Attendance

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Attendance - Green Gates Academy

STATEMENT OF INTENT

At Green Gates Academy we believe that regular school attendance cannot be overestimated. Regular attendance is vital to a good education. Securing it must therefore be a high priority of the school, governors, parents and pupils themselves. By failing to attend school regularly, pupils lessen the impact of the education provided for them. Pupil absence may seriously disrupt the continuity of teaching and learning for themselves and others.

The aim of Green Gates Academy is to facilitate our pupils or students regular and sustained attendance by providing a full and efficient educational experience for all pupils or students.

Parents and carers have a vital role to play and there is a strong emphasis on maintaining home-school links and good communication systems that can be utilised whenever there is concern about attendance.

SCHOOL ATTENDENCE – THE STATUTORY FRAMEWORK

All pupils and students of statutory school age who are registered at a school must attend regularly, in line with the relevant legislation (Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations2013).

Any absence from school can have a detrimental effect on a child or young person’s future progress and continuity of learning. Regular absence for such reasons as holidays taken in term time can have a significant impact on achievement.

ABSENCE

It is the parent or carer’s responsibility to inform the academy of the reason for a child or young person’s absence. We would like to receive notification as soon as the child or young person is absent from school. We ask that the parent or carer telephones the academy before 9.30am each morning their child or young person is absent to discuss the reason for the absence. We need to receive information when the child or young person returns to school, in the form of a note and any medical evidence such as prescription, appointment card etc.

REPORTING ABSENCE

Once we receive a reason for an absence, we may authorise that absence by inserting the correct symbol on the computer records.

Reporting reasons for absence by telephone, verbally to a member of the Reception Team or a note are all acceptable. We expect parents or carers to contact the academy and report the reason for absence on the first day of the absence before 9.30am.

Penalty Notices for Unauthorised Absences

The Government have introduced a framework that defines a single national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England. This threshold is 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The period of 10 school weeks can span different terms or school years.

In line with national guidance, the Local Authority (LA) retains the discretion to issue a penalty notice before the threshold is met. This might apply for example, where parents have taken several term time holidays below the national threshold. The LA also retains the discretion to consider going straight to prosecution where appropriate.

A maximum of 2 penalty notices per parent, per child can be issued within a rolling 3-year period. This period will start from the issue of the 1st penalty notice. The national framework also sets out the escalation process which applies to such penalty notices. If the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within 3 years, another tool should be used. In our LA, where a student’s attendance has met the national threshold for a third time within 3 years and the parent/s have already been issued with 2 penalty notices within that period, consideration will be given to prosecution under section 444 of the Education Act 1996, which can result in a criminal conviction and fine of up to £2,500.

A parent includes any person who is not a natural parent but who has parental responsibility for the child or who has care of the child, as set out in section 576 of the Education Act 1996. Penalty notices will usually be issued to the parent/s with day-to-day responsibility for the child’s attendance or the parent/s who have allowed the absence (regardless of which parent has applied for a leave of absence).

The first penalty notice issued to a parent for a child will be charged at £160 to be paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. Where it is deemed appropriate to issue a second penalty notice, the second penalty notice to the same parent for the same child within 3 years of the first offence, is charged at a flat rate of £160 and is payable within 28 days. There is no reduced sum available in this instance.

Part payments or payment plans are not acceptable, and fines must be paid in full within 21 or 28 days, at the rate specified within the penalty notice. There is no right of appeal against a penalty notice.