Why is attendance important

Attendance is extremely important because all children have a legal right to access a full-time education to ensure they can learn and develop into confident, educated, socially aware and employable young adults.  Research demonstrates high levels of attendance and punctuality are crucial in ensuring students achieve their best, both academically and socially.  

We want to help your child strive for excellence (not to be confused with perfection) therefore, if they are to reach their potential, a high level of attendance is essential to access all the learning opportunities on offer.  We also know that absence can interrupt and damage a child’s learning, and when children are absent it can have an impact on others in the class too.

We promote and celebrate school attendance and expect all students to aspire to 100% attendance, with a minimum of 96% whenever possible.  Research shows that if students miss 17 days a year (1.5 days per month or approx. 91% overall), they can drop one GCSE grade when it comes to their exams.

What are the laws around school attendance?

Statutory Guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) called Working Together to Improve School Attendance came into force on 19th August 2024 underpinned with new legislation The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. 

The new guidance gives clear responsibilities to ‘everyone’ involved in the care of a child and clearly connects that absence from school is classed as a safeguarding concern in terms of ensuring the whereabouts of every child is concerned and in exploring absence when the level of attendance is of concern.

It also reinforces the duties of both schools and parents in respect of attendance which are outlined in The Education Act 1996.  All children who are of compulsory school age (from the start of the term after they turn 5 years old, until the last Friday in June of their 16th year) must receive an education at school or otherwise.  A child’s parent(s) (or carer(s)) is responsible for ensuring this happens under this act and where a child is over compulsory school age the parent(s)/carer(s) have a duty to encourage their participation in education or training up to the age of 18 under Part 1 of Education and Skills Act 2008.  Where a parent/carer fails to ensure a child receives education, s444 of the above act states they may have committed an offence.