Attendance at CHH

Why does attendance every day matter?

Regular attendance and excellent punctuality at school enables each pupil to fulfil their potential at all levels and represents a maximisation of educational potential within the community. Research demonstrates strong links between attendance and achievement, indicating that even occasional broken weeks can have a negative effect. In line with our vision of Nurture-Grow-Flourish, we aim to build strong and effective relationships with all of our children and families creating a nurturing and safe place for children to learn. Regular attendance is the key to children being able to grow and flourish in their education. We set a minimum attendance target for the school community each academic year (currently 96%) as we work with families to reduce absence and raise attendance.

View our Attendance Policy here.

Our Attendance Team

Our Pupil and Family Support Leader (Mrs Pope) and Assistant Headteacher (Miss Weldrake) work together to monitor attendance on a fortnightly basis. We work closely with families to overcome barriers effecting attendance and put support in place for the child and the family. We have developed an Inclusion Team comprising of our Pupil and Family Support Leader, our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA), Mental Health Practitioner and our SENCo. This allows us to offer support to our children such as Nurture Breakfast Club in which children are invited to come into school earlier every day to have breakfast with a small group of children and begin the day with an emotional check in. Regular meetings take please with our internal attendance team and the Educational Welfare Officer to offer support to our families to improve school attendance where possible.

School Registration Times and Lateness

The registration period is deemed to be: 8.55am and 1:00pm (EYFS and KS1) and 1:15pm (KS2). After these times, the registers will be closed and any arrival after 8.55am and 1:15/1:30pm will be regarded as late and marked accordingly (L) on SIMS.

Where children are consistently late (three or more times in two weeks) or absences are unexplained/unauthorised, the following procedure will be followed:

  • Phone call made by our Pupil and Family Support Leader to offer support to family.
  • Parent/carer will be sent a letter to inform them of the situation.

If this continues, a letter will be sent to the parent/carer to visit the school and discuss the problem with a member of the Leadership Team and the Educational Welfare Officer (EWO).

If a pupil arrives after the register has closed at 9.05am, this will be recorded as U (unauthorised late arrival.) More than ten unauthorised sessions over a 7 week period can result in a Penalty Notice being issued by the Local Authority.

Sickness Reporting

If a child is unwell and unable to attend school, it is the responsibility of the parents/carers of the child to contact the school on 01454 867145 before school on the first day of absence and each day thereafter informing the school of the reason for absence and the expected date of return to school.

Safeguarding response where child is absent and no contact from family

All unexplained absence from school will be followed up each day by contacting parents/carers. If no response is obtained, contact will be made with people listed as emergency contact numbers to ascertain a student’s whereabouts and safety. Parents/Carers are required to provide the school with two emergency contact numbers. Where no response is received, a referral may be made to the Access and Response Team or the Police.

Unauthorised absence including term time holiday

There are only two categories of absence from school:

Authorised – approved

Unauthorised – not approved

Absence will be recorded using the code recommended by the Department for Education Guidance on School Attendance. Only absence which is as a result of a pupil being ill and too unwell to attend school will be authorised. We expect children to return to school as soon as they are well enough to return (in the case of sickness and diarrhoea, children must remain absent for school for a period of 48 hours).

All other absences will be marked as unauthorised unless there is an ‘exceptional circumstance’. Only the Headteacher (or their delegate) can approve an absence from school as being an exceptional circumstance. That is the law. Any requests for absence in term time which parents/ carers believed fit the criteria of being an exceptional circumstance must be submitted in writing in advance to the Headteacher who will treat every request on an individual basis and respond accordingly. An absence may be approved as an exceptional circumstance if the following apply:

  • If the pupil is prevented from attending by unavoidable cause.
  • The absence occurs so that the pupil could take place in a religious observance set apart by the religious body to which the parent/carer belongs.
  • There is a significant family event such as bereavement, funeral, close family wedding.

Current legislation does not allow any absence due to holiday during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Holidays cannot be considered under the exceptional circumstances criteria. As such, all holiday absence will be coded as unauthorised and may lead to the issuing of a Penalty Notice. All term time holiday must be communicated with the school in the form of an email or letter addressed to the Headteacher at least two weeks in advance so that we can maintain a clear record of unauthorised holiday absence.

Broken weeks

A ‘broken week’ is defined as a week where a child has missed one or more session of schooling. Multiple broken weeks have been shown to have a significant impact on learning and the school monitors attendance data for this weekly and termly. Children who have three or more broken weeks in a 6 week period will be monitored closely and their parents informed. Where this level of broken weeks persist over two terms, parents will be invited to an Attendance Support Meeting with the Family and Parent Support Worker. If broken weeks continue, parents will be invited to a School Attendance Meeting with a member of the Attendance Lead and the Educational Welfare Officer.

Early collections and lateness

Alongside promoting the importance of regular attendance, at Christ Church Hanham CE Primary, we place a huge importance on all pupils attending school on time. Lateness can impact negatively on a child’s education; learning in the classroom is sequenced and builds upon previous learning. Therefore, if a child misses the first part of the day, even by a few minutes, this can result in lost learning time and them missing out on key parts of the learning.

At Christ Church, our classrooms are open from 8.45 to 8.55am. All pupils must be in class by 8.55am. Any children who arrive after 8.55am must be accompanied to the school office and signed in by their parent/ carer. For children who arrive after 8.55am but before 9.05am, this will be recorded in the register with an ‘L’ code. For children who arrive after 9.05am, this will be recorded in the register with a ‘U’ code. A ‘U’ code denotes an unauthorised absence. Unauthorised absence can lead to parents /carers being issued with a Penalty Notice by the Local Authority.

Every part of the school day is important. Children should not be collected early from school (prior to the normal end of school times) as this will impact on their learning and may result in them missing important celebration and activities such as assembly which are integral to our school community.

If a child needs to be collected early from school, parents/ carers must contact the office in advance, stating the reasons why an early collection is needed. As above, in cases of urgent medical appointments, proof of appointment must be shared with the office.

All absence, both authorised and unauthorised, as well as lateness and early collection will be analysed by school leaders and the Education Welfare Officer and may be subject to challenge. This helps to ensure that any concern regarding frequency, pattern or validity is acted upon swiftly to ensure safeguarding responsibilities are met.

Penalty Notices

Governors have adopted a zero tolerance to absence in term time for holidays. Should parents/ carers ignore the policy, cases will be referred to the Local Authority for the issuing of a Penalty Notice. Any pupil who has more than 10 sessions of unauthorised absences in any 7 week period may be subject to a Penalty Notice (please note each school day consists of 2 sessions- morning and afternoon). Fixed penalty notices | South Gloucestershire (southglos.gov.uk)