Attendance
The Department for Education (DFE) has issued new statutory guidance for attendance called Working Together to Improve School Attendance. This guidance came into effect on 19 August 2024, and details what schools, parents/carers and Local Authorities should do to improve pupils’ attendance at school.
There are some important changes to how attendance is managed as a result of this new guidance, which will affect the support that parents/carers and pupils receive from schools, and the legal sanctions that are used in certain circumstances.
Schools are legally obliged to provide support and intervention for pupils, who are at risk of persistent absence (90% attendance or below). At KHCPS, this will take the form of meetings with parents/carers, school-based interventions, and the offer of support from outside agencies and professionals.
KHCPS staff are very keen to identify the barriers to attendance that families face and will welcome opportunities to overcome these barriers together. However, when a child's attendance falls outside of the parental legal obligations to send their child to school, there are legal pathways that must be followed.
Changes to Penalty Notices
Term-Time Leave
If a pupil takes unauthorised term-time leave for ten consecutive sessions or more (generally five days), parents/carers will be subject to a Penalty Notice. The fine for a Penalty Notice is increasing to £80 per parent/carer, per child, and this increases to £160 if the Penalty Notice remains unpaid after 21 days. A second Penalty Notice issued to the same parent/carer in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 providing it is paid within 28 days.
For second offences of unauthorised term-time leave (ten consecutive sessions or more) within a three-year rolling period, the fine is a flat £160 per parent/carer, per child.
For the third offence in a three-year rolling period, the referral will be automatically considered for prosecution in accordance with Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.
Ultimately, parents/carers may be the subject of court proceedings for failing to ensure the regular school attendance of their child, and this could result in a fine of up to £2,500 and/or a term of imprisonment of up to three months per parent/carer.
All fines will apply to term-time leave taken after 19 August 2024. Previous Penalty Notices from the last three years will be considered when a period of term-time leave is taken after 19 August 2024. Therefore, if parents/carers have already received one Penalty Notice in the last three years, they will receive a fine of £160 per parent/carer, per child for their next one. If they have received two or more in the last three years, they should expect to be referred for prosecution.
The lead people for attendance in our school are:
· Miss V Townsend – Headteacher;
· Mrs C English - Office Manager.
The Government expects schools, parents/carers and Local Authorities to:
- Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence;
- Ensure that every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled;
- Act early to address patterns of absence;
- Perform their legal parental duty by ensuring that their children of compulsory school age, who are registered at school, attend regularly;
- Ensure that all pupils arrive punctually to their lessons.
Please see the latest Government guidance on attendance:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
The KHCPS Attendance Policy, which includes a flowchart for parents/carers, can be found on the Policies page under Key Information.
Further Useful Resources
