Your child will only be successful if they attend school. Our aspiration is for everyone at Awsworth Primary and Nursery School to attend for more than 96% of the year. If your child’s attendance falls below 95% then they will fall behind. Days off add up to lost learning.
Even if your child’s attendance is at 95% this will mean they have missed 40 lessons in one year.
- Attendance above 96% gives your child the best chance of success for the future.
- Attendance below 95% means your child has less chance of success.
- Attendance below 90% means that they have limited chance of success and are very likely to fail or fall short of their target grades.
- Good attendance is a life skill required in all professional industries.
Key Information:
- Every morning that your child is absent you must contact us before 8.45am and set out a valid reason for the absence by either dialling 0115 9321926 and selecting option 1 or using the absence reporting section on Weduc. Do not report absences to the class teacher or TA. If you do not contact us then the absence will be unauthorised and you could be issued with a penalty notice by the Local Authority.
- If your child is absent from school and you have not contacted us with a valid reason then our Attendance officer will telephone you and may conduct a home visit to ensure your child is safe and well.
- The legal requirement for pupils to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19 was removed on 24th February 2022.
- It is your legal responsibility to ensure that your child attends school. Your child has a right to attend school and access education, it is not your right to keep them at home.
- We do recognise that there are legitimate health reasons why some children miss school. Our approach is not punitive. Our first instinct will always be to work with parents and carers to support you in ensuring good attendance for your child whatever the circumstances you face.
- Following the pandemic it is more important than ever that your child attends school, so that they can make sure that they get quickly back on track to achieving their academic and social potential.
- The final few days before a school holiday are not ‘a good time’ for your child to say off school. Teachers throughout he school will continue to teach the normal curriculum and if your child misses these they will fall behind.
- Parents should not keep one child off school because a sibling/relation/friend is ill. We do monitor this and we are unable to authorise an absence where we believe a child has missed school because a sibling/relation/friend is off.
- If your child’s attendance falls below 95% the Attendance Officer will send a letter to alert you to this. We know that in some instances this could be Covid related, the contact is intended to be supportive and no pupil will be penalised for genuine illness.
- If your child’s absence falls below 90% we will contact you again and will closely monitor future attendance. Our Attendance Officer may contact you to arrange a meeting so that we can put in place an action plan to help you improve your child’s attendance.
- If, following this, your child’s attendance continues to drop and we do not think there is a legitimate reason then we may refer you to the Local Authority who may issue you with a penalty notice or may even prosecute you.
- All holidays, unless they fulfil the exceptional circumstances criteria will be referred to the Local Authority for a penalty notice .
If an absence is not authorised by the school, the pupil’s attendance is deemed to be irregular. Under section 444 of the Education Act 1996, if a child of compulsory school age, who is a registered pupil at a school, fails to attend regularly, his/her parent/carer (s) are guilty of an offence.
*Please also note that if you have more than one child, each child’s irregular attendance is dealt with as a separate matter.
The Local Authority may take formal action against you for failure to comply with the law. Penalty notices are issued as an alternative to prosecution, but may not be issued if prosecution is considered to be a more appropriate response to the attendance issues.
Therefore, your child’s irregular attendance could result in one of the following actions:
- A Penalty Notice being issued. Each penalty notice is £60 if paid within the first 21 days, rising to £120 if paid between 22-28 days. Failure to pay will result in prosecution.
- Prosecution. This could lead to fines of up to £2500 and/or 3 months’ imprisonment.
If you are concerned about your child’s attendance and you need support, then the first point of contact is Mrs Clarke our attendance officer. nclarke@awsworthprimary.org