St Christopher’s School is an inclusive school and your family play your part in making it so. We aim for an environment which enables and encourages all members of the community to reach out for
excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open
unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.
It is very important therefore that you make sure that your child attends regularly and this Policy sets out how together we will achieve this.
Why Regular Attendance is so Important
Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of
others in the same class.
Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.
Promoting Regular Attendance
Helping to create a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility - parents, pupils and all members of school staff.
To help us all to focus on this we will:
- Reporting to you on how your child is performing in school and what their attendance and punctuality rate is.
- Celebrate good attendance by promoting individual and class achievements
- Reward good or improving attendance through class competitions, certificates and outings/events;
- Run promotional events so that parents, pupils and staff can work together on raising attendance levels across the school.
Understanding Types of Absence
Every half-day absence from school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents), as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information about the cause of any absence is always
required.
Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason like illness, medical/dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, emergencies or other unavoidable
cause.
Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which no “leave" has been given. This type of absence can lead to the Lincolnshire County Council using
sanctions and/or legal proceedings.
This includes:
- Parents/carers keeping children off school unnecessarily
- truancy before or during the school day
- absences which have never been properly explained
- children who arrive at school too late to get a mark
- shopping, looking after other children or birthdays
- day trips and holidays in term time which have not been agreed.
Whilst any child may be off school because they are ill, sometimes they can be reluctant to attend school. Any problems with regular attendance are best sorted out between the school, the parents
and the child. If your child is reluctant to attend, it is never better to cover up their absence or to give in to pressure to excuse them from attending. This gives the impression that
attendance does not matter and usually make things worse.
Persistent Absenteeism (PA)
A pupil becomes a ‘persistent absentee’ when they miss 10% or more schooling across the school year for whatever reason. Absence at this level is doing considerable damage to any child’s
educational prospects and we need parents’ fullest support and co-operation to tackle this.
We monitor all absence thoroughly. Any case that is seen to have reached the PA mark or is at risk of moving towards that mark is given priority and you will be informed of this immediately.
PA pupils are tracked and monitored carefully through our attendance system and we also combine this with additional support where absence affects attainment.
All our PA pupils and their parents are subject to an Action Plan and the plan may include: allocation of additional support from the Well-being team, use of circle time, individual incentive
programmes and participation in group activities around raising attendance.
Absence Procedures
If your child is absent you must contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence or you can call into school and report to the School Office.
If your child is absent we will contact you on the first day of absence if we have not heard from you via telephone, parentmail or email.
If your child’s attendance drops below 95% we will Invite you in to discuss the situation or problems affecting your child’s attendance with the class teacher.
If the problem continues you will be invited into school to meet with the Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for attendance. An Attendance Agreement will be drawn up. This will be
monitored by a member of the school’s Well-Being team. If appropriate a motivator program may be implemented to support the child’s attendance.
We may refer the matter to the Attendance Advisory Service Officer if attendance moves below 90%.
Telephone Numbers
There are times when we need to contact parents about lots of things, including absence, so we need to have your contact numbers at all times. So help us to help you and your child by making sure
we always have 2 up to date phone numbers that we can contact you on. There will be regular checks on telephone numbers throughout the year.
Leave of Absence in Term Time
Taking leave of absence in term time will affect your child’s schooling as much as another absence and we expect parents to help us by not taking children away in school time.
Remember that any savings you think you may make by taking a holiday in school time are offset by the cost to your child’s education. There is no automatic entitlement in law to time off in
school time to go on holiday.
Any application for leave must be made in person and will involve a meeting with the person/people responsible for school attendance. Full details of our policy and procedures are available from
the school, but it is important that you recognize the importance of education and understand when leave in term time is not agreed by us:
- When a pupil is just starting the school. This is very important as your child needs to settle into their new environment as quickly as possible.
- Immediately before and during assessment periods or any other examinations.
- When a pupil’s attendance record already includes any level of unauthorised absence.
- Where a pupil’s attendance rate is already below (95%) or will fall to or below that level as a result of taking leave.
Any period of leave taken without the agreement of the school, or in excess of that agreed, will be classed as unauthorised and may attract sanctions such as a Penalty Notice.
Our school has targets to improve attendance and your child has an important part to play in meeting these targets.
The minimum level of attendance for this school is 95% attendance and we will keep you updated regularly about progress to this level and how your child’s attendance compares.
Our target is to achieve better than this however because we know that good attendance is the key to successful schooling and we believe our pupils can be amongst the best in Lincolnshire.
Through the school year we monitor absences and punctuality to show us where improvements need to be made. This is carried out by our Assistant Head teacher and our administrator every three
weeks. Teachers are also sent an attendance report for their class every half term to support the school in working with students and families. In addition, three times a year we discuss
attendance in our USM (universal support meetings) meetings, where we look at the impact attendance maybe having on academic progress or engagement.
Summary
The school has a legal duty to publish its absence figures to parents and to promote attendance. Equally, parents have a duty to make sure that their children attend.
All school staff are committed to working with parents and pupils as the best way to ensure as high a level of attendance as possible.
Home Contact Information
Parents are asked to help us keep records of their addresses, place of work, phone numbers etc. up to date. The school must be notified of any such change. It may be necessary to contact you
urgently if your child is taken ill or has had an accident.
Under no circumstances will children be allowed out of school by themselves during school hours. They must be collected from the school office for visits to doctor, dentist etc.
