Attendance Matters at Sherdley

At Sherdley Primary School, we recognise the clear link between consistent attendance and academic achievement.  The whole school community has a responsibility for promoting excellent attendance; parents, governors and all school staff.

Our whole school attendance target is 96% We expect all children to aim for this as a target. 

Moments Matter, Attendance Counts!

At Sherdley Primary School we have an Attendance Support Officer, Mrs Eccleston. Together with the Pastoral Team, Mrs Eccleston supports our children and families with removing barriers to good attendance. We understand that children are sometimes reluctant to attend school and that the reasons for this are varied and may be complex. We aim to resolve any problems with regular attendance by making early contact with parents and offering support including referral to the Pastoral Team. Where children are anxious about coming to school, the Pastoral Team can offer practical support and help develop strategies to manage anxiety and encourage attendance. We aim to support parents and carers to help remove any barriers which prevent a child attending school. These could be barriers which the child has or which the parent has. Our starting point is always one of support. In return, we expect parents to contact school at an early stage and to work with us in resolving any problems together. This is nearly always successful and we try to resolve attendance issues within school. 

Persistent or long-term absence has a negative impact in all areas of school life, not just on academic achievement but also on the development of key skills and friendships. Interrupted attendance makes teaching and learning difficult and undermines the educational process leading to educational disadvantage.

We expect all children to be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. We will support you and your child to achieve good attendance. However, we will challenge the behaviour of children and parents who give low priority to attendance and punctuality.

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 with the Attendance Support Officer, Mrs Eccleston
• 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

Levels of attendance are as follows:

Below 90% attendance: Persistent Absentee (PA).

Pupils are identified as persistent absentees if they miss 10% or more of their possible sessions. Formal intervention and referral can be actioned.

90% - 92%: At risk of becoming a Persistent Absentee (PA) pupil.

If your child is at this level, you will be made aware of the fact. You may be asked to attend a meeting, or receive a home visit regarding this low level of attendance. Attendance targets set.

92% - 94%: Needs improvement.

If your child’s attendance reaches this level, you may be invited into school to discuss strategies to improve your child’s attendance.

94% - 96%: Satisfactory.

96% - 100%: Good.

It is expected that all children should reach at least 96% attendance.

Important Notice: New Government Attendance Changes Effective 19th Auguat 2024

The Department for Education (DfE) have introduced some new guidance for schools and Local Authorities (LAs) for managing school attendance. They have also introduced a new national framework for penalty notice and amended the law. These changes come into effect from the 19 August 2024 and all schools and LAs across the country will be expected to follow the new statutory guidance.

Support first
The importance of regular attendance at school cannot be stressed enough. All schools and LAs are expected to promote school attendance and provide support to remove barriers where a pupil is struggling to attend school. This may mean that the school raises the issue of attendance even if your child has only had a couple of days off ill. This is not because they don’t believe you. By working with you, schools can step in early to help to prevent patterns of absence developing. Schools may identify other underlying issues that are making your child reluctant to attend school and be able to help you and your child.
For this to be successful parents need to work with the school. Where it can be demonstrated that a parent/carer is not fulfilling their parental responsibility to ensure that their child receives a suitable full-time education then the school can consider requesting that the LA take further action. This can be in the form of a penalty notice, prosecution, or the school may suggest other formal interventions. 

National Framework for penalty notices
To provide consistency, the Government have introduced a new national framework for when schools and LAs believe that they have exhausted all offers of support and the parent/carer is not engaging with the attempt to improve their child’s attendance at school. The threshold for when a school should consider next steps is 10 sessions (5 school days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be made up of any form of unauthorised absence including late after close (attendance code U) of register and odd days of unauthorised absence (attendance code O) which add up to 5 days within a 10-week period.
At this point the school will consider if it is likely that the attendance will improve with further support. They may then decide to refer the case to the LA for formal monitoring. This may proceed to legal action if the attendance does not improve. Education Penalty Notices are issued to parents of statutory school age children. They can be issued to each parent or carer who is deemed liable for the child’s absence from school. The new costs and process is outlined below:

First Offence - The first time a Penalty Notice is issued for Term Time Leave or Irregular Attendance the amount will be: £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days. Reduced to £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days.

Second Offence (within 3 years) -The second time a Penalty Notice is issued for Term Time Leave or Irregular Attendance the amount will be: £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days.

Third Offence and Any Further Offences (within 3 years) - The third time an offence is committed for Term Time Leave or Irregular Attendance a Penalty Notice will not be issued, and the case will be presented straight to the Magistrates’ Court.

Term time holidays
Pupils should not be taken out of school during term time unless it is unavoidable. Schools are required to consider requests for leave of absence in term time and should only approve the leave if there are exceptional circumstances. If a request for leave is denied and the pupil is absent for 5 days or more then the school is expected to refer the case to the LA. The LA will issue a penalty notice with no requirement for a formal warning to be issued. Penalty notices can also be issued where a pupil is absent for repeated incidents of unauthorised leave in term time that fall below the
5-day threshold. In every case, the request for the Penalty Notice comes in from the school to the LA for the process to be completed.

BIRTHDAY ATTENDANCE INITIATIVE

If your child's birthday falls on a school day, they are able to come to school wearing their own clothes. Clothing and footwear must be school/weather appropriate - particularly if it is a PE day, ie trainers to be worn. If your child is lucky enough to have a birthday at the weekend or during a school holiday this would not apply.

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