Wombridge-Attendance-Policy-2024-25
DfE – Moments Matter, Attendance Counts
Department for Education launched a national campaign – Moments Matter, Attendance Counts – to remind families of the importance of student attendance at school.
Research shows that lower attendance leads to lower attainment outcomes for pupils at both Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) and Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11) –
- Data from the 2022-2023 academic year for the end of Key Stage 2 shows that 71% of pupils who had 99% attendance or above achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, compared to only 50% of pupils with 90% attendance
- This drops to only 42% of children achieving the expected standards with 85% attendance
- Equally, at Key Stage 4, pupils who missed less than 1% of sessions across Year 10 and 11 had an average Progress 8 score of +0.73, while those who missed 50% of sessions or more had an average score of -2.83.4
For some families, the challenges around attendance are very real and there are significant barriers preventing children from coming into school. If you are struggling and need support, please contact the school and we will work with you to put a plan in place.
Ultimately, as parents, carers and teachers, we all want the best for our children. At Wombridge Primary School, we will always strive to place them at the heart of everything we do. Please help us to do our very best for them by ensuring they come to school each day.
School Attendance
At Wombridge Primary School, we believe that attending school regularly is vitally important to your child’s future. If your child is absent from school they will obviously be missing lessons and learning opportunities. National research has proven that children who miss school frequently will fall behind with their schoolwork, which has a negative impact on exam performance and can lead to poor social skills and friendship issues. Children who are persistently absent from school are also at increased risk of becoming involved with anti-social behaviour and crime.
We believe that every student should strive to achieve 100% attendance, and robust systems are in place to support families and children in achieving this goal. We reward our students for outstanding attendance in a number of ways, to promote a strong work ethic and prepare our students for life beyond school. We want to maximise the future chances for all students.
Our Safeguarding and Inclusion Manager will work closely with others in the team to monitor student attendance, support families and implement our systems that challenge poor attendance.
Useful information on attendance
Once your child is registered at a school, you are legally responsible for making sure they attend regularly. If your child fails to do so, and there are no exceptional circumstances for an absence, you are at risk of being issued with a penalty notice or being prosecuted in court.
Non-attendance
If a school identifies a child as having low attendance, letters expressing their concern will be sent by the school and to ask parents to get in touch. The Educational Welfare Attendance Service within the local authority will also be notified.
Within the letter, the school may request a meeting to advise parents of legal responsibilities, and examine any issues that may be causing poor attendance and draw up an action plan to improve the situation. If parents do not attend this meeting, the Attendance Leader will offer a home visit to discuss any concerns.
If there is no improvement in the child’s attendance, a legal meeting will be held. Following this, if there is still no improvement, legal proceedings may follow.
How we monitor attendance
We monitor attendance on a daily, weekly, termly and yearly basis. Our attendance team work closely with the local Education Welfare Officer to ensure there are high levels of attendance at Wombridge. We recognise there can be relationships between poor attendance and behaviour, which we closely monitor.
New National Guidance on Fixed Penalty Notices from September 2024
From August 19th 2024 the Government have introduced a new ‘national framework for Penalty Notices’. (in Telford & Wrekin the changes apply from 1st September 2024).
There are significant changes that parents need to be aware of:
- If your child has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10 school week rolling period, you may be issued with a Penalty Notice. These 10 sessions may include any unauthorised absence, including leave in term time and do not have to be consecutive.
- Penalty Notices are increasing to £160 from September 2024. This can be reduced to £80 but only for the first Penalty Notice issued, if paid within 21 days – this reduction does not apply to any subsequent Penalty Notice.
- Any 2nd Penalty Notice, to the same parent for the same child, issued within three years of the date of the first Penalty Notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160
- A third Penalty Notice will not be issued within a three year rolling period, to the same parent for the unauthorised absence of the same child, – alternative action or legal measures will be utilised for subsequent offences.
- In some circumstances a ‘Notice to Improve’ may be issued – However, a Notice to Improve will only be used in cases where support is appropriate. They will not be issued in cases of unauthorised leave in term time for holidays, where information for parents is included on schools website or a simple warning by the school that a Penalty Notice could be issued if unauthorised leave in term time is taken will suffice.
‘Parents should always apply to the Headteacher for any request for leave in term time by completing a request form available from school. (DfE guidance states schools should not authorise leave retrospectively so any leave in term time taken without a request being submitted will be unauthorised absence)’.
In developing and publishing the new national framework, the Government has renewed appeals to parents not to take their children out of school during term time. The Governors and Headteacher of this school support this and students will only be given permission to take leave in term time if there are exceptional circumstances. The DfE Guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance (Feb 2024) states that: Generally, the DfE does not consider the need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. (Paragraph 38.)
Each application for leave in term time will be considered and if it is agreed and authorised the Headteacher will determine the duration of any leave. However, if the application is not agreed and the absence occurs the dates will be unauthorised. Parents will be notified of any decision in writing. This notification may be hand delivered directly to the parent or posted to the parents’ home address.
As a school we are asked to inform you that in line with Telford and Wrekin Council Policy, if your child is absent for 10 school sessions within a 10 week rolling period and that absence is unauthorised, you may be subject to a Penalty Notice fine, criteria is as detailed above.
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