ATTENDANCE
At Aston School, we pride ourselves on working alongside parents to support our children enabling them to achieve their full potential.
ATTENDANCE
At Aston School, we pride ourselves on working alongside parents to support our children enabling them to achieve their full potential. However, we have noticed that our attendance is being impacted by children going away for a vacation or taking time out of school to attend events, such as theatre trips or Winter Wonderland. The government’s new laws indicate that these events will always result in an unauthorised absence.
Due to the number of families that take their children away on holiday during term time, the local authority has changed their fines procedure. We, as a school now have a legal obligation to inform the local authority if your child hits the unauthorised absence threshold. There will be a new threshold of any 10 unauthorised sessions (equivalent to 5 school days) within a 10-week school period where a penalty notice will be considered. The new rules mean you will no longer be able to take your child out of school for a week without a penalty issue being noticed. We have had instances where we have been told a child is ill and subsequently received other information that they were actually on holiday. In these instances the child will be marked as unauthorised holiday and the days will count towards a potential fine.
We are aware that sometimes our pupils cannot come to school because they are really unwell, and that’s the right thing to do for them and other students. Medical advice is clear for children with a mild illness, will often be well enough to attend – for example if they have a cough, or cold, without a temperature. The NHS guidance: Is my child too ill for school? (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/) is designed to support parents in their decision making about mild illness.
Last year, our school attendance was above national figures at 96.9%. Not surprisingly, the pupils with the higher attendance generally achieve much better than their peers with lower attendance.
Following government guidance:
What YOU must do:
- Telephone , message via school comms or email to school before 9am each day of your child’s absence.
- Tell the school in advance of any medical appointments : Proof of these appointments are needed in order to use the medical attendance code (authorised)
- If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, send them in anyway as they often perk up on arrival. We would telephone you if your child was too unwell to be in school. However, if your child has vomited or had diarrhoea, they will not be allowed to attend school for 48 hours from the last episode.
- Do not book holidays or events during term time.
- Communicating as early as possible circumstances which may affect absence or require support. If you and your child are experiencing difficulties with school attendance then talk to us as a first step so we can help!
What WE will do:
- Check your child’s attendance every day.
- Phone home to discuss your child’s attendance with you.
- Ask for evidence for a medical appointment if a child is ill for more than two days.
- Send home attendance information where a child’s attendance is a concern and likely to fall below 95%. This does not require a response as we are informing you to make you aware.
- Send home attendance information where a child’s attendance is a concern and likely to fall below 90% which may require a meeting
- Invite you into school for attendance meetings if we are concerned.
- If we cannot establish a reason for absence, then we may make a welfare home visit.
- Work with you to ensure children who are persistently or severely absent improve their attendance
We also know that parents can have a significant effect on their child’s absence and we would really appreciate your help and support ensuring that your child comes to school every day so that they can get the best possible outcomes.
ATTENDANCE DOCUMENTS
Click on the links below to download the files:
PARENT APPLICATION FOR LEAVE LETTER
STATUTORY ATTENDANCE SUPPORT TEAM: PENALTY NOTICE FINES, SEP 2024