How do we celebrate school attendance?

At Webheath, we take a whole school approach to encourage high levels of attendance and punctuality. Whole class ‘on time’ attendance is celebrated within classrooms and staff encourage attendance through discussion and positive anticipation of the events throughout the week and month with classroom calendars. We hold weekly assemblies where we identify and celebrate ‘on time’ attendance, awarding bronze, silver and the attendance cup to classes with the highest attendance and punctuality. Termly, a class is presented with the attendance award for the highest level of ‘on time’ attendance and this is displayed and referenced throughout the year.

Attendance is a regular part of our weekly newsletter, where you will find both the celebration of school attendance success and guidance and advice to support for families to improve school attendance.

Children who demonstrate high levels of attendance receive acknowledgement both face to face and via an attendance celebration letter. We place great value on those who work hard to improve their attendance, with positive improvement letters and recognition.

What does the law say?

It is a legal requirement for schools to keep a record of attendance and the reasons for any absences. There are clear guidelines set out by the government about how schools should manage attendance and schools are expected to follow these.
You can find out more about this on the official government website: School attendance and absence: Overview – GOV.UK

Only the headteacher can officially authorise an absence but, unless there is a concern, other staff will usually do this on their behalf. Parents and carers should provide reasons for absences to enable the school to decide whether or not to authorise the absence based on government guidelines.

Parents and carers must ensure that their child attends school regularly. Failure to do so, without good reason, is an offence, even if they are missing school without your knowledge. Parents and carers of children with unauthorised absences may be subject to a fixed penalty notice/legal action.

What are the different types of absence?

There are two broad categories of absence:

Authorised absence:

This is an absence that has been authorised by the school for a legitimate medical, emergency or unavoidable situation. Typical examples of authorised absence include:

• illness that means a child is too unwell to come to school;
• following NHS advice regarding remaining off school following a period of illness (in the case of certain infectious illnesses);
• an emergency medical or dental appointment;
• the recent death of a close family member;
• religious observance, as long as certain conditions are met.

Unauthorised absence:

This is where a pupil’s absence is for a reason deemed to be unacceptable by the school or where the reason for a pupil’s absence has not been provided and cannot be established.
Some examples of unauthorised absence include:

• looking after a younger sibling;
• time off for birthday celebrations;
• a family holiday (unless there are exceptional circumstances);
•  oversleeping;
• shopping trips or days out;
• waiting in for a delivery.

Why is it important that my child is on time each day?

When children are late to school, they may initially feel unsettled and they might miss important information and activities.

Schools are required to record late arrivals. If pupils arrive after the start of the school day but when the register is still open, it will be recorded as a late mark. If pupils arrive after the register closes (which government guidelines state must be within 30 minutes of the register opening), then their morning mark will be recorded as an unauthorised absence, unless evidence can be provided that there are exceptional circumstances that led to the late arrival.

Please see our school day page for the start and finish times for each year group.

How does occasional absence affect my child?

Missing occasional days from school may seem unimportant at the time; however, this can have a significant impact on your child in the long term:

A pupil with 85% attendance is missing nearly half a term of learning time each school year.
Regular absences can result in poorer outcomes over time.

Research shows that pupils who miss between 10% and 20% of school (which is between half and one day per week on average) stand only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% of those who miss fewer than 5% of school days.

Late arrivals also add up over time – being 10 minutes late each day adds up to two weeks of lost learning time over the whole school year.

What about medical appointments?

We understand that pupils need to attend medical and dental appointments and that it is not always possible to arrange this outside of school time. However, we would request that any non-emergency appointments are made for outside of the school day as this keeps the disruption to a minimum and ensures that they do not miss important lessons.

Why won’t the school usually authorise absence for a family holiday?

We recognise that family vacations during the school holidays can be expensive and that booking a cheaper term-time holiday might be tempting. However, headteachers can only authorise leave during term time if there are exceptional circumstances, even if your child has an excellent attendance record or if you believe that the reason for the absence is justified.

Parents and carers should plan their holidays around school holidays and avoid asking for permission to take their children out of school unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
If there are exceptional circumstances, then a request can be made to the school using our leave of absence request form which can be emailed to you or collected from the school office.

Requests for term-time absences should be made as soon as possible and at least 4 weeks before the absence is due to take place. However, we recognise that in some rare instances, this will not always be possible.

Requests for term-time absences will be considered on a case-by-case basis taking the facts, circumstances and any supporting evidence into consideration. Leave of absence due to exceptional circumstances is at the discretion of the headteacher. This includes the length of time that the leave will be granted for.

What if my child is struggling to go to school?

If your child is struggling to go to school, there may be a number of different reasons, including general anxiety, worries about leaving home, problems with friends or peers, academic problems and other mental health challenges. Sometimes, the cause can be a combination of different factors.

If your child is struggling to attend school, you should let us know immediately so that we can work together to put a plan in place to deal with any underlying issues and get your child back into school, feeling safe and happy. The longer a child does not attend, the more difficult it is to address.

Please contact your child’s class teacher in the first instance, to discuss any support that may be suitable. It may be appropriate to seek support from our school family support worker or our pastoral team. Mrs Heffernan is our school attendance champion; parents can get in touch with any of these staff members via the school office.

How do I request an absence in advance?

If you want to request authorisation for a planned absence, please use our leave of absence request form below.
PLANNED ABSENCE FORM

Alternatively, you can ask the school office to email this to you: office@waps.shiresmat.org.uk
Paper copies of this form are also available from the school office.
Please submit any requests as early as possible as we may need to ask for additional information before we can consider your request. Please do not make any plans until you have been told the outcome of your request.
Please be aware that we can only approve absences that are for exceptional circumstances so will be unable to authorise family holidays in most cases.