School Attendance

At Stranton School we realise the importance of all children attending school every day and on time. Every day really does count! As a School, we set a minimum expectation of attendance for each pupil of 96%.

We know that a child’s attendance has a direct impact on their learning. Those children who are regularly absent from school and regularly late do not achieve their potential and do fall behind their peers. Please support school by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives ready to learn and on time at 8.40am.

Lost Learning due to Poor Attendance

The chart below identifies the possible amount of lost learning due to poor attendance. How does your child compare?

Attendance during the school year	Equals this number of days absent	Which is approx this many weeks absent	Which means this number of lessons missed
90%	19 days	4 weeks	100 lessons
80%	38 days	8 weeks	200 lessons
70%	57 days	11.5 weeks	290 lessons

Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life. Your child needs to attend school for at least 177 out of 190 days to meet our 96% expectation. 

Types of Absence

Every half-day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

Authorised Absences

These are mornings or afternoons away from school for a valid reason such as illness, emergency medical or dental appointments (routine appointments should always be made out of school hours) and emergencies.

Unauthorised Absences

An absence is classified as unauthorised if the reason was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as to what is acceptable and what is not.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

• A birthday
• A shopping trip
• Day trips
• Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstance

How to Report an Absence

Please contact the school office on the first morning of your child's absence to inform us of the absence and provide a reason for this. Messages can be left on the school answering machine. 

However, if a child is absent for more than three school days, and parents have not contacted school, our school attendance officer will contact parents to discover the cause of the absence. If we are unable to contact a family, a letter will be sent out requesting information about the absence. 

Attendance Monitoring

As attendance and punctuality is so important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance, or if pupils are regularly late to school.

Attendance is very closely monitored and checked. Each week, a list of children whose attendance has dropped below 96% is generated and a letter is sent out to notify parents of this. 

Children with below 90% attendance are classified as ‘persistent absentees’. This equates to 19 days+ of absence a year or 100+ missed lessons. Missing so much school has an obvious negative impact on a child’s education and as such school will do everything necessary to address it. Once children hit this trigger, parents will be called in to school for a meeting with the Headteacher and School Attendance Officer to complete an agreement where by attendance will be closely monitored until targets are met. Failure to meet targets will result in an immediate referral to the Local Authority School Attendance officer.

Continued unauthorised absences could then result in a penalty notice being issued by the Local Authority and in some cases legal action being taken. 

Leave in Term Time

As a school, we are not allowed to authorise any requests for children to be taken out of school for a holiday during term time.

Requests for leave can only be granted in exceptional circumstances such as:

• A family wedding
• A death in the family
• A family crisis

A holiday would not be considered exceptional. However, leave may be granted to those serving in the armed forces and shift workers that can show a holiday in term time is unavoidable. Requests for leave must be made to the school in advance. To do this please come in to the school office to complete the necessary form. 

We appreciate the challenges that some parents face when booking holidays, particularly during the school holidays. However, regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.

Parents may receive a penalty notice if their child is absent from school without permission.

Punctuality

Poor punctuality can lead to your child…

• Feeling embarrassed in front of their friends
• Missing the beginning of vital lessons making them fall behind
• Missing important instructions for the rest of the school day
• Learning bad habits which could affect their employability in the future

The table below shows just how much education could be missed by being late to school each day.

Minutes Late Per Day	Learning Time Lost in 1 Year
5 minutes	3 ½ days
10 minutes	7 days
15 minutes	10 ½ days
20 minutes	14 days
30 minutes	21 days

Promoting Attendance and Support

We believe that working together with parents is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.

As well as taking appropriate action against parents who fail to secure the regular attendance of their children, we take steps to reward good attendance and punctuality, This takes the form of certificates and other rewards. The LA also issue a certificate of attendance for those pupils who achieve 100% attendance each year.

Mrs Wilson is happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Come and talk to us if you are having problems.

Attendance Newsletters

Attendance Newsletter 1

More indepth information about our attendance procedures can be found in the policy below. 

School Attendance Policy