Attendance

All pupils must attend school every day and arrive for 8:55am.

Yardley Primary School bases its Attendance Policy on guidelines set out by Birmingham City Council Local Authority. Whilst the legal responsibility for regular school attendance rests with parents/carers; Yardley Primary School Governors and staff share with them and the Local Authority, the responsibility for encouraging good attendance and improving poor attendance.

Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education. Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any problems if your child does not want to go to school.

Pupils should be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Permitting absence without a good reason is an offence by the parent/carer.

Pupils may sometimes be reluctant to attend school. Any problems with regular attendance can be sorted out quickly between the school, parents/carers and the pupil. If a pupil is reluctant to attend, please notify the school immediately. Please do not keep them off school, as attending school every day is important and a legal requirement.

Yardley Primary School aims to:

• Maximise attendance of all pupils so that they can fully access the curriculum and make the best possible progress.

• Provide an environment which encourages regular attendance and makes attendance and punctuality a priority for all those associated with the school.

• Monitor and support pupils whose attendance is a cause for concern and work in partnership with parents/carers to resolve any difficulties.

• Implement an effective system of rewards and sanctions.

• Promote effective partnerships with the Early Help Barnardo’s Team and with other agencies. 

• Recognise the needs of the individual pupil when planning reintegration following significant periods of absence.

 Yardley Primary School is required by law to maintain records and publish specified information on the attendance of pupils.

 Classes from Reception to Year 6 are provided with regular feedback on their attendance. Weekly awards will reward attendance and punctuality to the classes whom are doing the best and this will be announced to parents/carers via email, school celebration assemblies (where possible) and social media.

How to prevent your child from missing school

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

• Making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality.

• Taking an interest in their education, ask about schoolwork and encourage them to get involved in school activities.

• Discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher or principal know about anything serious.

• Not letting children take time off school for minor ailments, particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work.

To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:

• After school hours.

• At weekends.

• During school holidays.

You should not expect Yardley Primary School to agree to your child going on holiday during term time.

Please note that where parents fail to ensure their child attends school regularly or take unauthorised leave in term time, legal action, including penalty notices, may be considered.

Reasons for Absence

Every half day absence from school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents/carers) as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information about the cause of each absence is always required.

The authority has listed the following as authorised absence:

• Temporarily educated in another establishment

• Court appearances

• Bereavement

• Exclusion for medical or behavioural reasons

• Illness or medical treatment

• Day of religious observance

 No other reasons are considered proper and a pupil should attend school if these conditions are not met.

 It is the responsibility of the parents/carers to contact school on the first day of absence to provide the reason for absence and on each subsequent day of absence. When school has not been made aware of a reason for a pupil’s absence, a first day call will be made to establish the reason.

Holidays during term time

Term time holidays and leave of absence are not allowed. Parents/carers are strongly discouraged from arranging holidays, here or abroad, or visits to their country of family origin, during term time.

The Local Authority reserves the right, in line with the Birmingham Code of Conduct, to consider issuing Penalty Notices when parents/carers remove their pupils from school during term time without the authorisation of the Headteacher. 

The issuing of a Penalty Notice is considered. Parents will receive a separate Penalty Notice for each child.  

 Parents can still make requests for leave of absence during term time for exceptional circumstances only; for pupils in Reception to Year 6. These requests must be made in writing to the school office as soon as possible. However, permission will only ever be granted for exceptional circumstances if deemed appropriate.

Unexpected absence

If a parent/carer fails to provide a reason for absence on the third day, a call will be made to update the situation. If there is no response. the Pastoral Manager, will contact home stating that unless the parent provides a reason for the absence they will be expected to make an appointment to discuss the absence prior to the pupil returning to the school. 

Any pupils that do not return to school after a 5-day period, or that have not returned on the expected date following extended holidays (if there has been no contact / information received from parents/carers), a referral will be made to the Children Missing in Education Team.

If a pupil’s absence raises a significant concern with regards to safeguarding issues, there is involvement with other agencies and/or the pupil has significant needs; the school will conduct a home visit and information will be shared with all appropriate agencies.

FastTrack attendance programme

This is an initiative designed to raise individual and whole school attendance by the use of legal action and it challenges any notion that unauthorised absence is acceptable.

It raises parents/carers’, pupils’ and community awareness of the importance of school attendance, the negative impact of absence, and demonstrates that the Local Authority uses statutory powers to bring about change.

It utilises section 444 of the Education Act 1996 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2007.

It aims to use legal action to ensure parents / carers fulfil their legal responsibilities.

Support with school attendance

A child’s school attendance can be affected if there are problems with:

• Bullying.

• Housing or care arrangements.

• Transport to and from school.

• Work and money.

If your child starts missing school, you might not know there is a problem.  If there is a problem, please approach their teacher or the Pastoral Manager.

The Pastoral Manager

The Pastoral Manager, is here to help. Please do not hesitate to contact them for advice or to raise a concern about your child’s absence.

By working closely with parents/carers, it enables all our pupils to remain safe and happy, giving them the best learning opportunity possible.

Please contact the Pastoral Manager through the school office via email on office@yardleyprimary.org or via telephone on 0121 464 3235 (Monday-Thursday 8.00am-4.30pm, Friday 8.00am-4.00pm).

The Strategic Approach

Yardley Primary School adopts the '5 Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice' framework, this is modelled on the work of Professor Katherine Weare. The emphasis is on developing a school culture and climate which builds a sense of connectedness and belonging to ensure all children can attend school and thrive.  The approach ensures we prioritise building solid working relationships with children / parents prior to any escalation.  The staged approach we use ensures we identify triggers early that can lead to poor attendance issues such as mental health issues, lack of trust, communication and relationship breakdowns and the possible lack of networking opportunities both internal (in-school) and external (external agencies).

The Foundations framework has most recently been reviewed by the Department for Education.  The Foundations framework received an excellent report following the four-day review.

“The Foundations approach is an excellent example of best practice; there are very clear and detailed systems and procedures in place to manage absence and attendance consistently”.   (Michelle O’Dell DFE Attendance Advisor March 2022)

Aims of the strategy

• Increase school Attendance and reduce Persistent Absence to meet set targets.

• Ensure Attendance is well managed within the school, with the appropriate level of resources allocated.

• Enable the school to make informed use of Attendance data to target interventions appropriately, focusing on the key demographic groups highlighted in the 2022 DFE paper.

Objectives 

• Create an ethos within the school in which good attendance is recognised as the norm and every child/young person aims for excellent attendance. 

• Make attendance and punctuality a priority. 

• Set focused targets to improve individual attendance and whole school attendance levels. 

• Embed the 5 Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice framework which defines agreed roles and responsibilities and promotes consistency in carrying out designated tasks with respect to promoting attendance and punctuality. 

• Record and monitor attendance and absenteeism and apply appropriate strategies to minimise absenteeism. 

• Develop a systematic approach to gathering and analysing relevant attendance data. 

• Provide support, advice and guidance to; parents, children and young people and develop mutual cooperation between home and the school in encouraging good attendance and in addressing identified attendance issues. 

The school policy is translated into practise through the processes and systems we follow. The escalated approach supports children at each stage, parents who do not engage with support understand why, at times, we must follow this process. 

All staff receive attendance training to support the whole school approach, they understand their role in improving attendance. Certain staff are identified to engage in specialist training to continue to support families and children who work with external partners.

We use data information to support children as this allows us to understand the groups, and individuals, who require specific programmes of intervention. Reviewing each programme allows us to understand the effectiveness of support and change what is not working.

Finally, we train and support all staff to understand the ‘root cause’ of concerns. Staff use the wider curriculum to allow all children to feel valued and accept themselves.  We celebrate attendance success and ensure children returning from long absence receive a planned transition.

DFE: Working Together to Improve Attendance 2022

From September 2022 the 'DFE: Working Together to Improve Attendance' paper will replace all previous guidance on school attendance except for statutory guidance for parental responsibility measures.  The Secretary of State has committed to it becoming statutory when parliamentary time allows (this will be no sooner than September 2023). 

The table below identifies how the 5 Foundations of Effective Attendance Practice will underpin the DFE 2022 paper in meeting the summary of expectations.