School Attendance

It is the legal responsibility of every parent or carer to make sure that their child receives an education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school (such as Elective Home Education).

School

• Build Strong relationships and work jointly with families, listening to and understanding barriers to attendance and working in partnership with families to remove them.
• Develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance
• Have a clear school attendance policy which all staff, pupils, and parents understand
• Accurately complete admission and, with the exception of schools where all pupils are boarders, attendance registers and have effective day to day processes in place, to follow up  absence
• Regularly monitor and anaylse attendance and absence data to identify pupils or cohorts that require support with attendance and put effective strategies in place
• Share information and work collaboratively. with other schools in the area, local authorities, and other partners where the pupil’s absence is at risk of becoming persistent and severe
• Be particularly mindful of pupils absent from school due to mental or physical ill health or they have special educational needs and/or disabilities and provide them with additional support.

Parents

• It is the legal responsibility of every parent or carer to make sure their child receives an education either by attendance at school or by education other than at school
• Where the child is on roll at school, parents and carers are responsible for making sure that their child attends school regularly
• From starting nursery, parents should teach their children the importance of going to school every day, on time
• Good bedtime and morning routines will help children get up and get ready for school every day, on time
• Don't let children take time off for minor ailments. NHS guidance is available to help parents know when to keep their child off school 
• Where a child is poorly, parents must let the school know before the start of the school day
• Where possible, parents should make necessary appointments after school, at weekends, or during school holidays
• Take family holidays in school holidays
• Speak to the child's school at the earliest opportunity where there are difficulties

Council

• Rigorously track local attendance data and devise a strategic approach to attendance that prioritises the pupils, pupil cohorts and schools on which to provide support to and focus its efforts on to unblock area wide barriers to attendance
• Have in place a School Attendance Support Team
• Provide communication and advice by regularly bringing schools together to communicate messages, provide advice and share best practice between schools and trust within the area
• Hold termly Targeting Support Meetings with schools, using their attendance data to identify pupils and cohorts at risk of poor attendance and agree targeted actions and access to services for those pupils
• Provide access to Early Help support and provide practical whole family support where needed to tackle the causes of  absenteeism and unblock the whole barriers to attendance.
• Take forward attendance legal intervention (using the full range of parental responsibility measures) where voluntary support has not been successful or engaged with.

Who is considered a parent?

By law, a parent is any person who has parental responsibility for the child or who has care of the child, this could include step-parent or another extended family member with whom the child lives.

Enforcement will usually be issued to the parent or parents with day-to-day responsibility for pupil's attendance or the parent or parents who have allowed the absence (regardless or which parent has applied for a leave or absence).