Attendance

Introduction

Whiston Willis is a successful school and your child plays an important part in making it so. Our aim is to ensure your child’s education is the best that it can be and that they can achieve the highest standards in education. Therefore, it is vital that children attend school on time, every day when the school is open, unless the reason for absence is unavoidable.

Ensuring a child attends school is the legal responsibility of the parent/carer and permitting absence from school, without a valid reason, creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and recurrent absence will seriously affect learning and progress. Pupils' absence also disrupts teaching routines, which can then affect the learning of others in the same class.

Promoting High Attendance

Helping to create and maintain a pattern of high attendance is everybody’s responsibility, parents/carers, pupils and all members of staff.

To help us focus on this we will: 

• Make your child’s attendance record available to you
• Monitor closely the attendance levels of all children from Nursery to Year 6
• Inform parents/carers when there are concerns over attendance or punctuality  
• Should concerns arise, we will invite parents/carers to come into school for discussion, so that we can work together to ensure your child attends school on time
• Celebrate good attendance and punctuality with class certificates, trophies, achievement assemblies and rewards for classes and individual children.

Understanding types of absence

Every week, any child who is absent from school will be classified, by the school, as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information regarding the cause of any absence is always required.

Authorised absences (mornings and/or afternoons) from school must have a valid reason such as illness or dental /medical appointments that unavoidably fall in school time. The school should be informed of any medical/ dental appointments and may request appointment cards or doctors’ letters before choosing to authorise an absence. 

Unauthorised absences are those which school does not consider reasonable and for which no leave has been granted. Absence deemed to be unreasonable include (but are not limited to):

• Parents/carers keeping children off school unnecessarily
• Truancy during the school day
• Children who arrive at school too late to get a mark
• Shopping
• Birthdays
• Holidays in term time

Persistent Absenteeism (PA)

A pupil becomes a ‘persistent absentee’ (PA) when they have 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence in any rolling 10 week period. Absence at this level can cause considerable damage to a child’s educational prospects and we need the co-operation and support of parents/carers to tackle this.

As a school, we monitor all absence thoroughly. Every term, any child whose attendance falls below 90% will receive a letter informing them of this. As a result of this, we will generally ask for supporting medical evidence to authorise any future absence. This could include a doctor’s certificate, appointment card, copy of prescription or medication packet with the child’s name on.

PA pupils are tracked and monitored carefully by the school and will automatically be made known to School Attendance Services. In this instance parents/carers may be required to attend an attendance panel, with the head teacher, attendance lead and representatives from the authority.

Education Penalty Notices (EPN) and Holidays

In line with national requirements, parents can be issued with an Education Penalty Notice for their child’s non-attendance at school.

As of August 2024:

• Penalty notices for unauthorised absence from school are increasing from £120 to £160 per child, per parent. The amount will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.

• A parent may be issued with a penalty notice if their child’s absence is unauthorised, and they miss 10 sessions within a rolling period of 10 weeks. Ten sessions are usually the same as 5 school days. The 10 weeks may span different terms or school years. For example, two unauthorised absences in the summer term and eight unauthorised absences in the autumn term.

• The changes apply to any unauthorised absence taken from the start of the new academic year. For example, a holiday in term time which has a start date after the 19 August 2024.
• If a second penalty notice is issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, the penalty notice will be charged at the higher rate of £160. There is no option for this second offence to be discharged at the lower rate of £80.

• The Government has set a national limit of two penalty notices that can be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period.
• If the national limit of two penalty notices has been met, or exceeded, the local authority must consider the use of another tool to improve attendance. For example, prosecution or another attendance legal intervention.

The local penalty notice code of conduct will be published on Knowsley Council’s website and has been drawn up in consultation with headteachers and the Merseyside Police Force.

Please note, holidays taken in term time will be classed as unauthorised absence.

Lateness

Poor punctuality is not acceptable. The school day begins at 8:40am and we expect children to be ready to enter school at this time. Registers are marked by 9:00am and pupils will receive a late mark if they are not on time.

Registers will close at 9:20am and if a child arrives after this time they will, in accordance with regulations, receive a mark that shows them to be on site. This however will not count as a ‘present’ mark and will mean the child will incur an unauthorised absence. Should persistent lateness after 9:20am continue the School Attendance Service may become involved.

W​histon Willis is committed to working with parents/carers and pupils to maintain the highest levels of attendance and punctuality as possible. Good attendance and communication between school and families is the key to successful schooling and we will strive to work with parents/carers to ensure this is possible.