What might be the impact of poor attendance on your child?

Government research shows that pupils who have less than 90% attendance achieve less academically that pupils who attend more regularly. This research also shows that the pupils who are not in school are deemed most vulnerable.

Having good attendance is not all about attainment; your child is also developing essential social skills which will benefit them in their future endeavours.

A parent/carer has a legal responsibility to ensure that his/her child attends school regularly.



Why is good attendance important?

Every lesson really does count for your child, children can quickly fall behind if even one day is missed and catching up even a little lost time from school can be really difficult. Good attendance is linked to achievement, better relationships with other children and better overall behaviour in school.

Good attendance is not just about what happens in school, absences, when your child is young, can limit their future opportunities and set up bad habits for work and life, as parents we need to support our children in maximizing their achievements. 

Why is good punctuality important?

Being late to school reduces learning time for your child. Even just 10 minutes late a day equals to almost a whole hour of lessons missed each week, over the school year this equates to 2 whole weeks.

Being late may mean that your child will miss his/her teacher’s instructions for the first lesson. In addition, arriving late to school causes disruption to the whole class as well as to your child.

We have adopted a new attendance policy and strategy to monitor and deal with issues around attendance and punctuality in school. A copy of this policy can be found here.

Listed below is our flow chart of what happens at each of the stages of absence.

How can you as parents encourage excellent attendance and punctuality?

• Ensure your child is fully prepared for school each day, organize your child's school uniform and enourage your child to check they have the correct equipment, homework and PE kit the night before.
• Ensure your child attends school every day and arrives on time, in order to keep up with school work.
• Show your child that you think school is very important.
• Praise your child's achievements.
• Get them into good habits early on.
• Recognise that children can get into bad habits from an early age and that these are hard to break later.
• Attend any meetings in school to which you are invited.
• Let the school know as soon as there are any problems or changes.
• Do not keep your child at home if your child is worried or has a problem, eg bullying. The best way to support your child is to ask for a meeting in school to explain any difficulties and address problems. The more time your child is absent from school, the harder it will be for them to return.
• Make sure your child has a good nights sleep and wakes up in good time for the school day, arriving no later than 8.55am.
• Organise non-urgent medical appointments outside of school time.
• Take time to talk to your child about what they have done in school.
• Contact the school at the first opportunity if your child is genuinely ill or is unable to attend.
• Talk to someone at the school if there is a problem or reason why your child finds it difficult to attend regularly.

What are the benefits of excellent attendance?

• To make new friends.
• To learn and enjoy new experiences.
• To develop skills that you will need in later life.
• To take part in a wide range of activities in and outside of Aspull Church Primary School.
• To learn how to look after themselves and encourage independence.
• To feel safe and listened to.
• To improve their chances of having a good career or life chances.
• To make a positive contribution to the Aspull Church School community.

Whilst overall the majority of our pupils arrive at school on time, we can still have a small number of pupils who can arrive late to school. Parents may not be aware of the difficulties experienced by children even when they are only a few minutes late each day.

Dental and Medical Treatment

Whilst the school will grant requests for absence for dental and medical treatments, parents/carers are encouraged, whenever possible, to book medical and dental appointments outside of the school day.

When appointments during school hours are unavoidable, the school office should be notified in advance in writing, of the date and time of the appointment and when the child will be collected. It is expected that the child will return to school after any appointment if before 2.30pm. Evidence of the appointment will be requested.

Holidays

Taking students out of school for holidays is not acceptable. Whilst we understand the difficulties parents/carers may have in organising holidays during the school holidays and the benefits to be had from cheaper term-time holidays, this type of absence is detrimental to a child’s education.

If you take your child out of school for a holiday, this will be unauthorised and you may be issued with an Education Penalty Notice which could result in a £60 fine for all parents and carers involved including, in some cases, Grandparents and Step Parents.

In September 2013, government guidelines advise that no absence should be authorised in advance except when due to ‘exceptional circumstances’.



Educational penalty notice warning for non-school attendance

The school is responsible for issuing an Educational Penalty Notice Warning letter to each parent at the beginning of the academic year and then subsequently each term. For any mid-year admissions to the school, all parents will receive the Educational Penalty Notice warning letter as part of their mid-term admission pack.

Under the Education Act 1996, parents and carers have a duty to make sure their children regularly attend school. If parents or carers fail to do this, they can be prosecuted.

Working within a Code of Conduct the Local Authority can issue a penalty notice to parents or carers if a child has missed a number of sessions without permission from the school.

If your child falls within one or more of these categories within a 12-week period

• 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence with under 90% attendance
• 20 sessions (10 days) of unauthorised absence
• persistently arrives late for school after the close of registration

You could receive a Penalty Notice of £60 which will increase to £120 if not paid within 21 days.

For any further information please refer to the Wigan Council Education Penalty Notice Code of Conduct.

The Penalty Notice will need to be paid in full before 28 days of the notice being served. Failure to pay a penalty notice may result in prosecution (a separate penalty notice may be issued to each parent, and in some cases, grandparents and step-parents, if they are responsible for any part of the child’s care - for each child).