Attendance

It is a statutory requirement for all schools to attain attendance levels set by the Government.

St Mary’s Fields Academy’s attendance target this year is 96%. However, the aim is for all individual pupils to have 100% attendance.

If a child’s attendance falls below 91% they will be deemed a Persistent Absentee. St Mary’s Fields Academy monitors the absence of all children that fall below 96%. Lateness affects children’s attendance levels. If a child does become a ‘persistent absentee’, the school and the Local Authority have a legal duty to act to support parents to improve attendance. The school’s Education Welfare Officer also monitors attendance levels and regular meetings are held with parents where attendance is a concern.

St Mary’s Primary School bands its pupils attendance as below:

100% – outstanding

98.01% – 99.9% (with no unauthorised absence) excellent

96.01% – 98% (with no unauthorised absence) good

90.01% – 96% concerns or requires improvement

91% and under – persistent absentee

In line with government legislation St Mary’s Fields Academy will NOT authorise any term time absence, unless in exceptional circumstances. If you feel your situation is exceptional, then you will need to make an appointment to see the Mrs. Nott, the Head Teacher.

The academy can refer parents to the local authority where they do not ensure that children attend school. Parents can be fined for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age.

The national threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks). These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks). The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).

A penalty notice is an out of court settlement which is intended to change behaviour without the need for criminal prosecution. If repeated penalty notices are being issued and they are not working to change behaviour they are unlikely to be most appropriate tool. Therefore, from autumn term 2024, only 2 penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a 3-year rolling period and any second notice within that period is charged at a higher rate:

• The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
• A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
• A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.

If your child needs to attend an appointment within school hours we will need to see proof of the appointment card and we will expect the child to attend school before or after the appointment if possible. Please bring the appointment card with you when you collect or return your child to school and show the office staff.

The school has a link education welfare officer, Sadie Cadney, who also monitors pupil absence.

Each day your child is absent from school, is a day of their education they are missing out on.

LATENESS FACTS

Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning lost and can obviously disadvantage your child.

If you are this many minutes late every day

You will lose this many days of learning a year

ATTENDANCE FACTS