We at St Botolph’s CE Academy believe that children have a right to fulfil their potential and flourish as unique individuals and so it is our intent that all children attend our school regularly and on time. To this end, we strive to support all our families in encouraging their child to attend regularly, no matter what barriers they may face.
The importance of regular and punctual attendance and it’s impact on your child’s future can not be overstated. We will strive to support each and everyone of our families to remove the obstacles and challenges they face in fulfilling their duty to provide their children with an education.
We work closely with our local authority and other safeguarding agencies to ensure that every child is able to attend school.
Children who attend regularly on average achieve an academic grade higher than their peers. Missing school is missing out on valuable learning, social skills and elements of wider school life that support your child in becoming the amazing adult they were born to be.
We endeavour to listen, understand, empathise and support all our families with the common goal of achieving the best outcomes for their children.
How we celebrate and support good attendance in our school
Promote the importance of regular and punctual attendance through the following celebratory awards and promotions.
- The academy celebrates and promotes attendance through the academy attendance prize wheel. This is a wheel of fortune style wheel where the highest attaining class each week spins the wheel to win a prize such as extra play times, non uniform days, biscuits and other treats and celebrations.
- Each week a winner is drawn from the children who have attended 100% that week. That child wins a £10 morrisons voucher for their family. This is shared with parents through the academy Dojo platform to raise the profile of attendance and celebrate the success. Children with 100% that week also get a stamp on their attendance bookmark. Once they fill their book mark they can trade it in for a chocolate bar as a reward for their efforts.
- Fantastic attendance award: each class will achieve one letter of the words ‘fantastic attendance’ each day that the whole class is present. When the words are complete the class will get a chance to win a prize using wheel of fortune as an extra reward.
- Occasionally, spot prizes for the highest attending class that half term will be awarded. These can be anything from a class visit to the cinema or an extra days Forest School learning.
- Children who meet target (97%) at the end of each half term will be allocated 5 Dojo points to celebrate and reward this commitment to their attendance.
- The academy runs a free “Walking bus” which children are welcome to join at one of our varies pick up points along the way to school, supporting families in attend school on time.
- The academy also hosts a breakfast club from 8am each day. Families can reserve places to support them in getting children to school on time where a healthy breakfast and engaging activities are provided and children are ready for the day. This is provided at a minimal cost and is free for children and families in receipt of Free School Meals.
Absence
In the event of your child being absent from school, please follow these procedures:
Parents will be required to contact the school office via telephone before 8:45am on the first day of their child’s absence and will be expected to provide an explanation for the absence and an estimation of how long the absence will last, for example, one school day.
Where a pupil is absent, and their parent has not contacted the school by 9.30am (the time the register closes) to report the absence, the Attendance and Inclusion Officer (or a member of the office staff) will contact the parent by telephone to ascertain the reason for absence.
If no reason for absence has been established by 10am, this absence will be reported to the Headteacher.
A home visit will be carried out on day 3 of a child’s absence. For some children, this will be carried out on day 1.
Our Attendance Officer is: Mrs Haigh
Our Attendance Strategic Leader is: Mrs Groves
Holidays in term time
We believe that every child is entitled to an education NOT a holiday
In accordance with Department of Education legislation from 2024, schools cannot authorise term-time holidays.
What happens if I take my child on an unauthorised term time holiday?
“The DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.”
Ultimately, it is the decision of the parent whether they wish to take their child out of school for a term-time holiday. However, in such instances, the local authority has a legal obligation to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice when the child returns to school.
“The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.”
Please apply to directly, in writing to the Head Of School or Executive Headteacher at least two school weeks before your intended date of absence, if you wish to apply for authorisation under the “exceptional circumstances” remit. However, please note that these ‘exceptional circumstances’ are very specifically outlined by the government and it is unlikely that your request will be granted for the reason of a family holiday. There is no right to appeal the Head of school’s decision in this matter as all absences are authorised under their discretion.
The Academy’s attendance policy, together with the legislation from Wakefield Council and the Department of Education, is available on our website for you to refer to at any time.
As per the DFE statutory guidance the process of using penalty notices as a punitive measure will be taken by the academy when a threshold is met. The DFE defines this as follows
“The threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks). These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks). The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term)”
Your responsibility as a parent
It is every parents legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends school regularly.
Pupils are expected to arrive into school at 8.45am and classroom doors will close at 9.00am. Any children arriving after 9.00am will need to enter school via the main office to explain the reason for their lateness. Arrivals between 9.00am and 9.15am (the time when registers close) will be marked with an L code (‘late before registers close’) and any arrivals after 9.10am, without a viable reason previously communicated to the school, will be marked using a U code (‘unauthorised absence, after registers close’). Both of these codes impact a pupil’s individual attendance score. A child with 10 or more sessions missing as a result of lateness can be referred for a penalty notice to the local authority Education Welfare Service.
Lateness is disruptive to teaching and learning, so it is vital that parents ensure their child arrives at school on time.
In the case of absence, PARENT’S MUST LEAVE A VOICEMAIL ON THE ABSENCE LINE BEFORE 9AM. Please clearly state your child’s name, class and reason for absence. This must be done EVERY DAY of absence.
St Botolph’s academy and the local authority take safeguarding and the welfare of our pupils very seriously and unexplained absence is the first sign of a potential safeguarding issue. For this reason it is the academy policy that children who are absent are visited at home, regardless of their reason for absence, after an absence of three or more days.
If you are unsure if your child is well enough to attend school after a common childhood ailment, the following NHS website offers a range of advice, including when it is ok to return to school.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/
Attendance Intervention
Our Academy has an attendance target of 97%. In order to ensure the school has effective procedures for managing absence, our attendance team will monitor and contact families whose attendance fails to meet this expectation in the following ways.
If a pupil’s attendance falls below 97%, the academy will write to the pupil’s parents to alert them of their concerns and falling level of attendance. The pupil’s attendance will be closely monitored.
If a pupil’s attendance falls below 95%, parents will be expected to meet with the Attendance Officer and Attendance Strategic Leader/Headteacher to discuss the pupil’s attendance and agree strategies to improve attendance.
If further absence occurs and the pupil’s attendance falls below 92%, a referral to the Trust Education Welfare Officer will be made.
Our intention will always remain to support families and legal action remains the final and most severe tool at our disposal. We will always offer a network of multi agency support to enable families to overcome any barriers to attendance first.
There will however be a clear escalation process for families where there remains no improvement after a clear plan has been set in place. Under Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act the academy may seek further punitive measures as it states if a child of compulsory school age fails to attend school regularly, the parent is guilty of an offence.