Attendance

 

EVERY DAY COUNTS!

Good attendance and punctuality is essential if pupils are to take full advantage of school and gain the appropriate skills to equip them for life. Research shows that attendance and punctuality are important factors in school success. Absence for whatever reason disadvantages a child by creating gaps in his or her learning. It is also important to ensure that our most vulnerable pupils are given the same opportunities, which may mean extra support in certain cases. 

The school aims to ensure good attendance and punctuality by operating an attendance policy within which staff, pupils, parent(s)/carer(s), local community and the Attendance and Children out of Education Team can work in partnership. The school will monitor attendance and punctuality and ensure quick and early intervention if a problem is identified.

Parents can support regular school attendance by:

• Making sure their child leaves for school early enough to arrive at school on time.
• Supporting and encouraging their child by attending parent’s evenings and other events.
• Contacting the school to discuss any concerns regarding their child’s  attendance.
• Working in partnership with the school to resolve any issues that are impacting on their child’s attendance.
• Making any medical appointments outside of school hours whenever possible.
• Not taking children out of school for holidays in term time or for other unnecessary reasons.

Absence procedure

Where a pupil is unable to attend school due to illness or other sudden reason, parents should telephone the school or use the school absence facility on School Spider on the first day of absence, giving an indication of the anticipated length of absence. It is expected that parent(s)/carer(s) will provide an explanation by 9.30 a.m. 

If contact, explaining the child’s absence, fails to be made by parent(s)/carer(s), then the school office team will contact the home by telephone on the initial day. Where reasonably possible, the school office team will work through the emergency contact list number for an absent pupil. 

If the school have cause for concern about the veracity of the illness and a child is absent for more than 5 days school will request that medical evidence of illness such as a doctor’s appointment card, hospital letter or a copy of prescription details for any further absences. 

Authorised Term-Time Leave of Absence

Following The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, the Headteacher cannot grant any leave of absence during term time. (Other exceptional circumstances may apply.)

No holidays will be authorised during term time. Absence due to holiday will be recorded in the register as unauthorised. (Other exceptional circumstances may apply.)

Parent(s)/carer(s) will be advised not to book holidays during term time. We ask for parental support in ensuring that family holidays are not taken during term time.

Leave of Absence Procedure

A request must be made at least four weeks prior to the first day of absence being requested. Some exceptional circumstances may not allow for this and this will be taken into consideration.

Leave of absence requests must be made in writing to the school office [email protected] for the attention of the Head Teacher.

Persistent Absence and Unauthorised Absence

We take a proactive approach to improving the attendance of individual children. Children who have less than 90% attendance are classed by the Department for Education as being persistently absent. We will communicate concerns about poor attendance to parents and use an escalating approach including letters, meetings in school and/or a referral to the Attendance & Children out of Education Team at Cheshire East Council, in order to support parents in improving attendance.

National Framework for penalty notices

Penalties for unauthorised absence

Parents/carers should be aware that if your child of compulsory school age has 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks this will be referred to Cheshire East and may result in a school absence penalty notice (fine). However, we retain the discretion to issue a Penalty Notice before the threshold is met. For example, where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking several term time holidays below the above thresholds. Penalty Notice fines will continue to be issued per parent per child. For example: 3 siblings absent for term time leave, would result in each parent receiving 3 separate fines.

Please see the penalty information in the table below.

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