Attendance
For pupils at Park Primary to have the best chances of success, it is vital that they are at school (and on time) every day the school is open unless the absence is unavoidable.
During the academic year of 2024/2025, Park is striving to achieve our target of 96% attendance. We aim to reach this goal through incentives for pupils, parental engagement and joint agency working.
Why it is important to attend school regularly?
- To give your child the best possible start in life
- They will be able to keep up with their work
- They will achieve better results
- They will develop friendships and social skills
School attendance is central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential. The government has set a target of 95% attendance for all pupils. This rate allows for periods of illness or particular circumstances when absence from school is unavoidable. We want your child to attend school regularly as this supports their learning. If your child is not well or if you have a planned reason why your child cannot attend school, please inform the school at the earliest opportunity.
The Law
Children of compulsory school age must, by law, receive a full time education.
Each person with day-to-day parental responsibility could be taken to court and fined for each child who is not attending school regularly or who is persistently late.
The Education Act 1996 states that all pupils should attend school regularly and punctually. ‘If a child of compulsory school age, who is a registered pupil at a school fails to attend regularly at the school, his parent is guilty of an offence.’
Some key attendance facts:
- Attending 90% of the time or less will have a serious effect on learning.
- One day’s absence every two weeks will give 90% attendance.
- Up to the age of 16, 90% attendance will mean losing over a year of school – more than half
How close is your child to 100% attendance?
|
Number of days off school a year |
Percentage attendance |
Number of lessons missed |
Level of concern |
|
0 days |
100% |
0 |
Perfection |
|
2 days |
99% |
10 lessons |
Excellent |
|
5 days |
97% |
25 lessons |
Good |
|
10 days |
95% |
50 lessons |
Slight concern |
|
20 days |
90% |
100 lessons |
Concern |
|
30 days |
85% |
150 lessons |
Significant concern |
Attendance and punctuality incentives
Attendance pathways
Attendance pathways include:
-
If your child is going to be absent, please call the office and inform us of the reason before 9am that day. Mrs Laycock, Attendance Lead, will call you if we have not received a message. This telephone call might involve parents being informed of their child’s percentage attendance figure and concerns around attendance being raised.
-
We believe that a positive relationship between school, pupils and parents is key. Mrs Laycock works closely with families to support them to improve attendance. This may involve: face-to-face conversations before or after school, home visits, meetings in school and parenting contracts.
-
Should concerns around attendance continue then Mrs Laycock will work with both Mrs Smith and Mrs Midgley in a graduated approach before raising their concerns with external agencies.
- If attendance concerns cannot be addressed using in-school strategies, cases may be referred to external agencies such as the Local Authority’s Pupil Attendance Support Team (PAST), Homestart, Children and Family Wellbeing Service (CFW) and the School Attendance Legal Team (SALT).
- Regular attendance at school is a legal requirement. If a pupil has poor attendance which shows no improvement, parents may be issues with penalty notices and prosecuted in court.
- Punctuality is also an important aspect of school attendance. Children must arrive at school by 9am to avoid incurring a late mark. Children late to school, even by a few minutes, miss important aspects of their learning.
Tips for a stress free school run
This is our attendance platform which families can access to report their child absent, follow the link below to set up your account and then you can also download the app from the app store to make reporting absences even easier.
Exceptional Circumstances
If you wish your child to be absent from school for any exceptional circumstances, please complete a Special Leave of Absence Request form (available from office).
This should be done at the earliest possible opportunity and with at least 2 weeks’ notice.
Planned Absences
Where possible, organise authorised absences well in advance.
Please try to arrange medical appointments during holiday times or out of school hours.
If you cannot make doctor or dentist appointments out of school hours, wherever possible, the child should come to school before the appointment and return to school afterwards.
Family holidays must not be taken during the school term. The guidelines from the DfE states that schools should not authorise absence for holidays or other circumstances on the grounds of cost.
If you take your child on holiday without authorisation, the Local Education Authority has the power to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice of £80 per parent per child, rising to £140 if not paid within 28 days.
