Please contact our attendance lead, Miss K Daly for all absence related queries.

All absences MUST be reported on the day by a phone call to the school office before 9.10 am (a message may be left on the answerphone). It is important that you contact the school office if your child is absent.

Registration

Teachers will complete their registers at 8.50am. All lateness will then be recorded by the school office, and the registers will close at 9.10am. Children arriving after 8.55am must be brought into school by parents to explain via the main reception and sign in on the school entry system, giving the reason for lateness.

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. Fairway 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 daily attendance data for the school and we must inform them of actions taken once children hit certain thresholds of absence.

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 a Fairway Primary School, 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 Fairway 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.

At Fairway, we aim to communicate the importance of attendance with parents and children. We have a particular focus on reducing Persistent Absenteeism at the school. The Persistent Absence threshold for children is currently 10% and Ofsted will use this threshold in its inspection of schools.

The threshold means that any child will be classed as Persistently Absent when they have missed 38 or more sessions. This equates to 19, or more, missed days during the academic year – which is as little as 6 days over each of the three Terms. This also equates to the equivalent of 1 day of absence, or more, a fortnight across a full school year.

We will use a 19-day tracking system to make you aware of the number of days your child has missed in education. This will allow us to work together to reduce the number of days and attempt to prevent your child from reaching this number. Once a child has missed 8 sessions (4 days), the absence policy will start for the children and parents will be involved.

Once a child has reached 38 sessions, or 19 days absence, they will be classified as Persistently Absent from school and we must report this to the Local Authority and follow external legal proceeding.

Please note: Persistent absence can be a sign of neglect and will be treated as such in terms of following our safeguarding procedures. 

If your child is anxious about school, or they are unable to go to school, we have advice on supporting them and working with the school and other services. Please click the link to find out more: School Anxiety and Refusal | Parent Guide to Support | YoungMinds