Attendance
Parents are responsible for ensuring full time, regular and punctual attendance of their compulsory school-aged child. Regular and punctual attendance of pupils at school is both a legal requirement and essential for children to maximise their educational opportunities.
Regular attendance has been defined (by the Supreme Court, 6th April 2017) to mean “in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school’. Our school has a minimum expectation of 97% attendance over an academic school year.
A child reaches compulsory school age on or after their 5th birthday.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Jan and 31 Mar they are of compulsory school age on 31 March.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Apr and 31st Aug then they are of compulsory school age on 31st August.
- If they turn 5 between 1 Sept and 31 Dec then they are of compulsory school age on 31st December.
The document attached below, 'Attendance Matters', outlines our view on attendance and makes clear our and the government's expectations of you and your child.
Leave of Absence
Each application is looked at on its own merits. Only 'extremely exceptional circumstances’ will be approved in relation to requests from parents for family holidays taken in term time.
If you have an exceptional circumstance and require a Leave of Absence form, then pick one up at the school office and submit it BEFORE making arrangements. Any applications made after/our during the absence will automatically be denied.
Weddings (home or abroad) - we do not approve 'wedding holidays'. At best, and in extremely exceptional circumstances, the travel to the venue, the wedding day and the return (3 days) could be approved. All other days will be unauthorised and may incur a fixed penalty notice.
Football Weekends - no school is permitted to approve football weekends. They are not classed as education off site (as suggested by some managers of football clubs) and the Cheshire FA and other local FAs have backed school's stance on this.
INSET Week and Bank Holiday Week Holidays - if parents take their child on term time holidays in a week of an inset day or bank holiday, for example, to avoid missing 10 sessions, headteachers can now apply for an EPN. See below:
185. The National Framework does not prevent a penalty notice from being used in other cases where an offence has been committed but before doing so, authorised officers are expected to make the same considerations as set out above. If in an individual case, the local authority (or other authorised officer) believes a penalty notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met. This might apply, for example, where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking several-term-time holidays below threshold, or for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events. If local authorities wish to exercise this discretion to issue a penalty notice earlier in such circumstances, they should make this clear in their Local Code of Conduct. Local authorities who conduct, or may wish to, conduct truancy sweeps will also want to make provision for this within their Code.