Attendance
Attendance
Need some help or support with your child’s attendance? Do not hesitate to get in touch with Mrs Smythe in our Children and Families Team by email at pastoral2421@welearn365.com or by calling the office and asking to speak to her.
Appointments, holidays and extended family visits abroad are the key areas impacting the attendance of our pupils here at AFJS. We understand your frustrations and reasons why – as staff we are also bound to the same days/times as you are and all struggle with the same issues as you do regarding costs of holidays or flights and we know that in the current climate, trying to get a medical appointment at all is difficult enough, let alone trying to get it outside of the school day or in school holidays. However, we ask that you consider the impact low attendance can have on not only a pupil’s academic development but also their social and emotional development and try to keep such instances to a very minimum.
There are 2 key documents that guide our work in school around attendance; Working together to
improve school attendance and Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance. You can read these in full by clicking the buttons further down the page, where you will also find a link to our AFJS attendance policy. I have also added some of the key facts and information that is most pertienent to parents’ worries below for easy reading.
The law on school attendance and right to a full-time education
“The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.”
Expectations of schools
“The most effective schools consistently promote the benefits of good attendance at school and make schools a place pupils want to be, set high expectations for every pupil, communicate those expectations clearly and consistently to pupils and parents, systematically analyse their data to identify patterns to target their improvement efforts, and work effectively with the local authority and other local partners to overcome barriers to attendance. They also recognise that attendance cannot be seen in isolation and that the foundation to good attendance is a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment in which all pupils can learn and thrive.”
“All schools are legally required to share information from their registers with the local authority. This includes:
- Attendance returns: providing the local authority with the names and addresses of all pupils of compulsory school age who fail to attend school regularly or have been absent for a continuous period of ten school days where their absence has been recorded as unauthorised.
- Sickness returns: providing the local authority with the full name and address of all pupils of compulsory school age who have been recorded with code I (illness) and who the school has reasonable grounds to believe will miss 15 days consecutively or cumulatively because of sickness.”
Legal Intervention
Fining for low attendance is the element of attendance guidance that always makes the news headlines. At AFJS, our approach will always be focused on support over legal intervention but it important for parents to understand the guidance on this, which is as follows:
“As absence is so often a symptom of wider issues a family is facing, schools, trusts and local authorities should always work together with other local partners to understand the barriers to attendance and provide support. Where that is not successful, or is not engaged with, the law protects pupils’ right to an education and provides a range of legal interventions to formalise attendance improvement efforts, and where all other avenues have been exhausted, enforce it through prosecuting parents.”
When is it appropriate for a pupil to be absent because of a mental health issue?
“Schools should set and maintain high expectations for the attendance, engagement and punctuality of pupils who are anxious about attending school. It is important to recognise that, in many instances, attendance at school may serve to help with the underlying issue as much as being away from school might exacerbate it, and a prolonged period of absence may heighten their anxiety about attending in future. School staff will recognise that there can be attendance challenges where a child has a social, emotional or mental health issue, particularly a severe issue for which the child is receiving clinical treatment.”
“Many children will experience normal but difficult emotions that make them nervous about attending school, such as worries about friendships, schoolwork, exams or variable moods. It is important to note that these pupils are still expected to attend school regularly. School staff should work quickly to communicate this expectation to parents/carers, and work together with them to ensure that such circumstances do not act as a barrier to regular attendance. Any associated anxiety about attending should be mitigated as much as possible by creating a plan to implement reasonable adjustments to alleviate specific barriers to attendance.”