Broomhill First School

At Broomhill, many of our families support us by support us by sending their child to school on time, every day - thank you! As a school, we appreciate the continued support from the entire school community in ensuring children do not miss out on their education. We have placed a figure of 96% as a minimum attendance expectation for all students to ensure that, together, we are able to ensure your child is able to reach their full potential.

There is a direct relationship between excellent attendance and successful academic and personal outcomes, which impacts on future life chances.

Communication with school

We ask that parents/carers report all absences to the school by telephone between 8:15am and 8:30am. We have a message facility if the line is engaged.

The phone number is 01670 760339.

If your child is absent for any reason please can you ring school each day to notify us (unless you have stated a specific number of days or this was discussed on the first day of absence). Daily calls helps us to ensure your child is safe. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and we take our safeguarding roles and responsibilities very seriously.

Medical appointments

We would really appreciate medical and dental appointments not being made during the school day wherever possible. However, we understand that this is not always something that you can control. Afternoon appointments are best because students are likely to miss less of the school day. As a school we only authorise a maximum of half a day for a single medical appointment; there are exceptions to this if a pupil is having a course of lengthy or specialist medical treatment.

Punctuality

We expect all pupils to be in class and ready to learn on time. We record centrally any late marks. If there is a record of persistent lateness, we will work with families to understand why this is happening and offer support where we are able. We will then agree a plan to improve punctuality.

Persistent Absence

The department for Education identifies attendance below 90% as ‘persistent absence’. If a pupil was to end the academic school year on 90% attendance, this would equate to four whole weeks off school. This would mean 20 days, or over 100 hours, of missed learning.

The headteacher and office manager monitor each pupil's attendance very closely, and especially those who are at risk of falling into this category. We write home one a half-term to inform parents/carers of their child's attendance. If a pupil's attendance is below 92%, we will invite parents/carers into school to meet with the headteacher. In this meeting, we will discuss the reasons for the absences and look for ways to support where we can. We will then agree a plan for improving attendance, which will include set targets.

Pupils who do not make an improvement in attendance following an initial attendance meeting, or those with a track record of lower attendance, will be invited to a further formal meeting involving the Educational Welfare Officer and representatives from the school. These meetings set a formal set of attendance targets which, if not met, may lead to the prosecution of the parent/carer for failing to ensure adequate attendance of the child.

Holidays in Term Time

The Government changed the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations in relation to term time holidays on 1st September 2013.

As a result, Headteachers can no longer allow any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. This means that holidays in term time will not be authorised and will be marked as an unauthorised absence in the school register.

Unauthorised absences may result in a Penalty Notice being issued under the provisions of the Education Act 1996 (as amended) which means that you could be fined for your child’s absence.

Note: Payment of a Penalty Notice (from September 2013), if paid within 21 days, is £60 per parent/carer, per child. If you do not pay within 21 days the fine is increased to £120 and you have a further 7 days to make this payment in full.

Non-payment of a Penalty Notice within the total 28-day period could result in the commencement of criminal proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.

The issuing of Penalty Notices relates to any unauthorised absence. Authorisation of absence is at the Headteacher’s discretion and if your child is absent for any reason such as illness, you may be required to provide school with evidence of the absence such as a medical appointment card or prescription.

Information on penalty notices is also available on Northumberland County Council's website and DFE websites.

If you are experiencing any difficulties that are affecting your child’s attendance, we want to work with you to support you. Please contact the school in the first instance.

Whole School Attendance Policy

AIMS

The Governors of Broomhill First School are committed to providing a full and efficient education for all our pupils. We believe that all pupils benefit from education and from regular and punctual school attendance and good behaviour. To these ends, we will do all we can to ensure that all pupils attend to their fullest and that any problems which impede this are identified and acted upon as soon as possible.

EXPECTATIONS

We expect that all pupils will:

attend school regularly

arrive on time and appropriately prepared for the school day

tell a member of staff about any problem which is making it hard for them to attend school regularly

We expect that all parents/carers will:

encourage their children to attend school every day and on time

ensure that they contact the school as soon as possible whenever their child is unable to attend school

ensure that their children arrive in school fully prepared for the school day and check that they have completed their homework

provide the school with up to date home, work and emergency contact numbers

not arrange family holidays to take place during the school term

inform the school in confidence about any problem which might affect their child’s attendance or behaviour

Parents/Carers can expect that the school will:

provide a good quality education

record their children’s attendance regularly, accurately and efficiently

make every reasonable effort to contact the parent when their child fails to attend school without good reason

deal discretely and properly with any problem notified to the school by the parent

make all efforts to encourage good attendance and behaviour

instigate proper enquiries before removing the child from the school roll.

PROMOTING GOOD ATTENDANCE

We will encourage good attendance by:

accurately completing attendance registers at the beginning of each session and within 30 minutes of the start of the session

following-up absence on the first day

undertaking attendance checks on a regular basis
recording good attendance on pupils’ records of achievement
regularly updating parents/carers about their child's attendance

sending parent/carers letters of concern when attendance drops below 90%

collecting data on attendance for the whole school and by year group and making this available to governors and to parents on a weekly basis
good attendance is linked to our whole-school reward system.

RESPONDING TO NON-ATTENDANCE

When a pupil fails to attend school without a satisfactory explanation, we will:

contact the parent on the first day of absence by telephone or Class Dojo. If contact cannot be made, we may made a home visit.

Efforts to make contact will continue. It is vital that we ascertain that children are safe.

If the pupil or parent/carer fails to respond after repeated attempts, the matter will be discussed with school’s Education Welfare officer. Depending on the length of absence, with a formal referral may be considered.