Attendance
Expectations
Our school and nursery day begins at 8.45am. The school doors open at 8.35am and children can be dropped off and come into school and into class from this time, to enable a prompt start to sessions. For reasons of safety, children should not arrive, or be left unaccompanied on the school site, before this time. Attendance registers are taken at 8:45am and 1pm promptly in every class. Children arriving at school after this time will be marked as late. We offer a flexible, cost-effective drop-in Breakfast Club provision to all children from Nursery to Year 6 which runs daily from 7.30am onwards.
The school day ends at 3.15pm and the afternoon nursery session at 3:30pm. Each teacher dismisses their class to parents/carers from the main school gates at the end of the day. If parents are going to be late or there are any alterations to the usual collection arrangements, we ask that they contact school as soon as they are able to let us know what arrangements have been made. Any children who have not been collected will be cared for in After-School Club until a parent/carer or other authorised adult arrives.
Reporting absence
If a child is too unwell to attend school, a telephone call to the school office before 9.15am is required. Parents/carers are expected to provide details of symptoms when keeping children off school due to illness and make contact with school on a daily basis to inform us of their progress. If a child is absent from school and we have not received a phone call or message explaining why by 9:15am, we will always make every effort to contact parents/carers in order to ascertain the whereabouts of their child.
Absence requests
Should a child need to be absent from school for any other reason, for example a medical or dental appointment, an absence request form must be completed and returned to school in advance. These forms are available from the school office or can be downloaded from this web page. Only exceptional circumstances warrant a leave of absence. Please be aware that holidays during school term time will not be authorised and may be subject to a Fixed Penalty Notice.
Leave in term time information for parents
From August 19th 2024 the Government introduced a new ‘National Framework for Penalty Notices’. (in Telford & Wrekin the changes applied from 1st September 2024).
There are significant changes that parents need to be aware of:
· If your child has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10 school week rolling period, you may be issued with a Penalty Notice. These 10 sessions may include any unauthorised absence, including leave in term time and do not have to be consecutive.
· Penalty Notices are increasing to £160 from September 2024. This can be reduced to £80 but only for the first Penalty Notice issued, if paid within 21 days – this reduction does not apply to any subsequent Penalty Notice.
· Any 2nd Penalty Notice, to the same parent for the same child, issued within three years of the date of the first Penalty Notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160
· A third Penalty Notice will not be issued within a three year rolling period, to the same parent for the unauthorised absence of the same child, - alternative action or legal measures will be utilised for subsequent offences.
· If in an individual case the local authority believes a Penalty Notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met. This might apply for example, when parent(s) are deliberately or purposefully avoiding the national threshold by taking several term time holidays below threshold, or for repeated absence for events such as birthdays and taking their child out of school, or when there are only four pupil days in school and the fifth day is for example a PD day or bank holiday
· In some circumstances a ‘Notice to Improve’ may be issued – However, a Notice to Improve will only be used in cases where support is appropriate. They will not be issued in cases of unauthorised leave in term time for holidays, where information for parents is included on school’s website or a simple warning by the school that a Penalty Notice could be issued if unauthorised leave in term time is taken will suffice.
‘Parents should always apply to the Headteacher for any request for leave in term time by completing a request form available from school. (DfE guidance states schools should not authorise leave retrospectively so any leave in term time taken without a request being submitted will be unauthorised absence)’.
In developing and publishing the new national framework, the Government has renewed appeals to parents not to take their children out of school during term time. The Governors and Headteacher of this school support this and students will only be given permission to take leave in term time if there are exceptional circumstances. The DfE Guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance (Aug 2024) states that: Generally, the DfE does not consider the need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. (Paragraph 38.)
Each application for leave in term time will be considered and if it is agreed and authorised the Headteacher will determine the duration of any leave. However, if the application is not agreed and the absence occurs the dates will be unauthorised. Parents will be notified of any decision in writing. This notification may be hand delivered directly to the parent or posted to the parents’ home address.
As a school we are asked to inform you that in line with Telford and Wrekin Council Policy, if your child is absent for 10 school sessions within a 10 week rolling period and that absence is unauthorised, you may be subject to a Penalty Notice fine, criteria is as detailed above.
