Attendance

The name and contact details of the SLT Attendance Lead responsible for the strategic approach to attendance in our school is: Mr S England  

The name and contact details of the school staff member parents should contact about attendance on a day-to-day basis is Miss A Carroll.

office@ashwell.herts.sch.uk

01462 742297

The name and contact details of the school staff member pupils and parents should contact for more individual support with attendance (Pastoral Support Worker/INCO) is Mrs K Andrews

senco@ashwell.herts.sch.uk

01462 742297

The name of our linked Governor with responsibility for monitoring attendance is Achievement Committee.

The Department for Education (DfE) has produced statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools, and local authorities. It is called “Working together to improve school attendance” and it includes a National Framework in relation to absence and the use of legal sanctions. Our School Attendance Policy reflects the requirements and principles of that guidance.

New legislation was passed, The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 which introduced a National Framework in England. By law all children of compulsory school age must receive an appropriate full-time education (Education Act 1996). Parent/Carers have a legal duty to ensure their child attends school regularly at the school at which they are registered.

Parent/Carers may be recognised differently under education law, than under family law. Section 576 of the Education Act 1996 states that a ‘parent’, in relation to a child or young person, includes any person who is not a parent (from which can be inferred ‘biological parent’) but who has parental responsibility, or who has care of the child.

A person typically has care of a child or young person if they are the person with whom the child lives, either full or part-time, and who looks after the child, irrespective of what their biological or legal relationship is with the child.

The name and contact details of the school staff member parents should contact about absence is Miss A Carroll. 

absence@ashwell.herts.sch.uk

01462 742297

We monitor and review all pupils’ absence, and the reasons that are given, thoroughly.

If a child is absent from school, a parent must follow these procedures:

1. Contact the school on the first day of absence before 8:55am when our registers close via:
   1. Telephone – 01462 742297. (The school has an answer phone available to leave a message if nobody is available to take your call, or you may call into school personally and speak to the office staff.
   2. Email – absence@ashwell.herts.sch.uk

(Please be aware that you are required to give a reason explaining your child’s absence. If you leave a voicemail or email to report your child’s absence, you may receive a call from the school to discuss the absence before making a decision as to whether the absence is to be recorded as authorised.)

2. Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 8:55am or as advised during your initial contact.
3. Ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible and you provide any medical evidence, if requested, to support the absence. Medical evidence may be requested (where school have reasonable doubt as to the authenticity of the absences) where your child is having multiple periods of absence which are reported as being due to medical reasons. When determining whether a child is too ill to attend school, both parents and school staff can consider the advice contained within the NHS Guidance on School Absence and Childhood Illness see Annex C.

If your child is absent, we will:

1. Telephone or email you on the first, and every subsequent day of absence, if we have not heard from you. However, it is your responsibility to contact us.

2. If we are unable to make contact with parents by telephone, we will telephone emergency contact numbers, send emails home and a home visit may be made, in the interests of safeguarding.

3. The Local Authority will be informed if no contact has been made with parent/carers by the 10^th day of absence (or sooner if deemed appropriate) as The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 Section 13 requires schools to inform the local authority of any pupils absent from school and where absences amount to more than 10 or more days, either consecutively or irregularly and have been unauthorised. This means school will have unauthorised 20 am/pm sessions of absences. Schools are also under a safeguarding duty, under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 to investigate any unexplained / unauthorised absences.

At this point, your child will be considered to be “absent from education”.

Poor punctuality is not acceptable and can sometimes lead to irregular school attendance patterns. Good timekeeping is a vital life skill which will help children as they progress through their school life and out into the wider world.

Pupils who arrive late disrupt lessons and, if a child misses the start of the day, they can feel unsettled and embarrassed and risk missing vital work and important messages from their class teacher.  The times of the start and close of the school day for all pupils at Ashwell Primary School are:

• Classroom Doors Open: 8.40am 
• Registration starts: 8.45am
• Registration closes: 8.55am
• End of the school day: 3.15pm 

Registration - How we manage lateness:

• The school doors are opened at 8:40am and pupils are then expected to enter the school building and make their way to their classroom.
• Registers will be taken at 8.45am and at 12:45pm. They must be marked in accordance with the list of symbols set out and recorded via Arbor.
• Pupils who arrive between 8.45am and 8.55am will be marked as ‘late’ but counted as present for that session (Code L).
• Registers close at 8.55am and at 12:55pm. If a pupil does not arrive before the register is closed, he /she will be marked as “absent”.
• Children who arrive after 8.55 am must be signed in via the main office for purposes of emergency evacuation etc.
• Pupils who arrive after the register has closed at 8:55am and a parent provides a satisfactory explanation will be marked as ‘authorised absent’ for that session.
• Pupils who arrive after the register has closed and parents fail to provide a satisfactory explanation will be marked as ‘unauthorised absent’ for that session (Code U).

If your child has a persistent lateness record, you may be asked to meet with the Headteacher, but you can approach us at any time if you are having difficulties getting your child to school on time.  We expect parents and staff to encourage good punctuality by being good role models to our children and, as a school, we celebrate good class and individual punctuality. Unauthorised lateness could result in the school seeking advice and guidance from the Local Authority.

Parents are asked to do everything possible to avoid booking medical or dental appointments during the school day.

Where medical or dental appointments unavoidably fall in school time, emergencies, or other unavoidable cause, evidence of the appointment must be provided in order for this to be marked as an authorised absence using the (m) code. 

All applications for a leave of absence must be made in writing, in advance, on the ‘Absence Request Form’ provided by the Local Authority. This is available in the attendance section of our school website (at the bottom of this page) or can be obtained via the school office.

There is now a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England, of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 week school period. The 10 sessions of absence do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence (G, O and/or U coded within the school’s registers). The 10 school week period can span different terms, school years or educational settings.

Sanctions will include issuing each parent (for each child) with a Penalty Notice for £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days (for the first offence). A second Penalty Notice issued within a three-year period will result in a fine of £160 per parent, per child. If a third offence is committed the matter will be referred to the local authority for consideration of prosecution via the Magistrates Court. If prosecution is instigated for irregular school attendance, each parent/carer may receive a fine of up to £2500 and/or up to 3 months in prison. If a parent/carer is found guilty in court, they will receive a criminal conviction.

For full information - Please read our Attendance Policy in full (see bottom of this page)

See the Hertfordshire Code of Conduct here

‘Helping Parents understand the Penalty Notice Fines for School Attendance (see bottom of this page).

September 2024 - Explaining the changes to attendance - Parent Video