⏰ The Importance of School Attendance 🏫

Mrs Ward (Inclusion Lead and Senior Attendance Champion) and Miss Norris (Admin Assistant) are the lead people when it comes to attendance and punctuality at Send CofE School.

Why attendance matters

Our curriculum is carefully designed to build on itself day by day. When a child is absent, even for a few days, they miss crucial steps in this learning process. This can make it very confusing for them when they return, as they may have missed key concepts that are essential for the rest of the unit.

School life isn't just about lessons. Children also miss out on significant events, from special assemblies and performances to collaborative projects and social activities that build friendships and a sense of community.

Working with parents to improve attendance: 

• Ensuring that their children are on time for morning registration, 8.30 - 8.45am.
• Informing the school before 9.30am on their first day of absence and every day thereafter.
• Collecting their children on time (3.15pm)
• Not taking holidays during term time.

Your child's education is a partnership between home and school, and we thank you for your support in ensuring they attend regularly. For more information about attendance and punctuality, please see our school Attendance Policy or come in and chat to Mrs Ward. Remember every minute counts in school!

How we monitor attendance:

Every day the children’s attendance and punctuality is recorded in our school system. We work closely with the Local Authority to monitor attendance and punctuality across the school. We look for things that we can put into place to improve attendance and lateness and to support families who need help with getting children into school on time every day.

We aim for children to have attendance that is equal to or above 97% as this means they are making sure they are accessing learning almost every day. Each week the class with the highest attendance wins the Attendance Award during our celebration assembly.  

The Department for Education introduced changes to attendance guidance that became statutory in August 2024. 
In this, there are important changes to how we manage absence and the consequences for poor school attendance. 

 

 

What to do if your child is ill

We understand that sometimes children do get poorly and that they are too unwell to be in school.  It can be tricky deciding whether to keep your child off school when they're unwell. Click here for our guidelines that say when children should be kept off school and when they shouldn't. 

If your child is ill: 

• Parents must let the school office as soon as possible and no later than 9am

• The school must decide whether to authorise the absence on the grounds of illness. This means parents need to give us details of the absence, e.g. temperature, vomiting.

• If the reason given for absence is “they are poorly”, we will contact you to find out more about why they are not in school. If we do not receive enough information to explain the illness, then we will not authorise your child’s absence. 

• You will need to make sure you keep in contact with the school on a daily basis with an update about your child's illness and when they will return to school. 
   

Absences for other medical reasons 

• W​​e ask that wherever possible, medical appointments are arranged outside school hours but understand that this is not always in the control of the parents/ carers. If your child needs to be absent for a medical appointment, please complete the Medical Absence form with proof such as an appointment card or letter and return it to the office. 
   

Requesting Absence for Religious Observance

If you need to request your child's absence from school for a religious observance, please follow the procedure below. We ask that you complete a Request for Absence Form and submit it to the school office.

Please note that: 

• All requests for absence must be made in writing. Please provide details about the specific religious festival or observance.

• The absence can only be authorised if the day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by your family's religious body. The school may need to verify this with the religious body.

• Absences will not be authorised for a festival that falls on a weekend or during school holidays. We can only authorise the specific day of the religious observance. Taking additional days before or after the event will generally not be authorised and will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.
   

Absence for any other reason (including holiday) 

Absence with no reason given:

If a child is absent with no explanation given, then we are expected to carry out a home visit and see the child as soon as possible and before the 3rd school day of absence. A member of our school DSL team will carry out this home visit.

Requesting absence for Exceptional Circumstances

With 175 days already marked out as ‘non-school-days’ for weekends, holidays, family visits and rewarding days out; you should have an exceptional reason to want to withdraw your child from school. The following are NOT considered legitimate reasons and will be rejected and unauthorised:

• Trips to visit family/friends
• Your child's birthday
• Cheaper family holidays
• Tickets to sports/culture events

If you consider that there are exceptional circumstances relating to your request, please let the school have full details. Each application for a leave of absence will be considered on a case by case basis. Forms are available in the school office or can be downloaded below. You can return forms digitally to the office. Please email attendance@sendcofe.co.uk 

Absences for holiday and other unauthorised absences:

We understand that family events are important, but we must remind all parents and carers about the rules around unauthorised absences. 

Legal Requirements: 

• We are legally unable to authorise absence for family holidays during term time, except in the most exceptional circumstances. It is important to know that cost is not considered an exceptional circumstance for authorising absence. The local authority is very strict on this. 
• If your child has an unauthorised absence of 5 or more school days (which don't have to be consecutive), it may trigger a penalty notice
• This is based on a national threshold of 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling 10-school-week period, which can span different terms or even school years.

Unauthorised Absence and INSET Days

• Please be aware of a significant change to how unauthorised absences are now handled. Previously, there was  a loophole to avoid a fine by taking four days of unauthorised leave adjacent to an INSET day, since the consecutive school absence was less than five days.
• The Department for Education has clarified that for absences where there is intent to avoid the fine threshold, local authorities can now include INSET days when calculating the five or more days of consecutive absence. This means that taking four days of unauthorised leave next to a planned INSET day will now result in a penalty notice.

Key Information on Penalty Notices

1. If you have not incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children in a rolling 3 year period since 19 August 2024, then the penalty notice will be charged at the rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80.00 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
    
2. If you have incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children since 19 August 2024, the rolling 3 year period will be activated from the date of the first penalty notice and the second penalty notice will be charged at the flat rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. There will be no reduction for payment within 21 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
    
3. If you have incurred 2 penalty notices relating to this child/children in the rolling 3 year period since the first penalty notice was issued, then you will NOT receive a third penalty notice – Surrey County Council will have no option but to consider a prosecution, per parent/carer per child, in the Magistrates Court under s444 Education Act 1996. Surrey County Council is not responsible for authorising pupil absence and therefore cannot withdraw any Penalty Notice requests without the written permission of the Headteacher.