Attendance Matters
Regular school attendance is essential to give your child the best opportunities in life.
Good attendance means a child is less likely to fall behind with their work and more likely to do well in exams.
Research suggests that students who attend school regularly could be less likely to be involved in antisocial behaviour or crime.
Attendance percentage equates to the amount of school time missed
|
Attendance during one school year |
Equivalent Days |
Equivalent Sessions |
Equivalent Weeks |
Equivalent lessons missed |
|
95% |
9 Days |
18 Sessions |
2 weeks |
36 Lessons |
|
90% |
19 Days |
38 Sessions |
4 Weeks |
76 Lessons |
|
85% |
29 Days |
58 Sessions |
6 Weeks |
116 Lessons |
|
80% |
38 Days |
72 Sessions |
8 Weeks |
152 Lessons |
|
75% |
48 Days |
96 Sessions |
10 Weeks |
192 Lessons |
|
70% |
57 Days |
114 Sessions |
11.5 Weeks |
228 Lessons |
|
65% |
67 Days |
134 Sessions |
13.5 Weeks |
268 Lessons |
Every Minute Matters
If you child arrives late to school everyday, their learning begins to suffer.
Below is a graph showing how being late to school over a school year adds up to lost learning time.
How can Parents and Carers help to ensure good attendance at school: -
- Send your child to school every day
- Ensure child is arrives punctually
- Ensure child know how important education is
- Encourage your child and show an interest
- Attend school open evenings and school events
- Avoid taking family holidays during term time
- Make sure your child gets a good night rest
Absences can hide problems that we could be sorting out together.
If your child is not wanting to attend school for any reason (feeling unwell etc) often is a sign that there is something worrying your child.
Even small issues can be massive worries or concerns to a child. If your child behaviour changes or they are pretending to be sick or just wanting to make excuses to stay at home please consider if there is something worrying your child and speak to the school.
What should you do if your child refuses to attend school?
- Make contact with the school – we may be able to help
- Do not cover for your child
- Help the school to help put things right
- Make sure that the child understands that you do not approve of them being absent
It is the parent’s and Carers responsibility to let the school know the reason for their child’s absence as soon as possible, on the first and every day of the absence.
Parents and Carers can only explain absences; they cannot authorise them.
The school decides whether explanations about absences are acceptable and if they can be authorised.
If your child has too many authorised or unauthorised absences, then the school will be in contact with you to find out what can be done to help get your child back into school regularly.
Circumstances when penalty notices might be issues unauthorised Absence/Truancy:
Schools can refer into the Early Help Family Support – School Attendance Services when the referral criteria of below 90% attendance with 10% of unauthorised absence in the proceeding 8 weeks (during the current academic year) has been met.
Penalty notices may be issued following an attendance Panel where there has been assessment of unacceptable levels of unauthorised absence of 10 school sessions or more within an 8 week period (term time)
Penalty notices for term time holidays can be issued if
Attendance is below 90% during the preceding 8 weeks before the leave was taken.
Please see below changes being made to Penalty Notice fines from August 2024.