Attendance

Introduction

Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education. Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any problems if your child does not want to go to school.

Regular school attendance

Good attendance shows secondary schools and future potential employers that your child is reliable.

St Gerard’s Catholic Primary school records details of all children’s attendance and absence at school. We do so at the beginning of morning and afternoon sessions. If your child is absent, you must tell the school why immediately.

The school will record the absence; the Local Authority will receive this information for each child. The Department of Education also receives annual attendance data for the school.

Your responsibilities as a parent

By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. For most parents, this means registering their child at a school – though some choose to make other arrangements to provide a suitable, full-time education.

Once your child is registered at St Gerard’s, the parent is legally responsible for making sure they attend on a regular basis.  If your child does not attend school on a regular basis you could get fined or be prosecuted in court.

How to prevent your child from missing school

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

• making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality
• taking an interest in their education – ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities
• discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher or principal know about anything serious
• not letting them take time off school for minor ailments – particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work

To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:

• after school hours
• at weekends
• during school holidays

You should not expect school to agree to your child going on holiday during term time.

Support on school attendance

A child’s school attendance can be affected if there are problems with:

• bullying
• housing or care arrangements
• transport to and from school
• work and money

If your child starts missing school, you might not know there is a problem.  When you find out, ask your child and then approach their teacher or the school attendance team.

St Gerard’s approach to supporting and improving school attendance

The Strategic Approach

Our School adopts the Five Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice framework, this is modelled on the work of Professor Katherine Weare. The emphasis is on developing a school culture and climate which builds a sense of connectedness and belonging to ensure all children can attend school and thrive.  The approach ensures we prioritise building solid working relationships with children / parents prior to any escalation.  The staged approach we use ensures we identify triggers early that can lead to poor attendance issues such as; mental health issues, lack of trust, communication and relationship breakdowns and the possible lack of networking opportunities both internal (in-school) and external (external agencies).

The Foundations framework has most recently been reviewed by the Department for Education.  The Foundations framework received an excellent report following the four-day review.

“The Foundations approach is an excellent example of best practice; there are very clear and detailed systems and procedures in place to manage absence and attendance consistently” – Michelle O’Dell DFE Attendance Advisor, March 2022

Aims of the strategy

• Increase school Attendance and reduce Persistent Absence to meet set targets.
• Ensure Attendance is well managed within the school, with the appropriate level of resources allocated.
• Enable the school to make informed use of Attendance data to target interventions appropriately, focusing on the key demographic groups highlighted in the 2022 DFE paper.

Objectives

• Create an ethos within the school in which good attendance is recognised as the norm and every child/young person aims for excellent attendance.
• Make attendance and punctuality a priority.
• Set focused targets to improve individual attendance and whole school attendance levels.
• Embed the 5 Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice framework which defines agreed roles and responsibilities and promotes consistency in carrying out designated tasks with respect to promoting attendance and punctuality.
• Record and monitor attendance and absenteeism and apply appropriate strategies to minimise absenteeism.
• Develop a systematic approach to gathering and analysing relevant attendance data.
• Provide support, advice and guidance to; parents, children and young people and develop mutual cooperation between home and the school in encouraging good attendance and in addressing identified attendance issues.
• Demonstrate through the use of rewards that the school recognises good attendance and punctuality are achievements in themselves.

Five Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice

Foundation 1

Foundation 2

Foundation 3

Foundation 4

Foundation 5

DfE: Working Together To Improve Attendance 2022

From September 2022 the DFE: Working Together To Improve Attendance paper will replace all previous guidance on school attendance except for statutory guidance for parental responsibility measures.  The Secretary of State has committed to it becoming statutory when parliamentary time allows (this will be no sooner than September 2023).

The table below identifies how the 5 Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice will underpin the DFE 2022 paper in meeting the summary of expectations.