Attendance

Attendance Policy

Section 1 - Context

Applemore is committed to providing an education of the highest quality for all our students and endeavour to provide an environment where they feel valued and welcome. Parents, carers and students play a part in making Applemore so successful. Every child has a right to access the education to which they are entitled. Parents, carers and teachers share the responsibility for supporting and promoting excellent attendance and punctuality for all.

It is our duty to consistently strive to achieve a goal of 100% attendance for all students. Every opportunity will be used to convey to students and their parents and/or carers the importance of regular and punctual attendance.

For our students to take full advantage of the educational opportunities offered it is vital that every student is at school, on time, every day unless the reason for absence is unavoidable. The routines children develop around attendance and punctuality at school are the same as the expectations of any future employer in the world of work. High attainment, confidence with peers and staff, and being able to achieve future aspirations depend on good attendance.

Good attendance is important because:

• Statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and attendance below 95%


• Regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically


• Regular attenders find school routines, schoolwork and friendships easier to maintain


• Regular attenders find learning more satisfying


• Regular attenders are more successful in the transition between primary school, secondary school, and higher education, employment or training.

Section 2 - Operating the policy

Promoting good attendance

The foundation for good attendance is a strong partnership between Applemore, parents and the student.

Promoting regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility and Applemore will focus on this by:

• Reporting to parents/carers termly about how students are performing, their overall attendance rate and their attitude to learning.


• Celebrating 100% attendance by issuing certificates and positive points to individual students as well as additional positive points for good attendance


• Rewarding good or improving attendance through individual student certificates


• The Attendance Officer will hold discussions with parents/carers, students, and staff, to work together to raise attendance. Letters will be issued each half term to those parents/carers whose child’s attendance falls below 90%.

 

Roles and responsibilities:

The senior leader with responsibility for pastoral care will oversee, direct and co-ordinate the work to promote regular attendance and will ensure this policy is applied consistently. The Attendance Officer will check the accuracy of recording and analyse the data and ensure that attendance issues are identified at an early stage so that appropriate support is implemented swiftly to deal with any difficulties.

If absence is frequent or continuous, except where a child is clearly unwell, staff will contact parents/carers to ascertain the reasons for their child’s absence to keep absences to a minimum. A note or explanation from a student’s home does not mean an absence becomes authorised. The decision as to whether to authorise an absence will always rest with the Headteacher.

Responsibilities of teaching staff

• To ensure that all students are registered accurately


• To promote and reward good attendance at every opportunity


• To liaise with the Attendance Officer on matters of attendance and punctuality


• To communicate any concerns or underlying problems that may account for a student’s absence


• To support students who have been unable to attend school to re-engage with their learning once they return

Responsibilities of the Tutor

• To ensure that all students are registered accurately


• To promote and reward good attendance at every opportunity


• To call home on the first day of absence for PP students and on Monday for other students if this is the first day of absence


• To monitor the attendance of all tutees once a week and follow Applemore’s procedure on traffic-lighted attendance


• To liaise with the Head of Year and Attendance Officer on matters of attendance and punctuality

Responsibilities of the Head of Year

• To promote and reward good attendance at every opportunity including in assemblies


• To reward good and improving attendance regularly including in assemblies


• To oversee and monitor the attendance of all students in the year group once a week and follow the school’s procedure on traffic-lighted attendance


• To liaise with the attendance officer on matters of attendance and punctuality

Responsibilities of students

• To attend school every day unless they are ill or have an authorised absence


• To arrive on time


• To attend registration and lessons on time


• To take responsibility for registering at reception if they are late or are leaving the School site during school hours (students are not permitted to leave site unless there is a valid reason for doing so such as a medical appointment which is verified by their parent/carer)

Responsibilities of parents/carers

Ensuring regular attendance at school is the parent/carer’s legal responsibility (Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act) and giving permission for a child to be absent from school creates an offence in law unless authorised by Applemore School.

Parents must:

• Inform Applemore on the first day of absence


• Discuss with the relevant Tutor or Head of Year any planned absences well in advance


• Support Applemore and encourage their child to achieve 100% attendance each year


• Make sure that any absence is accounted for by telephone, email or class charts on the first and subsequent days of absence, or by letter if a phone is unavailable


• Avoid taking their child out of school for non-urgent medical or dental appointments or holidays


• Only request leave of absence if it is for an exceptional circumstance

Section 3 - Recording Attendance

The register must legally be marked twice daily, once at the start of the day at 8.30am and secondly during lesson 4.

Lateness/punctuality

It is important for students to arrive to school on time and to attend lessons punctually. If a student is late then this may result in them missing valuable work or receiving vital information and can disrupt the learning of other students.

The school day begins at 8.30am and all students should be in their tutor room before this time at 8.25am.

A student who arrives late but before the register has closed will be marked as late, (within 30 minutes), using the appropriate code. A student who arrives after the register has closed, at 9.00am, will be marked as absent, using the appropriate code.

Lateness is recorded daily. This information will be required by Courts, should a prosecution for non-attendance or lateness be necessary.

Arrival after the close of registration will be marked as unauthorised absence and coded U, in line with Hampshire County Council and Department of Education guidance. This mark shows them to be on site but is legally recorded as an absence.

If a student is late due to a medical appointment, they will receive an authorised absence, coded M. Where possible, medical and dental appointments should be made outside of school hours or during the school holidays.

Students who are consistently late disrupt not only their own education but also that of others. On-going and repeated lateness is considered to be unauthorised absence and will be subject to Legal Action (see Section 6 for further detail).

Parents or carers of students who have patterns of lateness will be contacted to discuss the importance of good time keeping and how this might be achieved. If lateness persists following this Applemore is required by Hampshire County Council to unauthorise further lateness and issue parents/carers with a Penalty Notice (in accordance with HCCs Code of conduct: issuing Penalty Notices for unauthorised absence from schools (See Section 6 of this policy for further detail).

First day absence

A student not attending school is a safeguarding matter and, therefore, information about the cause of any absence is always required. If a student is absent, then:

Parents/Carers must:

• Contact the school as soon as possible on the first day of absence


• Send a message on the first day they return with an explanation of the absence – even if the school has been informed previously

Applemore will:

• Telephone or text on the first day of absence if no contact has been received from parents/carer by 11am, (the school has a duty to ensure a student’s safety as well as regular attendance)


• Invite parents/carers in to discuss the situation with the Attendance Officer and the Assistant Headteacher if absences persist


• Refer the matter to the Hampshire County Council’s Attendance Legal Panel if absence is unauthorised and falls below 90%.

Ten days’ absence

The school has a legal duty to report any student who is absent without an explanation for 10 consecutive days. If the student has not been seen and contact has not been established with the named parent/carer then the Local Authority is notified that the student is at risk of being missing. Children’s Services staff will visit the last known address and alert key services to locate the student.

Continued or on-going absence

If a student misses 10% (three weeks/sessions) or more schooling across any one academic year, for whatever reason, they are defined as a persistent absentee. A Standard Letter will be sent by the Attendance Officer to any parent/carer if their child is categorised as a persistent absentee in accordance with Hampshire County Council instructions.

If a student’s attendance falls below 90% the Attendance Officer will contact the parent/carer to discuss possible ways to support and improve their attendance. This can include referring to outside agencies and investigating issues that may be preventing attendance.

Class teachers will be made aware of the reasons for absence to ensure the student is made to feel welcome on their return. The student concerned will be helped to catch up on missed work.

Section 4 - Request for Leave of Absence

Amendments to attendance regulations were updated and enforced from September 2024: The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. It is important to note that Headteachers can determine the length of the authorised absence, as well as whether absence is authorised at all.

There is, however, no legal entitlement for time off in school term time to go on holiday and in all cases, holiday will not be authorised. Parents/carers wishing to apply for leave of absence need to fill in the application form available on the school website in advance, before making any travel arrangements.

If term-time leave is taken, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. If the number of sessions absent is in line with, or above the thresholds described in Hampshire County Council’s Code of conduct, then parents/carers will be issued with a Fixed-Penalty Fine or other legal action may be taken in accordance with the code (see Section 6 for detail).

Section 5 – Understanding Types of absence

Students are expected to attend school every day for the entire duration of the academic year unless there is an exceptional reason. There are two main categories of absences:

• Authorised absence:

When the school has accepted the explanation offered as satisfactory, justification for the absence or given approval in advance for such an absence. If no explanation has been received, absences cannot be authorised.

• Unauthorised absence:

When the school has not received a reason for the absence or has not approved a student’s leave of absence after a parent or carer’s request. This includes:

• Parents giving their children permission to be absent unnecessarily, such as for shopping, birthdays or to look after siblings/family members.


• Truancy before or during the school day


• Absences which have not been explained

The school can, if necessary, change an ‘authorised absence’ to an ‘unauthorised absence’ and vice versa if new information is presented. Any changes will be communicated to parents/carers. An example of this would be where a parent/carer states that a student is unwell but on return to school there is evidence they have been on holiday.

Section 6 - Penalty Notices for non-attendance and other legal measures

Education Law states that parents/carers are committing an offence if they fail to ensure the regular attendance of their child of compulsory school age at the school at which the child is registered unless the absence has been authorised by the school.

Legal measures for tackling persistent absence or lateness

Hampshire schools and Hampshire County Council will use the full range of legal measures to secure good attendance. Legal measures will only be considered when there is unauthorised absence and:

• The child or family do not require the support from any agency to improve the attendance

• The child has unauthorised absences recorded and parents are complicit in the child’s absence

The following legal measures will be used for students of compulsory school age who are registered at a school:

• Parenting contracts set at Education Planning Meetings


• Parenting orders


• Penalty Notices

For national guidance refer to: Parental responsibility measures for behaviour and attendance, which covers legal measures for non-attendance:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/parental-responsibility-measures-for-behaviour-andattendance.

• Education Supervision Orders


• Legal

Where a child has unauthorised absence, the school must enforce Hampshire County Council’s Code of Conduct: Issuing Penalty Notices for Unauthorised Absence From Schools or follow its guidance on other legal measures for non-attendance. The Code of Conduct is a statutory document that ensures that powers for legal sanctions are applied consistently and fairly across all schools and their families within the authority. A copy is available from:

www.hants.gov.uk/education/hias/learning-behaviour-attendance/attendance-guidance-forparents/possible-penalties.

Parents/carers will be warned of the likelihood of a Penalty Notice being issued for unauthorised absence via letter. A Penalty Notice is a fine that is issued to each parent/carer who condoned or was responsible for the child, during the period of unauthorised absence for which the fine has been issued. For each case of unauthorised absence, the school or Hampshire County Council will decide whether a Penalty Notice will be issued to one or more Parents/carers for each child. This could mean four Penalty Notices will be issued for a family with two children having unauthorised absence for holiday i.e. one Penalty Notice for each child to each parent.

Each Penalty Notice carries a fine of £80 if paid within 21 days of the Penalty Notice being posted.

If the fine is not paid within 21 days the penalty is automatically increased to £160 if paid within 28 days. If the fine remains unpaid Hampshire County Council will consider prosecution for the non-attendance.

Payment methods are detailed on the Penalty Notices themselves. Penalties are to be paid to Hampshire County Council and revenue resulting from payment of penalties is used by the County Council to help cover the costs of issuing Penalty Notices and/or the cost of Prosecuting recipients who do not pay.

Important note: From February 2019 the Hampshire Code of Conduct states that if a Penalty Notice has previously been issued and this has been ineffective in addressing the absenteeism, the case must be referred to the Attendance Legal Panel (ALP) who will then decide whether to issue a subsequent Penalty Notice or recommend alternative intervention which may include parental prosecution.

For further information parents/carers can request a leaflet from their school and should visit Hampshire County Council’s website at: www.hants.gov.uk/education/hias/learning

Section 7 – Help and advice

My child is trying to avoid coming to school. What should I do?

Any problems with regular attendance are best solved by the school working in partnership with the parents/carers and the student concerned.

The Attendance Officer or alternatively the appropriate Tutor or Head of Year should be contacted immediately to discuss possible reasons for the absence issues and to decide the best way forward.

What can I do to encourage my child to attend school?

Make sure your child gets enough sleep and gets up in plenty of time each morning. Ensure that he/she leaves home on time to ensure they do not arrive late, that they have the correct clothes and are properly equipped. Show your child, by your interest, that you value his/her education.

Leavers

If a student is going to leave the school (other than leaving at the end of Year 11) parents are asked to provide information about their plans, including any date of a move, their new address and telephone numbers, the student’s new school and the start date when known. This should be submitted in writing.

If a student leaves without the above information being submitted, then they are considered to be at risk of becoming a child missing in education. This requires schools and local authorities to then carry out investigations to try and locate your child, which includes liaising with Children’s Services, the Police and other agencies. This can be avoided by providing the above information.

Absence through a child participating in public performances, including theatre, film or television work and modelling

Parents of a child performer can seek leave of absence from the school for their child to take part in a performance. They must contact the Headteacher to discuss the nature and frequency of the work, whether the child has a valid performance licence and whether education will be provided by the employer during any future leave of absence. It is, however, the Headteacher’s discretion as to whether to authorise this and they will wish to discuss with you the nature and frequency of the absence and how learning will continue if absence occurs. Any absence recorded as part of a child’s participation in a public performance is recorded as C, an authorised absence.

Absence through competing at regional, county or national level for sport

Leave of absence from the school can be applied for any student selected to take part in regional, county, national and international events and competitions. It is, however, down to the Headteacher’s discretion as to whether to authorise this and they will wish to discuss with you the nature and frequency of the absence and how learning will continue if absence occurs.

Permission for a student to leave early or arrive late to attend coaching and training sessions is also at the discretion of the Headteacher and is not likely to be approved if it is a regular event, unless the sports club or association is providing an education tutor as part of their coaching.

The regulations related to children participating in public performances are separate to those around authorising leave of absence. Headteachers can authorise this absence.

For further advice and guidance on child employment and performance licenses visit Hantsweb at:

www.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/childrenandyoungpeople/child-employment.

For national advice see:

www.gov.uk/child-performance-licence-england-scotland-wales.

Gypsy, Roma, Traveller and Showman families

Absence of a child from a Traveller family that has left the area may be authorised if the absence is for work purposes only and it is believed that the family intends to return. To ensure the continuity of learning for Traveller children, dual registration is allowed. That means that a school cannot remove a Traveller child from their roll whilst they are travelling. When the Traveller is away, the home school holds the place open and records the absence as authorised through the T code. Distance learning packs for Traveller children are not an alternative to attendance at school.

For further advice and guidance on attendance and Gypsy, Roma, Traveller and Showman families, see Hampshire County Council guidance at: http://documents.hants.gov.uk/childrensservices/

HIAS/Promotingpupilattendanceandrecordingabsence-Section6.pdf.

Please note students must have attended 200 sessions in a rolling 12-month period to be able to request leave for work purposes. Further support and guidance is available from Hampshire County Council’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS).

Study leave

Students’ needs are best met if they attend school every day in the period leading up to examinations. No study leave will be granted during this period, therefore, and students will be expected to attend school in the usual way.

Study leave will only be granted to Year 11 students during the time of the GCSE examination period. Should any student wish to attend school or should their parents wish them to, on the days and at times when they are not sitting examinations, arrangements will be made for them to do so. The school will work within the legal requirements.

 

Teenage pregnancy

Support will be directed to keeping a student in school and, wherever possible, her return to full-time education as soon as possible after the birth. A student who becomes pregnant should be allowed no more than 18 weeks’ authorised absence to cover the time immediately before and after the birth of the child. After that time, any absence will be treated as unauthorised.

Section 8 – Records

School registers are legal documents and in compliance with attendance regulations attendance records will be kept for at least three years and preserved electronically.