Attendance

Regular school attendance enables children to maximise the educational opportunities available to them. Excellent attendance helps children to become emotionally resilient, confident and competent adults who are able to realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to their community; utilising their talents.

 

Parkfield Primary School values all children. We work with families to identify the barriers to achieving and maintaining excellent attendance and offer the right services, at the right time, to resolve difficulties. The Senior Leader Responsible for Attendance (Tracey Robinson) and Attendance Officer (Max Smith) monitor attendance weekly and use attendance data to identify any patterns of concern, whilst also celebrating success.

 

Attendance concerns will be raised with parents. This information is also shared with the local authority. Where we have concerns, or there is a lack of engagement from families to improve attendance, we will follow the school’s and local authority’s staged approach to improving attendance.

 

Parkfield's staged approach is child-centred and prioritises support and developing strong working relationships with families. We will use the Early Help process to provide support prior to escalation and consider how we can work with families to enable children to access their right to education.

 

Attendance figures for each child will be reported to parents at parents evening. Parents can also access their child’s live attendance figure, at any time, through the ‘My Child at School’ app. Families will receive a school letter if attendance falls below 95%. If absences are not authorised this may then lead to the staged approach following the local authority procedures and the possibility of a fine.

 

Leave of Absence Requests

If, due to exceptional circumstances, you would like your child be absent from school during term time, then you must apply for this in advance. You should use the Leave of Absence Application Form, which is available from the school office. Please fill in this form and hand it to the School Office as soon as possible.

 

If you do not request a leave of absence in advance, your child’s absence will be recorded as unauthorised and you may be liable for a penalty notice or fine.

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Our Staged Approach

At Parkfield, we implement a staged approach to promote excellent attendance for every pupil. Our staged approach is underpinned by six principles:

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1. Build: a positive culture where all children can, and want, to be in school and ready to learn.

2. Monitor: analyse attendance data weekly to identify patterns of poor attendance or areas of concern.

3. Listen and Understand: working alongside parents to understand their barriers to attendance; work together to remove them.

4. Facilitate Support: remove barriers and support parents, enabling any access to external support. This might include an Early Help offered by school.

5. Formalise Support: this could include formalising support through a Parenting Contract facilitated by the Education Welfare Officer.

6. Enforce: statutory intervention or prosecution to protect the child’s right to an education. This stage will only be implemented when all previous stages of the approach have been exhausted and there is no other option.