Farnham Primary School Staff Login

Attendance

Our whole school attendance – week ending 15th November 92.5%.

The classes with the best attendance are Bryon, Jeffers and Rauf. Well done!

Attendance and punctuality is a life skill and at Farnham Primary School we strive to support our pupils to maintain high levels of attendance. Good attendance at school is important for your child’s education and establishes a positive working ethos early in life.

If you value your child’s education – don’t miss a day.

The Positives – research shows:

● Children who have 95% attendance or above do better at school and better in later life
● Children who have 95% attendance or above are more confident, happier and find school more enjoyable
● Children who have 95% attendance or above find transition to secondary school easier

Absence

  • If your child is going to be absent from school, the parent or guardian must ring school before 8.30am or as close to this time as possible to inform school of the reason for the absence.
  • Registers are taken at 8.50am. Any children who arrive after 8.50am must sign in at the office.
  • At 9.30am school registers are checked for any absences that the school has not been made aware of.
  • School staff will make a telephone call to the parent or guardian if there has been no contact with school regarding the absence or the message left on the answering machine is unclear.
  • If a pupil has been absent and school has not been able to find out the reason for absence from the parent or guardian, a home visit will be made, at least within three days of your child’s absence. A first day absence visit may be made if there are concerns such as family welfare or persistent absence.
  • A child who is absent from school without an authorised reason will be marked as ‘unauthorised’ in the register.

 

Categorising Absence

The Education (Pupils’ Attendance Records) Regulations 1991 require schools to determine whether an absence can be deemed to be authorised or whether the child should be regarded as being absent without permission i.e. truanting. In the terms of the legislation it is only the school who can approve the absence, not the parent.

Here at Farnham Primary, absence will only be authorised by the Headteacher for the following reasons;

● Pupil illness with evidence from a medical professional for example an appointment card or email evidence of a doctor’s appointment with outcome resulting in absence from school.

● Pupil is absent on a day set aside for religious observation by the religious group to which the pupil’s parents belong.

● Pupil is absent following the death of a close family member.

● Pupil has a medical or dental appointment, confirmed with an appointment card or letter. The child is expected to attend school prior to the appointment or return to school after the appointment – where possible medical or dental appointments should be booked outside of school hours.

Persistent Absentees

Pupils whose attendance is less than 90% are referred to as “Persistent Absentees” by the DfE and will be considered for referral to the Local Authority Attendance Team. The school Attendance Team will then begin a programme of monitoring and support.

● Step 1 – Parents or Guardian of identified Persistent Absentees will be contacted by school staff and offered support to ensure that their child attends school each day.

● Step 2 – Should absence continue despite support being offered, parent or guardian of identified Persistent Absentees will be sent a ‘monitoring’ letter and any further absences will be monitored for a period of two weeks.

● Step 3 – Should any further absences occur within the two week monitoring period, the Parent or Guardian will be invited to attend a panel meeting with a member of the Senior Leadership Team to discuss the absences and agree an action plan to improve attendance. The action plan will be reviewed in 6 weeks.

● Step 4 – A letter summarising the discussion and a copy of the action plan is posted to the Parent or Guardian.

● Step 5 – After 6 weeks the attendance printout is reviewed by the school attendance team.

  • If there has been no further unauthorised absences within the 6 week action plan period, half-termly monitoring is implemented.
  • If there are further unauthorised absences within the 6 week action plan period, the Parent or Guardian is invited to a second meeting with a member of the Senior Leadership Team to discuss the absences where further, more formal, actions are outlined.

 

Parent or Guardians must note that where a child has ten unauthorised sessions (1 session is half a day so 10 sessions = 5 days) in any 6 week period, then this could lead to the issuance of a fixed penalty notice which could lead to a minimum fine of £160 (new rate for September 2024) per parent per child.

Extended Leave and Family Holidays in Term Time

From 1st September 2013, the law has been changed (The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006) which removes the statutory threshold of the discretionary 10 school days of absence for the purpose of a family holiday or extended leave except for exceptional circumstances. Consequently NO FAMILY HOLIDAYS OR EXTENDED LEAVE WILL BE GRANTED for any child from this date.

If a request is made, a meeting must first be held with the Headteacher to discuss the request. Families must note that if they decide to take unauthorised leave e.g. go on extended leave in term time, then the school will actively pursue the issuance of a fixed penalty notice which could lead to a minimum fine of £80 per parent per child. If this is paid within 21 days or £160 within 28 days. This brings attendance penalty notices into line with other types of penalty notices and allows local authorities to act faster on prosecutions. If you have 3 children with a mother and father, then each parent will be fined £80 per child 3 x £80 = £240 which would be £480 fine for the family.

Please see the updated guidance regarding Changes to Penalty Notices on the link below:

New Attendance Fines 2024-25

The key changes to be aware of are:

  • Penalty notices issued for offences that take place after 19 August 2024 will be charged at a new rate of £160 per parent per child. This can be paid at £80 if paid within 21 days.
  • Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.
  • The threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered is set at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period. This may include absences as a result of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years.
  • A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution).
  • Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds.

Children Missing Education (CME)

Children Missing Education (CME) are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school i.e. privately or electively home education (EHE).

The school has a legal obligation to act when they are aware of or believe that a child is missing from education. This should include reasonable enquiries to obtain as much information as possible such as names, addresses, contact details, emails, details of other family members, friends etc. Only once these reasonable enquiries have been completed and the whereabouts of the child are still unknown or unconfirmed should a Children Missing Education (CME) referral be made to the Local Authority.

Reasonable enquiries should include:

● Contacting family, relatives, neighbours and where appropriate landlords and other significant adults
● Making enquiries within school with class teachers, friends (if appropriate)
● Liaising with schools attended by siblings
● Conducting home visits
● Sending letters and/or emails

Punctuality

It is important that pupils arrive at school on time so that they do not miss the beginning of each school day.

● School doors open at 8.35am and pupils should be in school at this time and ready to learn.
● All entrances with the exception of the main school entrance are closed at 8.50am.
● Pupils arriving after this time will need to report to the office where their names will be entered into the “late list” and Arbor for safety reasons and monitoring of attendance.
● The “late list” is monitored weekly to identify the pupils who are persistently late.
● If a pupil arrives after the register has closed at 9.15am then they will lose their attendance mark for that morning which in turn impacts upon their overall attendance percentage.
● If a pupil is persistently late then the Parent or Guardian is invited to a meeting with school staff to discuss the situation and offered support if appropriate.
● Persistent lates may be followed up with a penalty notice.

Should you have any questions or worries regarding attendance or punctuality please contact the school who will arrange for you to speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team.