Attendance Information

Introduction                 

Regular and punctual school attendance is important. Pupils need to attend school regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them by law. Hawes Primary School fully recognises its responsibilities to ensure pupils are in school and on time, therefore having access to learning for the maximum number of days and hours.

Our policy applies to all children registered at this school and this policy is made available to all parents/carers of pupils who are registered at our school on our school website.

This policy has been written to adhere to the relevant Children Acts, Education Acts, Regulations and Guidance from the Department for Education in addition to guidance from the Local Authority.

Although parents/carers have the legal responsibility for ensuring their child’s good attendance, the Head teacher and Governors at our school work together with other professionals and agencies to ensure that all pupils are encouraged and supported to develop good attendance habits. Procedures in this policy are followed to ensure this happens.

Children who are persistently late or absent soon fall behind with their learning. Children who are absent from school frequently develop large gaps in their learning which will impact on their progress and their ability to meet age related learning expectations. A child whose attendance drops to 90% each year will, over their time at primary school, have missed two whole terms of learning.

Aims and Objectives                    

This attendance policy ensures that all staff and governors in our school are fully aware of and clear about the actions necessary to promote good attendance.

Through this Policy we aim to:

• Improve pupils’ achievement by ensuring high levels of attendance and punctuality.
• Achieve a minimum of 95% attendance for all children, apart from those with chronic health issues.
• Create an ethos in which good attendance and punctuality are recognised as the norm and seen to be valued by the school.
• Raise awareness of parents, carers and pupils of the importance of uninterrupted attendance and punctuality at every stage of a child’s education.
• Ensure that our policy applies to Reception aged children in order to promote good habits at an early age.
• Work in partnership with pupils, parents, staff and the Prevent Service so that all pupils realise their potential, unhindered by unnecessary absence.
• Promote a positive and welcoming atmosphere in which pupils feel safe, secure, and valued, and encourage in pupils a sense of their own responsibility.
• Establish a pattern of monitoring attendance and ensure consistency in recognising achievement and dealing with difficulties.
• Recognise the key role of all staff, but especially class teachers, in promoting good attendance.

We maintain and promote good attendance and punctuality through:

• Raising awareness of attendance and punctuality issues among all staff, parents and pupils.
• Ensuring that parents have an understanding of the responsibility placed on them for making sure their child attends regularly and punctually.
• Equipping children with the life skills needed to take responsibility for good school attendance and punctuality appropriate to the child’s age and development.
• Maintaining effective means of communication with parents, pupils, staff and governors on school attendance matters.
• Developing and implementing procedures for identifying, reporting and reviewing cases of poor attendance and persistent lateness.
• Supporting pupils who have been experiencing any difficulties at home or at school which are preventing good attendance.
• Developing and implementing procedures to follow up non-attendance at school.

Definitions            

Authorised absence

• An absence is classified as authorised when a child has been away from school for a legitimate reason and the school has received notification from a parent or carer.  For example, if a child has been unwell and the parent telephones the school to explain the absence.
• Only the school can make an absence authorised.  Parents do not have this authority. Consequently not all absences supported by parents will be classified as authorised. 

Unauthorised absence

• An absence is classified as unauthorised when a child is away from school without the permission of the school.
• Therefore the absence is unauthorised if a child is away from school without good reason, even with the support of a parent.

Procedures                    

Our school will undertake to follow the following procedures to support good attendance:

• To maintain appropriate registration processes.
• To maintain appropriate attendance data.
• To communicate clearly the attendance procedures and expectations to all staff, governors, parents and pupils.
• To have consistent and systematic daily records which give detail of any absence and lateness.
• To follow up absences and persistent lateness if parents/carers have not communicated with the school.
• To inform parents/carers what constitutes authorised and unauthorised absence.
• To strongly discourage unnecessary absence through holidays taken during term time.
• To work with parents to improve individual pupils attendance and punctuality
• To refer to the Prevent Service any child whose attendance causes concern and where parents/carers have not responded to school initiatives to improve.
• To report attendance statistics to North Yorkshire LA and the DfE where requested.
• All staff should be aware that they must raise any attendance or punctuality concerns to the Head teacher who has the responsibility for monitoring attendance.

Responsibilities    

All members of school staff have a responsibility for identifying trends in attendance and punctuality. The following includes a more specific list of the kinds of responsibilities which individuals might have.

Class teacher

Class teachers are responsible for:

• Keeping an overview of class and individual attendance looking particularly for either poor overall attendance, anomalies in patterns of attendance and/ or unusual explanations for attendance offered by children and their parents/ carers
• Informing the Head teacher where there are concerns and acting upon them
• Providing background information to support referrals
• Monitoring follow-up once actions have been taken to correct attendance concerns
• Emphasising with their class the importance of good attendance and promptness
• Following up absences with immediate requests for explanation which should be noted inside the register
• Discussing attendance issues at consultation evenings where necessary

Head teacher

The Head teacher is responsible for:

• Overall monitoring of school attendance
• Trends in authorised and unauthorised absence
• Contacting families where concerns are raised about absence including arranging meetings to discuss attendance issues
• Monitoring individual attendance where concerns have been raised
• Making referrals to the Prevent Service
• Liaising with other professionals to determine potential sources of difficulties and reasons for absence.

Administration staff

Staff in the School Office are responsible for:

• Collating and recording registration and attendance information.
• Taking and recording messages from parents regarding absence
• Ensuring the register  is completed
• Contacting parents of absent children where no contact