Key Information

Attendance

Ermine Primary Academy are working with the Local Authority to improve school attendance and punctuality throughout the school. We recognise the importance of working with parents and carers who have a legal responsibility to ensure their child achieves satisfactory levels of attendance.
The procedures are based on a tiered system to create a more simplistic and consistent approach to promoting school attendance. Attendance will be considered from the previous academic year.

  • Attendance above 97% for the previous year is a Good Attender (GA) and will be coded Green
  • Attendance between 90% and 96% for the previous year is a Regular Attender and will be coded Green
  • Attendance below 90% for the previous year will be coded Amber
  • Attendance below 50% for the previous year will be coded Red

Those parents whose children fall in the Amber or Red categories will be contacted and their child’s attendance will be monitored for 4 school weeks. Those parents whose child’s attendance during the monitoring period has not improved will be invited in to school for a meeting with a member of the pastoral team and a member of SLT to discuss concerns and any support that may be offered to support families to improve attendance.

We recognise that children may have a legitimate reason to be absent from school, and we are also aware that some families face difficulties which may impact on their child’s education, therefore the tiered system has been put in place to support families. It aims to highlight concerns at an early stage in an attempt to prevent legal action from being taken against parents who fail to ensure that their child attends school.

Holidays

The Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations 2006 has been amended and came into force from the 1st September 2013. The amendments have removed reference to family holiday and extended leave, as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. (Therefore, the previous arrangement whereby schools could grant up to 10 days authorised holiday/absence has now ceased).

Leave of absence will not be granted for the purpose of a holiday unless deemed to be ‘exceptional circumstances’.

If you wish to seek approval for any request of absence for your child(ren) from School, then you must complete a Request for Absence form in advance of the intended absence. You should only then remove your child(ren) if the absence has been authorised, and notified to you in writing by the School. Any exceptional circumstances must be clearly set out in the written request to the Principal who will consider each case upon its merits.

If you then choose to take your child out of school during term time and it is not deemed to be exceptional circumstances and/or has not been approved by the School, then this will be coded as an unauthorised absence and a Fixed Penalty Notice will be issued for the period of absence. Failure to pay the Fixed Penalty may result in further legal action being taken against you.

A Fixed Penalty Notice is a strategy used by schools to address the unacceptable levels of attendance of children at their school under the following legislation:

  • Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 places upon parents a duty to ensure that their child receives efficient full-time education either by regular attendance at school or otherwise
  • Where a child is a registered pupil at a school and the parent fails to ensure that child’s regular attendance at school the parent is liable to be prosecuted for a criminal offence under Section 444 of the Education Act
  • In cases where this duty is not being fulfilled Section 444B of the same Act empowers the Local Authority to issue a Fixed Penalty of either £60.00 or £120.00.

Punctuality

It is vitally important that your child arrives at school on time. The school gates open at 8:35am and children can enter the classrooms so that all learning starts at 8.45am. Arriving late means your child will miss important information and learning. If your child arrives after 9:00am they will not be registered for the morning session. Pupils who are persistently late may be subject to a fixed penalty notice.

Responding to Non-Attendance

Ermine Primary Academy takes non-attendance of pupils very seriously and will respond effectively following these procedures:

  • As soon as a child’s attendance dips below 97%, parents will be notified.
  • Attendance will then be monitored for four weeks, after which parents will be informed that attendance has improved.
  • If there is no evidence of improvement, parents will be invited to come to a School Attendance Panel meeting to discuss any issues.
  • For any child supported by the local authority, the school will contact the lead professional on the first day of absence unless we have been pre-notified of the absence. On the second day of absence, a home visit (safe and welfare check) will be made by the school to all children supported by the local authority.
  • For all other children, if school has not been notified of an absence, you will receive a text message initially to allow you time to contact the school. If no contact has been made at day two, a safety and well-being check will be made. A calling card will be left at the family home if no response is received.
  • Every child must be spoken to or seen each week by a member of Ermine Primary staff.
  • A Fixed penalty notice will be issued for persistent absences.

The Education Act 1996 requires parents to ensure their children of compulsory school age receive efficient full-time education. The law says that a parent/carer whose children of compulsory school age are absent from school without a good reason, are committing an offence. A fixed penalty notice of £60 or £120 can be given for a student who has 15 unauthorised sessions (am and pm count as separate absences) from school in a term. Fixed penalty notices can lead to prosecution and a fine of up to £1000. You need to be aware that, although parents may provide a reason for absence, it is the school who decides if the absence is recorded as authorised or unauthorised.

We therefore hope that you will continue to support our school by promoting school attendance and by informing us if you feel there are any issues that are preventing your child from attending school regularly.

If you have any questions regarding this or would like to discuss this further, please refer back to all the information which has been provided or contact the school attendance team Mrs Richards, Miss Thompson and Mrs Wood.