Attendance and School Holidays:

 

All attendance and holidays issues are dealt with by our attendance officer: Mrs J. Winspear. Mrs J. Winspear ensures that children are punctual and attend regularly. Mrs. J. Winspear performs the following tasks:

 

• Phoning parents who have NOT contacted the school on the day their child is absent (1st Day Response). Please can we request that you continue to contact the school prior to 9.30am if your child is absent. This will prevent Mrs. J. Winspear having to make a large number of calls. You can inform the school of an absence via letter, e-mail (jwinspear@throstonschool.org.uk) or telephone (288291).
• Visiting parents/carers when a child has been absent for 3 days (unless the child has a genuine medical reason).
• Keeping a record on those who arrive late. If a child is late more than 3 times a letter will be sent to parents asking them to attend a meeting with the attendance officer to provide reasons for continued lateness.
• Monitoring children with attendance of 85% and below
• Escorting children to school (in emergencies only).
• Providing support to parents/carers on attendance and punctuality.
• Helping the school reach the attendance target of 97.0% for every child.

 

Parents should also ensure children attend school before and after medical/dental appointments. Print outs detailing your child’s current attendance are available from Mrs. J. Winspear. At the end of each academic year you will receive a coloured sheet showing your child’s attendance.

 

Green Sheet: attendance at or above 97.0% = excellent attendance

 

Amber Sheet: attendance between 90.0% and 96.9% attendance is a cause for concern

 

Red Sheet: attendance below 90.0% is unacceptable

 

Attendance Changes:

As you may be aware amendments have been made to the 2006 ‘Attendance Regulations’ in the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013. These amendments, as described below, came into force on 1st September 2013.

 

The amendments make clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during termtime unless there are exceptional circumstances.

 

Therefore from 1st September 2013 the only ‘exceptional’ holidays in term-time that will be authorised are those due to:

• A Family Crisis;
• A Family Wedding;
• A Death in the Family.

 

Please note leave will be granted to those serving in the armed forces and shift workers who can show that a holiday in term-time is unavoidable.

 

Any holidays taken without permission will be marked as unauthorised and penalty notices will be issued.

 

Please note amendments have also been made to the 2007 ‘Attendance Regulations’ in the Education

(Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013. These amendments, as described below, came into force on 1st September 2013. Amendments to the 2007 reg ulations reduce the timescales for paying a penalty notice. Parents must, from 1st September 2013, pay £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. If after the 28 days no payment has been made the LA would begin court prosecutions. The money made from penalty notices is retained by the Local Authority.

 

It is important to note that these changes are being implemented by the government and NOT the

school. More information can be obtained from Mrs. J. Winspear.

 

Unauthorised absence:

All unauthorised absences are investigated and are recorded on a child’s attendance record. Absence that the school are unable to authorise include:

• Arriving after the close of registers - after 9.20am;
• Treat days out;
• Shopping trips, this includes buying school uniform;
• Non-medical related appointments e.g. hairdresser.

 

Lateness After School:

There may be occasions when children are not collected from school. If this situation were to arise we will carry out the following procedure:

 

• If parents do not arrive at the expected time, a phone call will be made after 10 minutes to all available contact numbers.
• If no contact is made the child would be taken to the Head Teacher or Deputy Head Teacher to wait for contact from parents/carers.
• If after 20 minutes we have still had no response the school would contact the Local Authority Attendance Team. The team would then visit the child’s home and school.
• If no family member listed within the school contacts can be found to pick up the child,
• the Attendance Team will contact Emergency Duty Social Care and a decision will be made as to whether the child is placed in emergency foster care.

 

PLEASE ENSURE YOU PROVIDE US WITH THE CORRECT UP-TO-DATE CONTACT DETAILS!