Working Together to Improve School Attendance

All schools are held to account by governors, the Local Authority, and Ofsted on their attendance figures and the processes they use to manage absence. In order to identify and address attendance trends, we monitor and analyse the attendance of individuals and groups (cohorts, disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND, etc).

At The BAWB Federation we have seen a change in attendance patterns since the pandemic: a significant increase in requests for term-time holiday, and more illness-absences than in previous years.

The Importance of School Attendance (from ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ – DfE – 2022):

Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have a legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.

This is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances. Pupils with the highest attainment have higher rates of attendance compared to those with the lowest attainment.

How we can work together

Our attendance target is 95%. Several individual pupils have fallen below this target over the course of last year, including both authorised and unauthorised absence.

If your child has persistent absence (defined as ≤90%), please expect to be invited to come in to school to discuss ways in which we can improve your child’s attendance. It is important that we work together to achieve this, and part of that process is to discuss reasons for absence within a broader context. If your child has persistent illness, or issues with attending on certain days, for example, it is important for us to fully understand that so we can be collaborative in our approach. 

Holidays in term-time

Please could I remind you of the process for requesting absence during term-time:

Parents/carers must obtain the schools permission before making any arrangements for leave in exceptional circumstances, otherwise the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.

No parent/carer can demand leave of absence as of right.

The Education regulations state that applications for leave must be made in advance by a parent with whom the child lives and can only be authorised by the school in exceptional circumstances. Each application is considered individually by the school.

The following are examples of the criteria for leave of absence, which may be considered as ‘exceptional’:

• Service personnel returning from active deployment.
• Where inflexibility of the parents’ leave or working arrangement is part of the organisational or company policy. This would need to be evidenced by the production or confirmation from the organisation / company.
• Where leave is recommended as part of a parents’ or child’s rehabilitation from medical or emotional problems. Evidence must be provided.
• When a family needs to spend time together to support each other during or after a crisis.
• A one-off never to be repeated occasion that can only take place at the time requested.

Please note: Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.

I appreciate your understanding that applications are processed on a case-by-case basis, with careful and consistent consideration against the criteria above.