Attendance
Attendance at St Andrew & St Francis
At St Andrew & St Francis we believe that school education lays the vital foundation of a child’s life. With regular school attendance children make good progress, become successful learners and achieve their potential. As a staff, we encourage parents and carers to ensure that the children in our care achieve maximum possible attendance and any problems that prevent this are identified and acted on promptly.
We take absence very seriously at St Andrew & St Francis. During term times your child should attend school everyday unless he or she is ill or the school has authorised their absence in advance. Irregular school attendance has a serious impact on a child’s academic and social development. It is your legal responsibility as parent/carer to ensure that the child in your care attends school everyday, and that they get up in the morning in time to arrive punctually.
How to support pupil attendance
In order to support pupil attendance parents/carers MUST:
- Ring school on the first day of your child’s absence—before 9.00am.
- You must phone every subsequent day of a child’s illness.
- If your child is absent through illness for a few days then a medical note, appointment card or prescription is needed.
- Make every effort to schedule medical appointments outside school time.
- If your child has only a minor illness please consult a health professional to determine whether s/he is well enough to be in school.
Punctuality
Children who arrive late to school miss the start of lessons and this can affect their learning.
The school gate opens at 8.40am. Children go straight into class Registration takes place at 8.55am and lessons start at 9.00am.
The school gate closes at 8.55am. Parents/carers are expected to have left the school premises by this time. Any pupil arriving after 8.55am should go to the main office where they will receive a formal late mark.
Please support us in our drive to improve punctuality by reinforcing with your child and demonstrating the importance of good time-keeping. Please ensure your child is in school by 8.40am every day.
The Importance of Attendance
We think it is very important that all our pupils benefit from 190 days of learning to ensure they make progress and achieve the results they should. If a school can improve its attendance by 1%, this can result in a 5-6% improvement in attainment. We are asking you to support the school by ensuring your child achieves excellent attendance. Here are some of the ways in which you can help our school achieve excellent attendance:
- Aim for your child to have 100% attendance.
- You can make a request to the head in advance if you feel you have exceptional circumstances for your child to be absent during term time, however permission may not be given and the Head’s decision is final. Forms are available here or from the school office.
- We expect pupils to arrive at school on time. Late arrivals disrupt the education of others. Pupils arriving after the register has closed will be marked in the register as late. Registers are taken at 8.50am. Children arriving after 8.55am are marked as late “L” code. Children arriving after 9.25am are marked as “U” code which is classed as late after the registers have closed. This is an unauthorised mark.
- We do not expect pupils to come to school when they are sick, but parents of children with regular sickness absence will be expected to provide us with medical evidence before we authorise further absences;
- Avoid medical and dental appointments during school time;
If you or your child are having difficulties and this impacts on their attendance, please make an appointment with a member of staff to discuss additional support.
If your child is unable to attend school, please contact the school immediately. In cases of poor attendance, without medical justification, we have an expectation that once we have notified a parent about our concerns, they will ensure that their child’s attendance improves significantly. If a pupil continues to have poor attendance, we will discuss this with our link Attendance Support Officer, and if necessary make a referral to Brent Attendance Support Office. The Attendance Support Office may issue a parent with a Formal Warning, an Education Penalty Notice (EPN) or decide to prosecute if a child is persistently absent over a minimum period of 10 weeks. If a parent is issued with an EPN, they risk receiving a fine from Brent Council of £160 if paid within 28 days. This is reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. Fines for unauthorised term time leave are issued to each parent for each absent child. Failure to pay the notice may result in a parent being prosecuted in court for their child’s unauthorised absence.
For further information, a copy of our attendance policy is available to read on our policy page or you can find the Education Welfare Service’s Non-School Attendance, Education Penalty Notices, and Local Code of Conduct on Brent Council’s website www.brent.gov.uk
Information leaflets
Brent guidance for parents - Education Penalty Notices
Brent unauthorised absence leaflet