription

1 Attendance Procedure Issue date: 14/12/14 Adopted by Governors: December 2014 Updated by Kay Stark May 2016 Reviewed and Ratified June 2017 Review date: June

2 Attendance Procedure Education is important. Missing school means missing out. Children should be at school, on time and ready to learn, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Permitting absence from school without a good reason is an offence by the parent that can result in legal action by the Local Authority. Please see further guidance on the Cheshire East website: ol_attendance.aspx National school attendance data 2010/2011 showed that 90% of students with attendance of at least 96% achieve 5 or more A* - C grades at GCSE or equivalent. All children are sometimes unhappy about attending school. Families can be going through unsettled times that can make regular school attendance difficult. Any problems with regular attendance, especially any concerns about possible bullying or learning difficulties, are best sorted out between the school, the parents and the child at an early stage. If a child is reluctant to attend, it is never better to cover up their absence or to give in to pressure to excuse them from attending. This gives the impression that school attendance does not matter and may make things worse. Every half-day absence from school has to be recorded by staff at the school as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information about the cause of each absence is always required, preferably in writing. Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason like illness. Unauthorised absences are those which the staff at school do not consider reasonable or for which no leave" has been given. These are an offence by the parent and include: keeping children off school without a good reason truancy from a whole session absences which have never been properly explained children who arrive at school too late to get a mark taking holidays 2

3 Parents are expected to contact school staff and to work with them in resolving any problems together. This is nearly always successful. If difficulties cannot be sorted out in this way, the school may issue parents with a letter that details the concerns or may refer the child to the Education Welfare Officer from the Local Authority. He/she will also try to resolve the situation by agreement wherever possible but, if other ways of trying to improve the child s attendance have failed, these Officers can use legal proceedings against parents if required, including Penalty Notices (fines) or prosecution in the Magistrates Court. These are issued under section 444 of the Education Act or section 106 of the Education and Inspections Act At Church Lawton School all students who have attendance below 90% are discussed with the Educational Welfare Officer as they are seen as Persistent Absentees. Both the school and the Educational Welfare Service will intervene with these students and contact with parents will be made. Alternatively, parents or pupils may wish to contact the EWO themselves to ask for help or information. They are independent of the school and will give impartial advice. Their telephone number is Objectives To improve attendance and punctuality across the whole school. To reduce the percentage of unauthorised absence and increase the percentage of complete weeks. To create a culture in which good attendance is accepted as the norm. Demonstrate that good attendance and punctuality is valued by the school. Maintain and develop effective communication regarding attendance between home and school. School Staff Responsibilities Principal Ensure that the school s attendance policy is implemented and regularly reviewed. Ensure that the policy is communicated to children, staff, and parents/carers. Authorise or delegate that authority to authorise requests for absence. 3

4 Create a school ethos which values and promotes excellent levels of attendance and punctuality by all. Attendance Intervention Coordinator Ensure registers are properly maintained and absences followed up. Liaise with other senior staff on attendance related matters When necessary communicate with and meets parents/carers of those students experiencing attendance difficulties. Consult when appropriate with other agencies Process requests for authorised absences Celebrate good attendance. Class Staff Alert emerging patterns of absence to Attendance Intervention Coordinator. Promote habits of regular attendance and punctuality Set an example of punctuality by arriving for lessons on time. Accurately completes the registers twice a day. Pass on leave of absence requests from parent/carers to Attendance Intervention Coordinator. Administrative Staff Accurately input data from registers onto the MIS system Report any absence/punctuality problem to Class staff Record lateness Produce absence reports on a half termly basis. Parents Responsibilities Ensure a leave of absence form is completed and submitted to school in good time. Medical appointments are notified to the school without delay. Contact the school before 9am to advise of absence due to illness. The Education Act The Education Act states that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring their children receive a suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. It is the responsibility of the Local Authrity to ensure that parents meet these responsibilities. Attendance enforcement is usually carried out by the LA Education Welfare Service. 4

5 Procedures The school has a special responsibility to reduce the number of children whose attendance is below 90% over the school year. These students are called persistent absentees by the Government, whatever the reason for their absence. Special procedures may be applied to children at risk of falling into this category. Pupil Registration Registers Our school day has two sessions. Period 1 also counts as AM registration and afternoon form time counts as PM registration. Any students who are missing from a lesson who have been present in previous lessons are identified by the class teacher and a message is sent to our Attendance Officer to investigate. Morning registers will close at 9.10am and afternoon registers will close at 1.00pm for Primary pupils and 1.30pm for Secondary pupils. The school register is a legal document. For each student the register must be marked either as present, engaged in an approved educational off-site activity, or absent. If a student is absent, the absence has to be classified by the school, as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED and an appropriate code must be entered. Class teachers will complete the register electronically on the school MIS system at the start of each session. The School Office will investigate any missing marks on a daily basis and will endeavour to make contact with legal guardians to ascertain reason for any absences, should the school remain uninformed by 9.30am. Data from registers will be collated at the end of each half term. Appendix A contains a list of marks that should be used when marking the register. Authorised Absence Only Church Lawton School can authorise absence. An absence is not automatically authorised if a note or leave of absence form have been completed. This is at the Principal s discretion and will take into account previous attendance and the reasons provided for absence. Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness or other unavoidable cause. Unauthorised Absence Unauthorised absence is defined by Her Majesty s Inspectors as Absence from school for any period as a result of a premeditated or spontaneous act by the student or parent/carer or both. This includes: Parents keeping children off school unnecessarily; Truancy before or during the school day; 5

6 Absences which have never been properly explained; Children who arrive at school too late to get a mark. We will contact the Educational Welfare Officer if: Any child has 20 or more unauthorised absences in one school year. Any child s attendance falls below 90% Responsibilities of Parents/Carers Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends school regularly and that their child arrives at school on time and is collected at the end of the school day. It is the parent/carers responsibility to inform Church Lawton why a child is absent and to provide all necessary details. Parents/carers whose children are experiencing difficulties with attendance should contact the school at an early stage and work together with the staff in resolving any problems. This is nearly always successful. If difficulties cannot be resolved in this way, the school or the parent/carer may refer the child to the Education Welfare Officer. The Education welfare department are independent from the school and they will therefore give impartial advice. They may try to resolve the situation with voluntary support, if other ways of trying to improve the child s attendance have failed. These Officers can issue Penalty Notices or use court proceedings to prosecute parents or to seek an Education Supervision Order on the child. Holidays in Term Time The regulations linked to holidays have been changed. In April 2012, the Government accepted Charlie Taylor s recommendation to challenge the culture of the expectation term time holiday and set out a clear expectation that term time holiday leave should only be granted in exceptional circumstances. If, despite the law, a parent wishes to write to the Headteacher detailing the exceptional circumstances we recommend that this is done well in advance of booking a holiday. With the achievement of our pupils of paramount importance and the regulations clear we will be extremely unlike to authorise any holiday leave. It is pertinent to point out that in an effort to address poor attendance and unauthorised absence such as holiday the local authority may decide to issue a Fixed Penalty fine and/or prosecute parents under the Education Act Requests for absences may be made by completing a Leave of Absence form. An example of the Leave of Absence form is attached at Appendix B. Leave may however, be granted in an emergency or for genuine pastoral reasons (e.g. after the death of close relative). Parents are encouraged to provide a written note explaining the absence in advance and the school will determine whether the absence is to be authorised or not. 6

7 Attendance at Medical Appointments Parents are asked to make routine medical and dental appointments outside school time. Where such appointments in school time are unavoidable, the Principal or attendance officer should be informed in advance. A present mark can still be awarded if the child attends for as much of the session as they can. It is always better to attend for some of the time, rather than missing the whole day. We always expect students to attend school before and after appointments. Copies of appointment letters and cards are asked to be sent into school prior to an appointment. Frequent Absence It is the responsibility of everyone in the school and residences to be aware of and bring attention to, any emerging attendance concerns. In cases where a pupil begins to develop a pattern of absences, the school will try to resolve the problem with the family. Monitoring Absence The school will monitor attendance on a half termly basis. Those students who achieve 100% attendance will receive an attendance certificate and reward in assembly. Also, weekly, those students with attendance 100% will receive an attendance certificate in assembly. Half termly, a traffic light method will be used, with Red, Amber and Green triggers. A letter will be sent to parents whose child falls into the Red (less than 85% attendance). Red = (attendance less than 90%) Amber = (attendance between 91% and 94%) Green = (attendance between 95% and 100%) Whole School Target Church Lawton School has high expectations for the attendance of our students and expects students to have attendance of 95% or above. Rewarding Attendance Through the school s Behaviour system. Students with good attendance are celebrated through the whole school reward system. Unfortunately, students with poor attendance are excluded from the school Behaviour system. Form classes are celebrated for their attendance and information is displayed around the school. Various rewards use attendance as a criteria for receiving the reward. Students who receive 100% attendance over the year receive a more substantial reward. All 7

8 school reports include attendance information as well as authorised and unauthorised absences. First Day Calling The parents of absent students are telephoned from 9.30am when no contact has been made to explain the absence of their child. For safeguarding reasons it is important that we as a school address any absent students and speak to parents about this. Parents are required to contact the school every day of any illness Signed: Kay Stark Date: 23/5/16 8

9 Appendix A Registration Codes / Present (AM) \ Present (PM) L Late (Before Reg Closed) C Other authorised circumstances E Excluded F Extended Holiday (Authorised) H Holiday (Agreed) I Illness not medical or dental appointments M Medical/Dental Appointment R Religious Observance S Study leave (Key Stage 4 only for GCSE) T Traveller Absence X Early Years (No statutory requirement to attend) B Educated off site (Working at Home as Part of Agreed Programme)not dual registration D Dual Registered at another educational establishment J Interview P Approved sporting activity V Educational visit or school trip W Work Experience G Holiday NOT agreed N No reason received O Unauthorised absence U Late (after registers close) Y Absent due to exceptional circumstances including school closure # School Closed to all Pupils Z Pupil not on roll 9

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11 Appendix B Request for leave during term time To: The Principal of: Church Lawton School Date: I request consideration of a grant of leave of absence from school during term time for: my child (full name) for the period from (date) to (date) The exceptional circumstances and reason for this request are: - I have (an)other child(ren) in (an)other school(s) as follows Child(ren) (full name(s) School(s) attended (Signature of 1 st parent/carer(s) Print Name (Signature of 2 nd parent/carer(s) Print Name Please return completed form to the school office. The school will write to you and inform you of the decision on whether the request is authorised or not. Continued 11

12 For Office Use Only Current Attendance % Last Year s Attendance.. % Number of school sessions taken as leave during term time.(this academic year) Agreed/Not Agreed Request for leave is agreed/is not agreed for the above student to take leave during term time between the above dates. Rationale to decline request : Signed Principal. Date Notification of decision: Date letter sent to parent/carer... 12