To Raise Pupil Achievement

John Stainer Primary School Attendance Policy

School Aims

To raise pupil achievement.

To improve pupils’ attendance

To reduce unauthorised absence.

To reduce lateness.

To clarify procedures and expectations for staff, parents and pupils regarding attendance and dealing with absence from school.

To encourage a genuine ‘partnership’ with parents/carers.

Expectations

Children

At John Stainer School we expect that pupils will attend regularly.

That they will arrive on time, that where possible they will let staff know if there is any problem that might prevent them from attending school.

Parents

will ensure that their child attends school regularly.
will ensure that their child arrives on time for school.
Will contact the school on the first day of absence if their child is unable to attend providing a note or telephone call to explain the absence if they wish the absence to be considered for authorisation.
Will support the school in its aim to raise the achievement of their child through full attendance at school.
Will respond to the school raising concerns about their child’s attendance
Will not take their child on unauthorised term time holidays

The School will ensure:

Efficient and accurate registration of pupils.
Immediate contact with parents/carers if a child fails to attend without a satisfactory explanation.
They have in place clear procedures and guidelines to support staff with attendance procedures.
Regular reviews of registration and attendance procedure to raise awareness of all staff of their roles and responsibilities regarding registration and attendance.
Parents/carers are made aware of the schools attendance policy and their roles and responsibilities relating to attendance.
Promote and celebrate good attendance and punctuality (including significant improvement) with certificates, letters home, etc.
To ensure that correspondence with the parents regarding attendance issues will be clear and recognise equal opportunities issues regarding access and ESL issues.
Issue fixed penalty notices if necessary when a child goes on an unauthorised holiday and their attendance is already a concern.

Registration Procedures

Every entry in the register will be clearly marked, so the correct information may be entered by the office.

Lateness

The registers will be completed by the class teacher between 9:00 and 9:10 a.m. online. If a pupil is not present when his/her name is called a blank is left. If the child arrives before the end of the time set aside for registration, with a late slip, the blank is replaced with an L and the child can be credited with an attendance and counted as present, and the time of their arrival will be noted in the register along with the reason given for their lateness. Any children arriving at school after the register closes will be marked as being unauthorised late by the admin staff. Any unexplained lateness will be investigated by the school with a telephone call or letter to the child’s parents/carer.

If a child is developing a pattern of lateness the school will invite the parent/carers in to discuss what support can be offered. If the parents/carers fail to respond to the school’s requests to improve a pupil’s lateness the school will refer the matter to EWOS.

Where parents are more than 15 minutes late to pick their children up after school, we will take the children to the After School Club where they will be properly supervised. This will incur a charge of £5 per half hour.

Absence

Contact on the first day of absence is the central part of our attendance policy

To raise awareness of the importance of full attendance.
To deal with problems before they develop to improve home school links.

If a child is absent the register will be marked accordingly to the marking symbols listed on the page in the register.

If there is no contact or explanation on the first day of absence the school will attempt to contact the parents/carers on that day for an explanation.

An absence will be considered as authorised if the parents/carers provide an acceptable explanation by telephone or note to the school. A verbal message or letter will also be accepted. The specific reason for an absence will be recorded in the register alongside the child’s name. (For example, “unwell” is not specific enough) If the school has not received an explanation for an absence the school will contact the home by standard letter or telephone call, as appropriate. All attempts to contact the home will be recorded in the register. If there is no response the absence will be recorded in the register as unauthorised.

The Senior Manager will monitor the registers on a half termly basis:

To pick up patterns of absence.
To pick up patterns of lateness.
To ensure procedures are being followed.
Monitor the major causes of unauthorised absence.
To monitor the percentages of authorised and unauthorised attendance.

Authorising Absence

Obtaining a clear and precise reason for any absence is an important element of identifying Child protection concerns.

Only the school can authorise an absence. It is up to the school to decide if an explanation offered is a valid reason for absence or not.

At John Stainer School we believe that there must be continuity throughout the school about what is an authorised absence.

If there is any doubt about the parents/carers explanation for an absence, we do not authorise the absence. Leave the absence unauthorised in the short term until a satisfactory explanation is given and discuss the matter with the SLT.

Doctor/dentist appointments are not absences unless the child misses the whole session. A child who has a medical/dental appointment and then come to school later can be credited with an attendance for the whole session provided they have attended at the first possible opportunity – this is acceptable lateness. The situation is the same for children who leave school after registration for a good reason such as illness or to attend a medical appointment. Whole sessions missed should be marked as ‘O’ with ‘M’ inserted and counted as an authorised absence provided the parents/carers have given a reasonable explanation.

The school must authorise absences requested for a religious festival.

The special circumstances code is to be used at the discretion of the teacher, e.g. death in the family, moving house, etc. any doubts about a request for absence must be discussed with the SLT before authorisation.

Responding to Non Attendance

Any member of staff with a question or concern relating to completing the register or the attendance of a pupil will seek support from the SLT.

Every parent/carer must contact the school on the first day of absence.

If no note or telephone call is received from the parents/carers they will be contacted on the first day of absence by telephone or letter.

If no reason is given for non-attendance or the reason is not accepted as authorised absence this will be indicated to the parents in a follow up letter and entered into the register.

Where persistent non-attendance exists without an explanation the parent will be invited into school to meet with the Head/Deputy Headteacher/Pupil Welfare Manager to discuss the schools concerns for that individual pupil’s absence.

If there is persistent absence that is authorised through sickness and that absence is affecting the pupil’s progress the school will invite the parents/carers into the school to discuss what support can be offered.

The school will investigate the pupil’s circumstances within the school in an effort to identify any school based difficulties that may be affecting the child’s attendance, e.g. bullying.

If parents fail to respond to the schools requests to discuss a pupils absence the school will refer the matter to EWOS.

To encourage good attendance and punctuality, results for each class are read out in assembly on a Friday, and the class with the best attendance is awarded the Viv Williams Cup for the week. The statistics that are used are the ones where lateness is not counted, putting pressure on those pupils, by peers, who are late. 100% attendance and punctuality certificates are awarded every term to pupils who qualify.

Emergency Evacuation Plan

As registers are electronic, as soon as an alarm sounds the Pupil Welfare Manager will print the emergency register button to take outside. If this is not possible registers can be accessed via phones or IPads, but it is preferable that staff mark children off against a paper copy supplied by the office.

Dear <name of parent / carer>

According to our records, <name of pupil>has recently been absent from school. You will be aware that it is the parent’s responsibility to notify the school on the first day of a pupil’s absence to explain the reasons why the <s/he> is unable to attend school and an expected date when <s/he> should return. Unfortunately we have not received any contact from you.

I would like to give you an opportunity to explain the recent absences. Please complete the tear off slip below and return it to the school as soon as possible. Any absence that has not been explained within two weeks will be recorded as “Unauthorised” Absence.

If you wish to discuss this letter further, please contact me on <school telephone number>.

Yours sincerely

Designation

School

Please complete this slip and return to <location> as soon as possible.

Dates of unexplained absence:

<Dates of N Codes>

Explanation for the above dates of unexplained absence:

Parent/Carer Signature…………………………Date……………………