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Attendance and Punctuality (including targets)
- AIMS
The St Lawrence Academy promotes attendance to ensure learners are safe and are able to thrive, as part of ongoing safeguarding.
Within the academy we strive to create a learning environment, curriculum, experiences and relationships in which all individuals can find expression, be nourished and developed.
The academy commits itself to creating an environment for everyone that is characterised by our core values of Truth, Justice, Forgiveness, Generosity and Respect. These values have been used to determine this policy.
The Academy and Education Inclusion Service firmly believe that good attendance and punctuality are essential if students are to achieve their full potential, both academically and socially. By attending the St Lawrence Academy students have supportive adults in their lives and are able to share any concerns they have with staff who have a genuine interest in their development. This is reinforced with the students and parents/carers during the admission arrangements.
The Academy, including Achievement Team Leaders, Student Progress Leaders, Form Tutors, Attendance Officer
and The Education Inclusion Service are committed to meeting our obligation with regards to school attendance through our practices and ethos that values good attendance, including:
Promoting good attendance: Make it clear to their students at every opportunity how much they care about their attendance at the academy. Encourage the parents/carers, students, staff and the Education Inclusion Officer to foster good attendance.
Reducing absence, including persistent (less that 90%) and severe absence (less that 50%): It is firmly believed that effective means of encouraging good attendance can have a preventive effect on absenteeism.
Ensuring every child has access to the education to which they are entitled
Acting early to address patterns of absence
Building strong relationships to ensure students have the support in place to attend the Academy.
Taking care with registration and the follow-up of absentees. The Form Tutor must ensure that their students know that every student, class, year and house should aim for 100% attendance. (aspirational!)
Welcoming and giving support to students returning from a period of absence – even if they are regular absentees and/or present other difficulties.
Talking to students about difficulties they are having in the academy and in attending regularly.
Reminding parents/carers of their responsibility regarding attendance and punctuality and offering help to resolve difficulties they may be having in fulfilling this responsibility.
2. LEGISLATION AND GUIDANCE
This policy meets the requirements of the Working together to improve school attendance from the Department for Education (DfE), and refers to the DfE’s statutory guidance on Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance
These documents are drawn from the following legislation setting out the legal powers and duties that govern school attendance:
Part 6 of The Education Act 1996
Part 3 of The Education Act 2002
Part 7 of The Education and Inspections Act 2006
This policy also refers to the DfE’s guidance on the school census, which explains the persistent absence
Threshold.
3. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
3.1 The Governors
The Governors are responsible for:
promoting the importance of school attendance across the academy’s policies and ethos
making sure academy leaders fulfil expectations and statutory duties
regularly reviewing and challenging attendance data
monitoring attendance figures for the whole school
making sure staff receive adequate training on attendance
holding the Headteacher to account for the implementation of this policy
The link governor responsible for attendance is Dr Hilary Beverley
3.2 The Headteacher
The Headteacher is responsible for:
implementation of this policy at the academy
monitoring academy level absence data and reporting it to governors
supporting staff with monitoring attendance of individual learners
monitoring the impact of any implemented attendance strategies
requesting the local authority consider the issue of fixed penalty notices where necessary
3.3 The designated senior leader is responsible for attendance
The designated senior leaders (Mrs Gabriella Pattinson and Mrs Helen West) are responsible for:
leading attendance across the academy
offering a clear vision for attendance improvement
evaluating and monitoring expectations and processes
monitoring and analysing attendance data
devising specific strategies to address areas of poor attendance identified through data
arranging calls and meetings with parents to discuss attendance issues
delivering targeted intervention and support to children and families
benchmarking attendance data to identify areas of focus for improvements
providing regular attendance reports to academy staff and regular reporting to the headteacher
working with the local authority through a multi disciplinary approach to tackle all absence, including persistent and severe
authorised by the headteacher when to request the consideration of issuing penalty notices from the local authority
The designated senior leader for attendance is Gabriella Pattinson
3.4 Class teachers and assistant teachers
Class teachers/Assistant teachers are responsible for reporting attendance. They will do this by informing the attendance officer of students’ attendance through morning and afternoon roll call registers and lesson registers throughout the day
3.5 The Attendance Officer
The attendance officer (Mrs Jo Evans) will:
take calls and check messages from parents and carers about absence on a day to day basis and record appropriately
send a text message to parents/carers of students who have not arrived in the academy within 30 minutes of the start of the first session (if the academy has not already received advanced notification of the absence)
The Attendance Officer is Joanna Evans
3.6 Parents/carers
Parents/carers are expected to:
make sure their child arrives every day on time and equipped to learn
contact the academy to report their child’s absence before 08:30 on the day of the absence and each subsequent day of absence, and advise when they are expected to return
provide the academy with more than one contact number for their child
ensure that where possible appointments for their child are made outside of the academy day, and where possible students are out of education for the minimum amount of time necessary and attend before and after the appointment
3.7 Students
Students are expected to:
attend the academy every day on time
4. ENCOURAGING GOOD ATTENDANCE AND REDUCING PERSISTENT AND SEVERE ABSENCE
We strive for all students to avoid falling into the category of being persistently absent (PA). Persistent absence is where a learner misses 10% or more of school. The academy will use attendance data to find patterns and trends of persistent and severe absence. Below is what would make a student persistently absent, should they have the specified or more days off in one half term:
HOW MANY DAYS OFF WILL MAKE YOUR CHILD A PERSISTENTLY ABSENT STUDENT?
Half-term 1:
3 ½ days off school from September until October half-term holiday will make your child a PA student.
Half-term 1-2:
7 days off school from September until the Christmas holiday will make your child a PA student.
Half term 1-3:
10 days of absence from September until February half-term will make your child a PA student.
Half-term 1-4:
12 ½ days of absence from September until the Easter holidays will make your child a PA student
Half-term 1-5:
15 ½ days absence from September until May half term will make your child PA.
Half-term 1-6:
19 days of absence for the full academic year (September to end of summer term in July) will make your child a PA student
For students who are at risk of being a persistent absentee (below 90% attendance) the following strategies are put in place:
Attendance letter 1 is sent to parents/carers, expressing concerns and offering support. Parents are advised that
The Academy will continue to monitor the situation. The letter may include an invitation to discuss attendance
and sign an attendance contract.
If there is no improvement attendance letter 2 is sent to parents/carers expressing continued concerns and
offering support. Parents are invited to a meeting to discuss attendance and complete the ATTEND paperwork to help identify strategies to improve attendance. Parents are advised that if the situation continues to deteriorate a referral may be made to the Education Inclusion Service.
An Early Help meeting is offered to support families.
If the situation does not improve a referral is made to the Education Inclusion Service and parents/carers are
advised by letter which includes a summary of all interventions and support the academy has put in place.
The Education Inclusion Service will consider the referral and if it is accepted they will prepare contributions for relevant documents reinforcing and emphasising the importance of parents/carers responsibilities. They will also indicate the nature of support the Education Inclusion Service can offer.
5. USING DATA TO IMPROVE ATTENDANCE
The Academy will:
Provide regular attendance reports to teaching staff and other Academy leaders, to facilitate discussions with students and families at the earliest opportunity
Use data to monitor and evaluate the impact of any interventions put in place in order to modify them and inform future strategies
6. INCENTIVES FOR GOOD ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY
Students should be given the incentives to attend regularly and punctually. These could take the form of:
a Personal comments from Form Tutors, Subject Teachers and Achievement Team Leaders to encourage good attendance and punctuality.
b Congratulations in assemblies for forms achieving 100% attendance in a week.
c Displaying attendance statistics on a main notice board highlighting the forms achieving the highest percentage each.
d Letters or postcards to parents/carers from the ATL/SPL/Form Tutors when attendance or punctuality improves.
e Certificates for 100% attendance and/or punctuality in a full term presented by the ATL or House Leader in Year/House assembly.
f Certificates for 100% attendance and/or punctuality over a year presented at full assembly by the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher.
g Rewards for outstanding attendance and/or punctuality presented at a Special Assembly/Celebration Evening.
7. REPORTING STUDENT ABSENCE AND LEAVE OF ABSENCE REQUESTS:
Unplanned absence
The procedure for reporting an absence is to ring Student Services on 01724 842447 (Option 7) or direct dial 01724 747318 or leave a message with reception 01724 842447 before 8.15am. Please provide a reason for the absence and your relationship to the student.
You can also report the absence online by clicking this link or by sending a message on Arbor.
If the authenticity of illness is in doubt the academy may ask the parent/carer to provide medical evidence such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence.
If the academy is not satisfied about the authenticity of illness the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
If a student has not arrived at school and there has been no explanation for the absence, first day absence calls will be made. If we are still unable to make contact with the parent/carer then we may conduct a home visit. The Academy will always support families and students in maintaining excellent attendance and where barriers to attending are evident, work in partnership to break these down.
Home visits: Where possible a home visit will be conducted by the academy if a student is absent and the absence has not been reported by the parent. We will try to contact parents by phone/text before conducting a visit. Priority home visits will be made to children who have a social worker or Early Help plan and to students who have had two consecutive days of unexplained absence.
Planned absence
Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised if the parent carer notifies the academy in advance of the appointment.
Parents and carers should request leave of absence by completing the LOA request form obtained from reception or student services.
The Headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to a child during term time if they consider there to be an exceptional circumstance. A leave of absence is granted at the Headteacher’s discretion including the length of time the child is to be absent for. Requests for leave of absence for a family holiday are unlikely to be authorised.
Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and at least 2 weeks before the absence, the Headteacher may request evidence to support the request.
8. PUNCTUALITY
We encourage students to arrive by 8.10am every day, ready for line up at 8.15am, as lessons start promptly at 8.20am. All students are met by their SLT link, ATL, SPL and form tutor to ensure that they are ready to learn, are prepared and have a successful start to their day. Students arriving after 8.20am will be recorded as late and be issued a 30 mins detention. We understand that sometimes there are unavoidable reasons for a student arriving late. In these circumstances please contact Students Services to report the reason. If a student is frequently arriving late we will contact parents to offer support. If punctuality does not improve following support we may issue punctuality contracts or offer Early Help plans.
A student who arrives late:
before the register has closed will be marked as authorised late, using the appropriate code
after the register has closed (08:45 am) will be marked as unauthorised late using the appropriate code,
9. ATTENDANCE MONITORING AND ANALYSIS
The Academy will:
Monitor attendance and absence data weekly. termly, and yearly across the Academy
Identify any particular groups of or individual students whose absence may be a cause for concern
Ensure attendance monitoring is an item on the agenda of Senior Leadership Team meetings
Ensure monitoring takes place as part of a whole academy priority and starts within the classroom
Monitor itself against local, regional and national data and take action to improve attendance where needed
The Academy will regularly feedback attendance data to the governing body and ensure attendance remains a key focus and priority for the whole academy
Analyse attendance and absence data regularly to identify students and/or cohorts that need additional targeted support for these students and their families
Look at patterns of attendance and absence and develop strategies to address these
‘ATTENDANCE IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY’
10. LEGAL SANCTIONS
The Academy or local authority can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age.
If issued with a fine, or penalty notice, each parent must pay £80 within 21 days or £160 within 28 days. The payment must be made directly to the local authority.
The decision on whether or not to issue a penalty notice may take into account:
The number of unauthorised absences occurring within a rolling academic year
One-off instances of irregular attendance, such as holidays taken in term time without permission
Where a suspended/excluded student is found in a public place during academy hours without a justifiable reason
If the payment remains unpaid after 28 days the local authority will issue legal proceedings against parents/carers
Review
This policy will be reviewed as guidance from the local authority or DfE is updated, and annually. At each review the policy will be approved by the board of governors. |
