School Attendance
Badgerbrook Primary recognises that school attendance is central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their full potential. Pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind.
Your legal responsibility as a parent or carer is to ensure that your children of school age receive a suitable full-time education. Once enrolled at Badgerbrook it remains your legal responsibility to ensure that your child attends school regularly and arrives on time each day.
Attendance Register
The law requires all schools to have an attendance register. At Badgerbrook, the attendance register is taken at the start of the first session of each school day and again at the start of the afternoon session, so pupils receive two attendance marks per day.
At both the morning and the afternoon sessions, the school records whether every pupil is present or absent. Each absence is recorded using the appropriate National Attendance Codes. This is why information about the cause of any absence is always required.
For more details of the absence codes used in schools please follow the Government School Attendance link.
Attendance statistics are published with your child’s annual written report.
At Badgerbrook we have a target of 94% attendance.
Research shows that children with 90% attendance will miss an average of half a day a week and the equivalent of a year of education by the time they are 16. Similarly, attendance of 80% will mean missing an average of one day a week and two years of missed school by the time they are 11. The government considers a child to be persistently absent if their attendance is below 90%.
Registration
For Key Stage 1 the doors open at 8.45am and the whistle goes for Key Stage 2 to line up at 8.55am. Please ensure your child is in class for 9.00am when the register is taken. Children arriving after 9.00am are asked to come into school via the school office so that their arrival time and a reason for the late arrival can be recorded.
Registration closes at 9.15am and children arriving after that time will be marked late. This will count as unauthorised absence unless there is an appropriate reason for the late arrival.
Leave of absence:
Authorised absence from school
‘Authorised absence’ means that the school has either given approval in advance for a pupil to be away or has accepted an explanation offered afterwards as justification for absence.
Illness
Please notify us if your child is unable to attend due to illness. Please phone us on each day of the absence – before 9am. The school has an answer phone available to take your message – just press 1 on the phone system and tell us your child’s name, class and why they are absent.
In order to ensure the safety of our pupils the school will check with parents on the first day of an unexpected absence if no notification has been received. You will receive a phone call from a member of the office team if this is the case.
Medical or dental appointments
Missing registration for medical or dental appointments is marked as authorised absence if we have been informed in advance. However, we do encourage you to make appointments out of school hours if possible. Where this is not possible, please bring your child back to school as soon as you can after the appointment has finished.
Late arrival – before the register has closed
Your child will be marked as Late
Late arrival – after the register has closed
Your child will be marked as Late and the absence will be unauthorised
Unauthorised absence from school
‘Unauthorised absence’ is when the school is not satisfied with the reasons given for absence.
It remains the policy of the school to only authorise non-attendance during term time in exceptional circumstances.
Should you wish to request leave for your child due to exceptional circumstances you should put your request in writing to the Headteacher, giving details of the proposed absence and the reason for it. The Headteacher will consider each application individually, taking into account the individual facts and circumstances of the case. A family holiday during term-time does not fall under the category of ‘exceptional circumstances’ and will not be authorised.
The law does not allow us to give retrospective approval. If you do not apply for leave of absence in advance the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
Contacting parents
We will continue to monitor levels of absence and late arrival at school. Letters will be sent to parents and carers when your child’s attendance has fallen below 94% or when there have been an unacceptable number of times when your child has arrived at school after 9am.
Further action
In Leicestershire the Pupil Services Court Team have statutory powers to take legal action and, where appropriate, to prosecute parents and carers if they fail to ensure that their child receives a suitable education
Where a family chooses to take a holiday during term time, the absences will be coded as unauthorised. If your child has absences recorded as a result of an unauthorised family holiday, Leicestershire County Council will be advised of this matter and will be requested to issue Penalty Notices in line with their policy. The parent(s) of any child who has absences recorded as a result of an unauthorised family holiday will each be fined £60 which must be paid within a 21 day period. Failure to pay the fine(s) within this timescale, will result in the fines being doubled to £120 which will need to be paid within 28 days of the original fine being issued.
If the fine(s) remain unpaid after the full period of 28 days has expired, parents may face legal action under section 444 of the Education Act 1996. If found guilty of an offence under this Act, parents will receive a criminal record and could be fined up to £1000.
All monies received by virtue of a Penalty Notice are paid to Leicestershire County Council, not the school.
You can find more information by following the Leicestershire School Attendance link.