Attendance at St Joseph’s

We at St Joseph’s want to provide the best possible education and experience for your children in order to set them up with skills for life, a love of learning and provide them with opportunities to develop their interests and passions so that they can be the best they can be. This can only happen if your children are regularly in school.

As part of our commitment to improve the attainment of the pupils in our school, we monitor attendance and punctuality on a regular basis.

Every second matters in school to ensure our children reach their potential. Our attendance system ensures that no children are disadvantaged by poor attendance and punctuality and through our positive partnerships, we endeavour to achieve excellent attendance for all.

What is the expected attendance?

The Education Act 1996 places a legal duty on parents to ensure that their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly. As a general rule, we would initiate further communication to raise awareness if attendance drops below 97%

The Law also requires all schools to have an admissions register and attendance register. All pupils must be placed on both registers. If a pupil fails to attend, the school must establish the reason for the absence and mark the attendance register accordingly. 

We follow the DfE guidance Working Together to Improve Attendance

Absences

Illness

It is essential that you contact the school before 9.00am on the day that your child will be absent due to illness. We have a designated phone option so you can leave a message – 0151 652 6781, then press option 1. Please leave a message for each day of absence relating to the illness. 

Any repeated absences may result in a request that you obtain medical evidence from your doctor and agree a plan for the management of your child’s education during any periods of absence resulting from ongoing medical conditions. 

Please note that if your child is absent and we have not been informed of the reason, our Attendance co-ordinator, Miss Finnegan, will call you to establish the reason. 

Medical Appointments

Time off school to attend medical appointments will only be authorised on production of evidence such as an appointment card or letter. If your child has an appointment, please bring the letter to the school office where a copy can be placed on their file as proof of the authorised absence. We urge parents to make all non-urgent appointments such as dental checks and routine vaccinations outside of school hours. 

Collecting early

Please note that unless you can provide evidence of a medical appointment, permission for early collection will not be given and you will be asked to wait until the end of the day. 

Requests for leave during term time

Following the Amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2013. The amendments make clear that Head teachers may no longer grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Head teachers should determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted. 

Holidays in term time will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. This would be very rarely authorised. Examples may include leave from armed services, immediate family needs for a few days etc. 

Please note that holidays booked by other family members will not constitute ‘exceptional circumstances.’

If you do wish to apply for a leave of absence, forms are available through the school office. 

Punctuality and Lateness

For F2-Y6 the school doors open at 8.50am. The doors remain open until 8.55am. After this time, please enter through the front office. Arrivals after 9.00am will be recorded as late.

If attendance drops

As a school, we have a responsibility and duty to tackle poor attendance from individual and groups of children. All attendance and absence data is analysed and reported to Governors, the Local Authority, The Department for Education and Ofsted. 

The target is of course to have 100% attendance. Anything below 90% is a cause for concern, and is classified by the Department for Education as ‘Persistent Absence’.

We will initially write to parents where attendance drops below 97% as our approach is to intervene long before attendance approaches 90% . We will monitor and may meet with parents if attendance does not improve. This is so that we can work together, identify and overcome barriers and seek solutions to make improvements.

If attendance does drop further, or if it does drop to 90%, a further meeting with the Local Authority Attendance Officer will be arranged.

School may also inform and request that the LA issue a Fixed Penalty Notice. A Fixed Penalty Notice is £60 if paid within 21 days and £120 if paid after this time but within 28 days.

A Fixed Penalty Notice can be issued in cases of unauthorised absence or when an excluded pupil is found in a public place. 

 Penalty Notices may be considered appropriate in the following circumstances:

-       Attendance below 90% with at least 10 days lost due to unauthorised absence*. These do not need to be consecutive.

-       5 days or more unauthorised absence due to holidays in term time.

-       A pupil arrives late after the registers are closed on 10 or more separate occasions

-       The presence of an excluded pupil in a public place during school hours

*Unauthorised absences are those absences for which the school receives no reason/explanation or if the school has good reason to doubt the explanation given. Only the school, within the context of the law, can approve absence, not parents, and it is a statutory requirement for the Headteacher to decide with every absence whether it is authorised or unauthorised.