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Attendance & Absence

Let's celebrate!  Our attendance, week ending Friday 5th September, was 96.3%.  This is brilliant - keep this up!

 

Belonging – Working Together to Improve Attendance  

At St Wilfrid's, we have a Tiered Approach to ensure all children's attendance meets expectations of 96%+.  This is to ensure Excellent Attendance for All!

Our ‘staged approach’, which is shown below, sets out the stages a pupil will move through if their attendance dips, with a focus on keeping every pupil at the green stage (above 96% attendance).

Our approach is underpinned by 6 key principles: 

Expect:  a culture where all children can, and want, to be in school 
Monitor: look at attendance data daily, weekly and monthly 
Listen and Understand: work with you. parents/carers to remove barriers to attendance 
Facilitate Support: help you, parents/carers to access external support to overcome barriers outside of school 
Formalise support 
As a last resort: Enforce 

What does 96% actually mean?

It means 7.5 days of school have been missed. 90% means that 19 days have been missed! How many lessons? How many hours?  
Did you know that in a 1.5 form entry school, like St Wilfrid's, with an overall attendance of 96%, 2,508 days of education have been lost in a year!  

 

Leave of Absence taken in the Academic Year 2025-26

The law relating to Penalty Notices changed with effect from 19 August 2024. Therefore, Penalty Notices issued for Leave of Absence will now be issued in accordance with the updated legislation.A penalty notice will be issued in accordance with legislation.

Penalty Notices are issued to each parent of each absent child (for example 2 children and 2 parents means each parent will receive 2 invoices - 4 in total)

First Leave of Absence Offence: The amount of £160 to be paid within 28 days, this is reduced to £80 each child if paid within 21 days. 
 
Second Leave of Absence Offence within a 3-year period (from the date of issue of the first penalty notice): The amount of £160 paid within 28 days. No reduced amount. 
 
Third Leave of Absence offence within a 3-year period (from the date of issue of the first penalty notice). A Penalty Notice will not be issued and the matter will be referred to Legal Services to consider instigating criminal prosecution proceedings under S444 of Education Act 1996. 

Attendance Policy Visual

Our Executive Headteacher Mrs Miller, is the Senior Leader for Attendance

Mrs Sharon Hellier, is St Wilfrid's Senior Attendance Champion

Reporting an Absence

Unplanned Absence

You must notify the school of the reason for the absence on the first day of an unplanned absence by 09:00 or as soon as practically possible by calling the School Office.

We will mark absence due to physical or mental illness as authorised unless we have a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness.

Where there are doubts about the authenticity of the illness, we will ask for medical evidence, such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence. We will not ask for medical evidence unnecessarily.

If we are not satisfied about the authenticity of the illness, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents/carers will be notified of this in advance.

Planned Absence

Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent or carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment.

However, we encourage parents and carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary. (for example if a dental appointment is at 11:30am, it is expected your child will be in school prior to the appointment and every effort is made to ensure your child returns to school.) If an appointment is at 9:30am, if possible, bring your child to school first. to support your child's attendance)

The pupil’s parent or carer must also apply for other types of term-time absence as far in advance as possible of the requested absence.

Lateness and Punctuality

Lateness and Punctuality

A pupil who arrives late, after the register has closed, will be marked as late, using the appropriate code.

Being frequently late for school adds up to lost learning:

  • Arriving 5 minutes late every day = 3 days lost each year.
  • Arriving 15 minutes late each day = absent for 2 weeks a year.
  • Arriving 30 minutes late every day = absent for 19 days a year.

Please help your child reach their full potential and get them here on time and ready to start their learning.

Following Up Unexplained Absence

Following up Unexplained Absence

Where any pupil we expect to attend school does not attend, or stops attending, without reason, we will: 

Call the pupil’s parent or carer on the morning of the first day of unexplained absence to find out more about the reason. Identify whether the absence is approved or not

Call the parent or carer on each day that the absence continues without explanation to ensure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary.

If absence continues, the school will consider involving Multi- Agency Safeguarding Services.

Note:  If the school cannot reach any of the pupil’s emergency contacts, the school will make a Home Visit (consisting of two members of school staff). If they are not able to make contact with the parent or child at the home address or via telephone, the Police will be contacted and a request will be made for them to complete a ‘Safe and Well Check’

Leave of Absence

Leave of Absence

The law states a leave of absence may only be granted by a school if an application is made in advance and if it considers there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.

Please see our Attendance Policy for more information.  Please note, a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation would not constitute an exceptional circumstance.

Reducing Persistent and Severe Absence

Reducing Persistent and Severe Absence

Persistent absence is where a pupil misses 10% or more of school, and severe absence is where a pupil misses 50% or more of school.

We will:

Use attendance data to find patterns and trends of persistent and severe absence

Hold regular meetings with the parents and carers of pupils who the school (and/or local authority) considers to be vulnerable, or are persistently or severely absent, to discuss attendance and engagement at school

Provide access to wider support services to remove the barriers to attendance

Communicate persistent or severe absence concerns with parents every half term. This may be via a written letter or invitation to attend an in-person meeting, dependent on the context behind each absence.

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