“Promoting excellent attendance is the responsibility of the whole school community”
“Excellent attendance is vital in ensuring all children can be the best that they can be”
Rationale
Low attendance has a direct relationship with the attainment of individuals and groups of students and leaves pupils at a disadvantage both socially and educationally. Attendance impacts on the standards achieved by the school. Parents of registered pupils have a legal duty under the Education Act 1996 (section 444) to ensure that a child of compulsory school age attend school regularly. If a child “fails to attend regularly” her parent is guilty of an offence. Persistent and/or excessive lateness also constitutes as an offence and legal precedence has been set to treat such lateness as failure to attend regularly.
AIMS
• To improve the overall attendance of pupils at school
• To improve pupils’ attainment through excellent attendance (97%)
• To improve pupils’ punctuality
• To make attendance a priority for all those associated with the academy, including: parents, pupils, teachers and governors
Government/ Legal Requirements
Schools are required to make the Local Authority aware of every registered student who: fails to attend school regularly; who has been absent from school, with the absence being treated as unauthorised, for a period of not less than 5 school days. Schools must provide their attendance data to the DfE (Department for Education) three times a year. These figures are then published by the DfE as part of the annual publication of school statistics. Where a high proportion of absence has been identified within a specific group of students in school (e.g. SEN, FSM, PP etc), the school may be required by the Secretary of State to set focussed absence targets.
Who is responsible for attendance issues at King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls’ Academy?
The Senior Assistant Headteacher of Pastoral Care & Standards (Miss Takhar) is the named member of the Senior Leadership Team who has responsibility for attendance issues. All members of staff, teaching and non-teaching have responsibility for attendance issues in school. Attendance matters are reviewed by the Head Teacher and Senior Leadership Team. Attendance issues are reported termly to the Governing body. Heads of Year are responsible for attendance issues within their year groups and have regular meetings with the school’s Attendance Officer and Key Stage Support Managers. Parents and carers have overall responsibility in ensuring their child attends school.
The flowchart below shows the procedure that is followed to manage attendance at the academy:
| Attendance during one school year | equals this number of days absent | which is approximately this many weeks absent | which means this number of lessons missed |
| 95% | 9 days | 2 weeks | 50 lessons |
| 90% | 19 days | 4 weeks | 100 lessons |
| 85% | 29 days | 6 weeks | 150 lessons |
| 80% | 38 days | 8 weeks | 200 lessons |
Every Minute Counts
Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life.
If you’re concerned about school attendance
Parents who are concerned about attendance should contact their child’s school to tell them about the difficulties.
Where possible and appropriate, schools will try to assist parents by offering support or referring them to additional support services. Schools may also ask for medical evidence if a child’s attendance becomes of concern.
