Access to Learning:
Attendance Matters!
Approaches for Improving Pupil Attendance
in Islington’s Schools and Education Settings
“In order to really improve pupil attendance, all staff
must be insistent, consistent and persistent.”
Julie Keylock, Headteacher,
Samuel Rhodes School
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Contents
Section One: Overview
4
1.1 Background ………. 5
1.2 Links to Ofsted ………. 6
1.3 A Borough-Wide Agreement for all Schools and Academies ……….. 7
1.4 Expectation of School’s Role in Improving Attendance ……….. 8
1.5 Suggested Roles and Responsibilities of Staff ……… 10
Promoting Good Attendance ………. 12
1.6 The Role of Parents/Carers ………. 13
1.7 Early Intervention: Punctuality and Attendance in Early Years ………. 15
1.8 School Attendance and SEN ……… 19
1.9 Special Schools ………. 19
1.10 Accessing School Attendance Data ……… 21
Section Two: Advice, Guidance and Expectations
23
2.1 What does ‘Good Attendance’ mean? ……… 24
2.2 Having an Attendance Policy in Place ……….. 25
2.3 Attendance Codes, Descriptions and Meanings ……… 26
- Approved Educational Activity ………. 26
- Authorised Absence from School ……… 28
- Unauthorised Absence from School ………. 29
- Administrative Codes ……….. 30
2.4 Making Use of the Data Available ……….. 31
Attendance Data: Everybody’s Business – Steve Baker ……….. 32
2.5 Early Help and Early Help Assessment and Planning ……… 35
2.6 Off Rolling ……… 36
2.7 2.8 Using SIMs …... SIMS Attendance Reports ………. 37 40 2.9 Penalty Notices ……… 43
2.10 Term Time Absence ……….. 44
2.11 The Role of the Local Authority ……… 45
2.12 Education Welfare Service ……….. 47
2.13 Families First ………. 50
2.14 A Joined-Up Approach for Supporting Schools ………. 51
2.15 Virtual School ……… 53
2.16 Health & Wellbeing (Healthy Schools) ……… 55
2.17 Monitoring and Tracking Medical Illnesses ………. 56
2.18 School Improvement Service ………. 58
Section Three: Whole-School Approaches to Improving Attendance
59
3.1 Assemblies ……….. 60
3.2 Curriculum Links ………. 60
3.3 Data and Attendance Reports ……… 61
3.4 First Day Response ……… 61
3.5 Home-School Agreement ………. 61
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3.7 Communicating with New Parents/Carers ……….. 62
3.8 Parents’ Evening ………. 63
3.9 Poor Attenders – Meetings with Parents/Carers and Pupils ……… 64
3.10 Punctuality ……….. 64
3.11 Pupil Premium ……….. 65
3.12 School Noticeboard ……….. 66
3.13 Rewards and Incentives ………. 67
Section Four: Case Studies and Best Practice
68
4.1 Examples of Good Practice at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School ………. 69
4.2 Procedures in Place at Gillespie to Support Good Attendance and Punctuality ……… 71
4.3 Highbury Grove Preventative Work – Whole School Procedures and Good Practice To Help Raise Attendance ……… 73
4.4 Good Practice to Improve Attendance at Islington Arts & Media School ……….. 74
4.5 Improving Attendance and Punctuality at New North Academy ………. 75
4.6 Improving Pupil Attendance at New River College ………. 77
4.7 Attendance Procedures at Rotherfield Primary School ……….. 79
4.8 St. Mary Magdalene Academy’s Attendance Triangle – Levels of Support Required ………. 80
4.9 Our Approach to Improving Attendance at Winton ……….. 82
Section Five: Appendices
84
5.1 Definition of Key Terminology ……….. 85
5.2 Who to Contact ……… 90
5.3 Legal Powers and Duties that Govern and/or are Relevant to School Attendance …………. 92
5.4 Ofsted Grade Descriptors for Attendance ……… 94
5.5 Sample Attendance Policy ……… 97
5.6 Off Rolling Notification Form ………. 103
5.7 Sample Request for Authorisation of Absence ………. 104
5.8 Sample Attendance Tracking Sheet ……….. 105
5.9 Sustaining Progress for a Child with Persistent Absence ……… 106
5.10 Persistent Absence Tracking Sheet ……… 107
5.11 Persistent Absence Action Plan ……… 108
5.12 Questions to Support Working with Attendance Leads in Schools ………. 109
Please note that there is now a section for attendance on Fronter.
This can be accessed using the following link: www.londonmle.net/islington/login Once you have logged on, click on the LB Islington tab -> School Improvement -> Attendance.
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Section One
Overview
The importance of school attendance
Education provides a means of advancement for all young people to improve their life chances.
Regular school attendance is a legal requirement for those registered at a school. Without it the efforts of the best teachers and schools will come to nothing.
Pupils need to attend regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them.
Irregular attendance undermines the educational process and can lead to educational disadvantage. It places children at risk and in some cases it can result in pupils being drawn into patterns of anti social or criminal behaviour.
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1.1 Background
Good attendance at school is the single most important factor in ensuring that
children and young people have the maximum life chances - attendance is strongly
linked to educational achievement. Promoting positive school attendance is
therefore everyone's responsibility.
When a child attends school1 on a regular basis, they take an important step towards reaching their full potential, and are given the greatest opportunity to learn new things and develop their skills. According to the Department for Education (DfE), if schools can improve their attendance by 1%, they will see a 5-6% improvement in attainment. Children who miss school frequently can fall behind with their work and do less well in exams. The more time a child spends around other children, whether in the classroom or as part of a school team or club, the more chance they have of making friends and feeling included, boosting social skills, confidence and self esteem.
Despite progress in recent years, both primary and secondary phases in Islington currently perform poorly in comparison to statistical neighbours. Therefore, the aim of the borough-wide attendance approach is to increase Islington’s pupils’ attendance at school above the level of comparative local authorities, placing it above both the national and London averages. This means that all schools will need to set challenging targets.
From the data it is clear that currently there is a need for:
A continued focus on reducing primary absence, building action on proven interventions.
Further improvement in reducing secondary absence.
Further partnership work with health colleagues and healthy schools programme to address high levels of absence due to illness.
A Families First family support worker and/or Education Welfare Officer linked to the school to support parents/carers and children to resolve barriers to good attendance (where appropriate).
Continued support for schools in taking a tough stance on term time absence.
Addressing higher patterns of absence amongst: - Pupils on free school meals.
- Pupils with SEN.
- Pupils with English as a first language.
- British and Other White pupils in secondary schools. - Asian pupils in primary schools.
While the parent/carer is primarily responsible for ensuring their child attends school regularly, where school attendance problems occur, the key to successfully resolving these problems is collaborative working between the parent/carer, the child, the school and the Local Authority. Evidence has shown that tackling absence can be most effective when a number of different
approaches are adopted. The initiatives used by schools to encourage attendance are partly dictated by a number of factors including the age of pupils, parental engagement, geographical location and social and economic circumstances. Individual schools need to respond to their own particular problems in a way that ultimately works best for them.
1
In relation to this guidance, ‘school’ will be used as a blanket term to include all types and phases of maintained schools, Academies, Early Years and other educational settings. ‘Child’ is used to mean children and young people.
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However, broadly speaking there are three key areas that all schools should address and be supported with, in order to improve the attendance of their pupils:
a) Data: Does the school have accurate self-knowledge about specific attendance issues? b) Systems: What is the school doing well to promote attendance and what can it do better? c) Whole-school approach: This needs to be a constant feature of all aspects of school-life. Does
every adult know the part that they have to play in improving attendance? A genuine whole-school approach means attendance is a constant feature of assemblies, wall displays, parent consultations, newsletters etc. Attendance targets should be visible everywhere. Most
importantly, the school should feel like a welcoming, safe and appropriately challenging place.
A Common Approach …
The Scottish Government expect all schools to have the same conversation with parents/carers about attendance on admission:
As a parent/carer, YOU are legally responsible for making sure your child attends school regularly.
Missing school causes severe disruption to your child’s education and WILL affect their chances in later life.
The law is TOUGH if it is decided that you have allowed your child to miss school regularly – this includes holidays in term time, which all schools are strongly advised not to authorise.
If your child shows any reluctance to attend school, TALK to us immediately.
1.2 Links to Ofsted
Attendance forms part of Ofsted's judgements on the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school, and the quality of leadership and management:
The behaviour and safety of pupils at the school
Inspectors should consider:
Overall and persistent absence and attendance rates for different groups.
Punctuality over time in arriving at school and at lessons and the impact of the school’s strategies to improve behaviour and attendance – this includes the use of rewards and sanctions, the effectiveness of any additional on-site provision to support behaviour, work with parents/carers and absence ‘follow-up.’
The number of pupils taken off roll in the last year as a result of factors related to behaviour, safety and attendance.
The quality of leadership in and management of the school
Inspectors should focus on the effectiveness of leadership and management at all levels in promoting improvements within the context of the school. They evaluate the extent to which the school enables all pupils to overcome specific barriers to learning.
Inspectors should consider:
The effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements to ensure that there is safe recruitment and that all pupils are safe. This includes:
- The rigour with which absence is followed up.
- The decision-making process involved in taking pupils off roll.
- The care taken to ensure that pupils placed in alternative provision are safe at all times.
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1.3 A Borough-Wide Agreement for all Schools and Academies
The aim of this agreement is to enable Islington’s Community of Schools to provide consistent practice that encourages and facilitates the regular
attendance of all pupils.
Regular attendance at school is crucial to increase pupil progress and enjoyment of learning, and for this reason Islington’s Community of Schools agree to the following principles:
Roles & Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of parents/carers to get their child to school on time every day. They need to be aware that daily attendance is compulsory and that there is an expectation for families to minimise all types of term-time absence.
Headteachers are ultimately responsible for the
monitoring and tracking of attendance for all pupils in their schools, although promoting positive school attendance is everyone's responsibility.
All schools should identify a member of staff as the
Attendance Lead.
Term-Time Absence
Amendments to the 2006 regulations, which took effect from
September 2013, make clear that Headteachers may NOT grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Most absences for acceptable reasons will be authorised by schools:
Illness.
Unavoidable medical or dental appointments (although
parents/carers should be instructed to arrange these for after school or during school holidays).
Day of religious observance.
Exceptional family circumstances, such as bereavement.
An interview with a prospective employer or college.
When determining any ‘exceptional circumstances’ for authorising term-time absence:
The child’s attendance record over a period of three years
should be assessed to determine the rate of previous absence.
Where there are siblings in other Islington schools, attempts
should be made via the Attendance Lead in partnership with other agencies to contact the Headteacher to discuss a possible coordinated response and outcome.
If the Headteacher considers that the child’s attendance has
previously been excellent, the Headteacher of any siblings has been consulted with and the circumstances for the request are exceptional, then they can decide to authorise the absence and not to issue a penalty notice.
Reasons that might constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’ include:
Service personnel returning from a tour of duty abroad
where it is evidenced the individual will not be in receipt of any leave in the near future that coincides with school holidays.
Visiting a parent/carer who is imprisoned.
Where an absence is recommended by a health professional
as part of a parent or child’s rehabilitation from a medical or emotional issue.
The death or terminal illness of a person close to the family. Suitable supporting evidence would be required in each case. Schools should ensure parents/carers are clear that Government guidance states that a school can remove a child’s name from the school roll if they do not return following a term-time absence of ten school days (unless the child is sick or for any unavoidable cause).
Promoting Attendance
Good practice around attendance means that information
should be displayed around the school (in classrooms and/or on a designated notice board) and shared with and discussed regularly with parents/carers and pupils.
Discussions should happen both during and outside the
regular school day, through lessons, tutor time,
assemblies, newsletters, meetings and parents’ evenings.
Statutory Action/Penalty Notices
Any poor attendance is contrary to each school’s
attendance policy and therefore the school should be a ‘visible’ part of any steps put in place to support families. At times this may be in partnership with other agencies.
The key consideration in deciding whether to issue a
penalty notice will be whether it can be effective in helping improve school attendance.
Make parents/carers aware that penalty notices can be
issued if a pupil has more than 15 sessions of unauthorised absence in a ten week period.
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1.4 Expectation of School’s Role in Improving Attendance
The greatest difference to improving attendance will be made by the school itself. There should be systems to alert them to any deterioration in attendance or of developing patterns of absence at an early stage. Intervention at this point can prevent problems escalating. Therefore, schoolsshould have their own plan for improving attendance. This should be a whole school approach where there is a designated senior leader and all responsibilities clearly defined.
Schools should:
Ensure that an up to date attendance policy is in place.
- The value of regular attendance should feature prominently in the school prospectus and other brochures.
- Regular messages should be given about the importance of attendance in school newsletters, school assemblies, parents’ evenings, staff meetings and governors meetings.
- Include good attendance information on the school website and use the website to inform parents/carers and pupils about incentives for good school attendance, projects, themed weeks, late gate patrols, competitions etc.
Ensure attendance practices are understood by all school staff and that attendance practice is followed consistently.
Provide an accurate and consistent registration system.
Attempt to make first day phone contact to all parents/carers whose child is absent without notification.
Log pupils’ movement in and out of school.
Ensure that routine letters are sent out at the earliest opportunity following absence. Where possible, these should be written in the language read by the parent/carer (see p.53 for additional information). These should reflect the importance of good attendance.
Ensure that attendance is a fixed agenda item at school meetings.
Ensure that parents/carers are aware of the importance of regular attendance and understand their role and responsibilities in supporting school attendance.
Ensure parents/carers know that Families First is available to provide early help if their child is reluctant to attend or difficulties in the family are having an impact on attendance.
Where appropriate, inform the Education Welfare Officer and/or Families First family support worker, so any potential problems and/or barriers to good attendance can be addressed as early as possible.
Access staff training on attendance issues.
Ensure that systems to track and challenge sporadic absence are thorough, and provide "catch up" opportunities for work missed during absence.
Provide incentives for good attendance, e.g. league tables for individual classes or forms, attendance competitions, poster competitions, prizes, certificates, special class trips, praise postcards etc.
Ensure regular emphasis on the connection between attendance and attainment, e.g. in assemblies, registration/tutor time, parent meetings, new parent meetings, drama productions/nativity plays/school productions, e.g. choir or any other performance.
Provide regular information to parents/carers of children whose attendance deteriorates.
Provide individual attendance targets for pupils. All persistently absent (PA) pupils should have an Individual attendance plan.
Provide meetings with parents/carers to address attendance issues. Consider use of Parenting Contracts.
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Ensure that patterns of attendance across classes or year groups are examined.
Ensure parents/carers are aware of the guidance regarding holidays in term time and of the impact this can have on their child's overall achievement.
Ensure that staff regularly patrol the school building and surrounding areas to ensure pupils are not truanting in the vicinity of the school.
Appoint an Attendance Lead to deal with all attendance issues including the analysis of data.
Ensure that all relevant information re: destinations for pupils who are de-registered are ascertained from parents/carers prior to de-registration, and shared with all relevant Islington Council personnel in order to ensure that young people have continuous access to educational provision.
Develop an attendance survey for parents/carers and/or pupils.
Advertise successes within the school and the local community. The following is strongly recommended:
Identify an Attendance Lead to act as the overall leader and manager for attendance.
Schools should produce a policy including early intervention thresholds with a clear escalation process when a trigger point is reached.
Identify resources, including human resources to administer and manage the process of managing attendance. Ensure adequate time is allowed to meet the roles in the policy
Ensure administrative and support staff have clear responsibilities and procedures to follow in order to promote and manage attendance. Ensure they have the time and the permission to follow procedures through.
For pupils whose attendance still continues to deteriorate, multi disciplinary discussion needs to take place with regard to child’s needs, barriers to education, work already undertaken and whether there are other appropriate providers that can be considered to enable the child to access appropriate education.
Ensure early help assessments are initiated by schools where appropriate to request support from Islington’s services and also for Children’s Social Care (CSC) referrals.
Schools should strategically consider when they set their INSET days to minimise low pupil school attendance.
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1.5 Suggested Roles and Responsibilities of Staff
Roles Responsibilities
Headteacher Ensure there is a strict attendance policy for staff! Do not allow staff to simply phone in and leave a message, text or email the reason why they are not at work. Ensure your attendance policy for staff says they must call you or your deputy. Lead by example.
Set challenging targets to meet (and exceed) national averages for the school overall. Ensure a strategy is devised to make solid progress towards them.
Appoint the Attendance Lead at a reasonably senior level. Provide sufficient time for Attendance Lead to supervise attendance management and to become
involved with poor attenders. Also ensure there is sufficient time to analyse data, liaise with teachers and Local Authority officers. Give the Attendance Lead the full responsibility to lead on whole school policy and strategy.
Receive reports on attendance at whole school, year group and class level. Discuss both strengths and weaknesses publicly and give attendance a high status in the school. Talk personally to teachers whose classes show poor attendance. Encourage these teachers to take responsibility for making improvements.
Support intervention with the poorest attenders.
Report statistics to the Attendance Governor and as part of the termly report to governors. Show comparative figures, not isolated statistics. Compare each half-term’s figures with those for the previous year at the same time.
Ensure the Local Authority receive attendance data for your school or academy. Communication is key!
School/Setting Attendance
Lead
Work with the Headteacher to agree relevant internal attendance targets. Monitor attendance weekly and evaluate progress towards the targets. Identify pupils who are likely to jeopardise the school’s performance and plan early intervention to avoid bad habits being established.
Monitor attendance at school, year group and class level.
Ensure there is a clear attendance policy, showing who will do what and at what threshold, keeping attendance at the forefront of each member of staff’s mind. Convince all staff that attendance is their responsibility.
Liaise regularly with your local Families First team to ensure a joined up approach to tackling persistent absence. A whole family approach can tackle root causes of poor attendance and avoid a recurrence of problems.
Promote regular attendance, by making use of reward systems, assemblies, parents’ evenings, performance reviews, etc.
Involve the governing body, mainly through the Attendance Governor. Seek the support of governors in promoting good attendance.
Supervise administrative staff. Ensure registers are checked daily and that the required action at each threshold level is taken at the earliest moment possible. Discourage any sense of collusion with parents/carers who allow absence without good reason.
Coach administrative staff in how to deal with difficult parents/carers, those who call in regarding their child’s minor illness, or who call in with an excuse as to why their child is not in school. Also coach them on how to carry out first day response.
Advise appropriate members of staff to initiate early help assessment. Ensure they have completed eCAF training and have an active login.
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Class Teacher Form Tutor
Do not accept poor attendance. Make 100% attendance the expectation.
Get to know your pupils well, find out what they like about school and generate whole class discussion about the positive aspects of school and the negative aspects of poor school attendance.
Talk with the child who comes back after absence from school, be positive and welcome them back.
Promote regular attendance through rewards and other encouragement. Make it your business and make it clear that poor or erratic attendance is not expected or acceptable.
Ensure that registers are always completed appropriately. Where you are using hard-copy registers never leave blank spaces. Never complete in pencil. Never amend with correction fluid.
Look carefully at attendance data. Make it your business to spot patterns of absence and overall levels of attendance of individuals.
Make a personal connection with parents/carers of pupils who have regular absence, or patterns of irregular attendance.
Ensure the Headteacher or Attendance Lead is informed of attendance concerns.
Following absence, do your best to provide catch-up opportunities so absentees do not fall behind. Where appropriate, ask parents/carers to play a part in reinforcing missed learning.
Attendance Administrator
Follow the school’s procedures for first day calling. If no explanation has been received by the time registers close, seek one.
Ask for training to respond more assertively with difficult parents/carers or with those who give feeble excuses for their child’s absence, if you feel you need it.
Learn to challenge absences due to minor illness.
Be prepared to be assertive. Parents/carers must explain absence. Explanations need to be plausible. Avoid any sense of collusion with parents/carers over unnecessary absence.
Do not show sympathy over absence unless you are convinced it is genuine.
Issue attendance letters where required, using the parent/carer’s full names and the child’s full names Make sure they have the effect intended, make them accurate, date them and include a warning regarding the impact on their child’s achievement. Do not tolerate a lack of response. Seek advice when you need it.
Hold regular discussions with the Attendance Lead. Ensure the system works. If it does not, come up with suggestions to improve it.
Advise the Attendance Lead of any teacher who fails to maintain their register properly. Registers are legal documents and must be kept carefully and accurately.
Provide data on a weekly basis to class teachers and the school’s Attendance Lead.
Make sure the Attendance Lead and/or the Headteacher know about families where bad habits are forming. Make sure action is taken to break bad habits at the earliest opportunity.
Assist the Attendance Lead, Attendance Officer and others in collating data for inclusion in reports, attendance returns, etc.
Check and file all absence notes that are received, and ensure that details are reflected appropriately through categorisation of absence in the registers.
Pass messages from parents/carers efficiently to the class teacher or other relevant staff.
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1.6 The Role of Parents/Carers
Parents/carers have a legal duty to ensure that their child receives an education suitable to his/her age, ability and aptitude and any special needs. Most parents/carers fulfil this obligation by
registering their child in a school. Children must legally be in education between the school term after their 5th birthday and the last Friday in June in the school year they turn 16.
The Education and Skills Act 2008 increased the minimum age at which young people in England can leave learning. Raising the participation age means that if a child is currently in Year 11 they must stay in some form of education or training until the end of the academic year when they turn 17. If a child is currently in Year 10, then they have to stay in some form of education or training until the end of the academic year when they turn 18.
If a child is registered at a school he/she must by law attend that school regularly and punctually. The child should only miss school if he/she is ill or unable to attend for some other unavoidable reason. If a child is absent and the school either does not receive an explanation from the parent/carer, or considers the explanation unsatisfactory, it will record the child’s absence as ‘unauthorised’, and the parent/carer could be at risk of receiving a penalty notice or being prosecuted for poor attendance.
Most absences for acceptable reasons will be authorised by the school:
Illness.
Unavoidable medical or dental appointments (if possible, these should be arranged for after school or during school holidays).
Day of religious observance.
Exceptional family circumstances, such as bereavement.
An interview with a prospective employer or college.
Some of the following examples are reasons why a school may not authorise absence:
Shopping during school hours.
Day trips.
Birthdays.
Looking after brothers or sisters or ill relatives.
Term-time holiday.
Caring for a disabled parent.
Failure to ensure a child’s regular attendance at school is a criminal offence and if, with support from the school's attendance officer and/or the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer, the child’s attendance fails to improve, the Education Welfare Officer will consider any of these courses of action:
Issuing a penalty notice (fine).
Prosecution in the Magistrates' Court.
Application for an Education Supervision Order in the Family Proceedings Court.
School Attendance Order.
It is the responsibility of each parent/carer to ensure regular school attendance at the child’s
registered school and failure to do so will result in each parent/carer being charged with the offence. If convicted, both parents/carers may be punished by the courts, resulting in a fine of up to £2,500 each parent/carer and/or up to three months custodial sentence. The court could impose a community sentence, a parenting order and/or a conditional discharge.
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If a child lives with a family friend or relative for a period of time who has day to day care of the child, each responsible adult is considered as 'parent' under the Education Act and can equally be charged with the same offence and prosecuted.
How parents/carers can help their child have good attendance
From starting at nursery, parents/carers must make sure their child arrives at school on time, every day. This encourages habits of good timekeeping and lessens any possible classroom disruption.
If their child arrives after the register has closed without a good reason, this will be recorded as an ‘unauthorised’ absence for that session.
If their child has to miss school it is vital that parents/carers let the school know why, preferably on the first morning of the absence. (All schools will have an attendance policy explaining how this should be done).
Make sure parents/carers are clear about what the school’s procedures are for alerting them to absence – call (first day?), text or letter.
Know the school’s daily routines to avoid issues such as whether they have their PE kit or not.
Show an interest, attend parent meetings, concerts and other school events and ask about what their children are doing at school.
Encourage their children to take part in school activities.
Don’t let their children take time off school for minor ailments - particularly those which would not stop parents/carers from going to work.
Where possible, make appointments after school, at weekends or during school holidays. A morning appointment does not mean a whole day of school should be missed. Parents should be encouraged to bring their child back to school in the afternoon.
Take family holidays outside of term time - find out the school’s term time dates well in advance and plan holidays around these dates.
Encourage their children to tell them about any problems they may have at school.
If parents/carers know or think that their child is having difficulties attending school they should contact the school. It is better to do this sooner rather than later, as most problems can be dealt with very quickly.
Find out regularly their child’s attendance and absence record and check that this matches with their own records.
Acknowledge, praise and reward good or improved attendance, even small successes, e.g. arriving for school promptly, even when the first lesson is their least favourite!
Other tips:
If there is a problem, talk calmly to their child and listen to the explanation.
Always pursue the reason for their child’s non-attendance.
Know who to talk to at the school should they need to resolve issues. The school can support them and their child. They are not alone!
Be particularly mindful in the run up towards assessments and tests and be aware of any coursework deadlines.
Check their child’s homework diary regularly for gaps, as well as for completed activities.
Help their child catch up with missed work so that a missed day does not mean missed (or incomplete) learning.
Remember, attendance needs to be above 95% in order for children to achieve what they have been predicted. In Islington good attendance is seen as 96% (or better).
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Remind parents and carers, that if problems at home are affecting their ability to get their child to school on time every day, support is available in the community through Families First.
1.7 Early Intervention: Punctuality and Attendance in Early Years
Much of the advice and recommended good practice contained in other sections in this document should be applied to early years settings and to early years classes within schools. However,
attendance for children under 5 is not statutory and there is not the same recourse to legal sanctions. There can also be particular issues in maintaining good attendance and punctuality for families with very young children, which need to be dealt with sensitively and proportionately. These issues, together with challenges around IT infrastructure in most early years settings, makes ensuring good attendance when children are young more challenging.
However, the early years are a critical time to establish the good habits and routines needed throughout life and to get the key messages about the importance of good attendance and punctuality at nursery and school across to parents/carers. This section therefore contains some specific guidance applicable to all providers with children aged 2 to 5.
Early education and childcare
All early years providers and schools with children in nursery and reception classes work to the same standards set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Many families access early years provision as a means of childcare but once a child turns 3, they are then entitled to a funded part-time early
education place from the term following their 3rd birthday. The entitlement of 570 hours per year (equivalent to a part-time place in nursery throughout term time) has recently been extended to some 2 year olds. Many children attending nursery classes in primary schools in Islington are given a full-time place from the age of 3. Attendance becomes statutory for the child in the term after their 5th birthday.
Regular attendance is important for all children, even babies, insofar as it is only through regular, consistent routines that children build up the secure attachments they need for healthy
development. Parents/carers need childcare for very obvious reasons and there are generally few issues about attendance for children accessing early years provision for childcare purposes.
However, we are concerned that all children accessing their funded early education entitlement and children throughout their reception year should have good attendance and punctuality.
Why is good attendance and punctuality important in early years?
Regular attendance has a positive impact onall aspects of a young child’s learning and development. A regular routine supports the child to feel settled and secure. Unsettled children have higher stress levels which, in turn, prevent them from being able to benefit fully from the learning opportunities available.
Research shows that regular part-time attendance from the age of 2 in a good quality early years setting has a lasting impact on children’s social development and intellectual attainment throughout school. (Research Brief RBF15-03 - The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education Project: Findings from the Pre-school Period. Sylva et al, IOE, 2003).
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Islington’s Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results (summer 2013) showed a clear correlation between children’s attendance and their attainment of the “good level of development” standard.
What schools and settings are expected to do to promote good
attendance and punctuality in the early years
Have clear expectations: Families need to know that good attendance and being
punctual are expected when their child takes up a place. As attendance is a borough-wide initiative and an issue that affects all age groups, there needs to be as much consistency as possible between early years and school settings. This includes expectations around holidays, which for school-aged children are not permissible in term time. See Section 2.9 - Term Time Absence of this guidance for more information. Your expectations and why they are so important should feature in induction meetings with new parents/carers, in printed information and be visibly evident on, for example, a display board in your setting.
Create a policy: Like schools, early years settings should have a policy about attendance and
punctuality which parents/carers are asked to sign to show that they have received and understood the information. The policy should clearly set out the expectations and the steps the setting will take to follow up on any issues of attendance or punctuality.
Adopt the borough-wide target: Schools have a target of 96% and although early years attendance is likely to be significantly lower, use this initiative as an opportunity to work towards the borough’s target so all children have 96% attendance by the time they enter reception class.
Attendance is everyone’s business: It is not just up to the Head of Centre or manager to deal with attendance and punctuality issues, nor the job of the admin officer. All staff need to understand and value the importance of attendance and punctuality and follow the setting’s procedures in raising the issues with parents/carers. The role of the key person in initially talking with parents/carers about attendance should be clear but senior management need to be supportive and involved in reinforcing the messages.
First day calling: Have a clear expectation that parents/carers will telephone by 9:00am on the day if their child is absent. If the parent/carer does not let you know, always follow up all absences with a telephone call early in the morning. It is important to ensure that the child is safe but it also gives a clear and consistent message that in Islington absence from nursery will be treated in the same way as for older children and that without a valid reason, absence will be challenged.
Monitor children’s attendance: Use a system that allows you to monitor attendance so you can keep parents/carers informed about the attendance of the whole group but also about their individual child. Explain that this is part of the Islington approach to improving outcomes for all children and that early years education is regarded as just as important as any other phase. Praise and celebrate good attendance whenever you can. Bringing the child’s attendance record to parent/carers’ attention and having a conversation about it can often make a real difference.
Form good relationships: Fundamental to children’s and families’ positive perceptions and
experiences of childcare and early education are good relationships between families and settings. The inclusive environment with, for example, posters reflecting the ethnicity and language of families
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in the setting will make all families feel welcome and help practitioners to talk with parents/carers in a constructive way about issues of lateness or irregular attendance.
Clear communication: Use a range of means to communicate your messages about attendance and punctuality. Visual ways, such as the use of posters, can help to get the message across. Think too about the needs of parents/carers for whom English is an additional language and where possible, have some materials in translation or use bilingual family support workers to engage families in the issues.
Follow up consistently: As a general rule, always follow up on poor attendance and punctuality with parents/carers as soon as you can but be sensitive and supportive. You may have to choose your time carefully to talk to a parent/carer about these issues, so the conversation can be productive.
Find ways to support: Many parents/carers will need support at times to feel confident and empowered in their skills to meet the challenge of parenting. Families do find themselves in circumstances with very young children that can make leaving the house in good time difficult, for example, when there is a new baby. Find ways you can support parents/carers: for example, by pairing them up with another parent/carer who lives nearby, who may sometimes bring in the child.
Explain the Early Years Foundation Stage: Parents/carers may not be aware of the importance and benefits of early years education and particularly of the importance of play for learning and
development. They may be unaware that any absence or late arrival at the setting can affect the child’s ability to fully participate and benefit from the day’s activities. Use as many means as possible to explain to parents the EYFS and the practice and routines in your setting so they have the
information they need to allow them to value the importance of early education and play for their child’s development.
Families who need extra support
There may be particular families for whom your strategies to improve attendance do not appear to work. Children with below 85% attendance are regarded in school as persistent absentees and those with attendance of less than 60% are likely to be referred to Children’s Social Care for neglect.
If the family already has social worker or family support worker involvement, you must bring issues of poor attendance in early years to their attention, so it can be further discussed with the family in the Team Around the Child/Family meeting and action agreed about what to do.
For other families, where children’s attendance is poor and not improving despite your efforts to engage the family, you can make a referral with parents’ permission to your local children’s centre for targeted family support. The child’s poor attendance may be a manifestation of other underlying issues the family is facing which a period of family support will help to address. Very poor attendance can be an indication of neglect (see Neglect Toolkit ISCB 2014).
Clearly every effort should be made to support good attendance and punctuality, as suggested above. However, if there are no other indicators of concern or vulnerability and the child has failed to attend for 4-6 consecutive weeks, without a justifiable reason, the child’s place can be withdrawn. This can only happen once all other routes have been exhausted and the setting has provided evidence of this to and sought the approval of the Early Years Service. Parents/carers must have been made aware when they took up the place of the possible consequences of their child not attending for 6
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The process for formally withdrawing a child’s place is as follows:
The setting attempts to contact the family twice weekly to meet with them to seek a justifiable explanation (by telephone or home visit and followed up by email), including, of course, first day calling.
The setting sends a recorded delivery letter during the fourth week to invite the parent/carer to a meeting to discuss the situation and warn them of the action that will be taken after 6 weeks.
The setting continues to attempt twice weekly contact through phone and email.
The setting sends a recorded delivery letter in the final week, explaining that the place will be withdrawn on a specific date.
Remember!
Regular attendance and good punctuality are important for maximising achievement and obtaining the greatest benefit from education.
Good relationships with children and their families are vital in encouraging regular attendance and punctuality.
Children settle well and want to attend settings when they feel valued and have a sense of belonging.
Praising good attendance and punctuality is likely to promote continued regular and punctual attendance.
The way that staff respond to families where there are patterns of lateness is crucial in affecting punctuality and attendance. Make sure that absence is followed up on every occasion.
The way that staff welcome back children who have been absent is crucial! Ensure it is a positive welcome!
Parents/carers and settings need to respect and value each other and work collaboratively.
Many parents/carers will need support at times to feel confident and empowered in their skills to meet the challenge of parenting.
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1.8 School Attendance and SEN
Children with SEN have higher patterns of non-attendance. However, attendance strategies for pupils with SEN must have the same focus, challenge and
expectations as for all other pupils. Therefore, our aim is a minimum of 96% attendance for all children.
For children with SEN
Pupils with SEN are more likely to require multi-agency services to address their full range of needs. These services should not be delivered as an alternative to the school curriculum, and should not impact on school attendance.
All the agencies involved with the family of an SEN pupil must ensure that parents understand the importance of regular school attendance and have the capacity to put this into practice, and that low levels of attendance can indicate difficult home circumstances and/or concerns about a safeguarding.
Poor or deteriorating attendance can indicate that a pupil is becoming disaffected from an environment where they feel they cannot succeed, and that this is reinforced on a daily basis. Different interventions or more appropriate curricular provision might re-engage the pupil, improving both attendance and progress.
1.9 Special Schools
As stated above, attendance strategies in special schools and for pupils with SEN in mainstream schools must have the same focus, challenge, stretching targets and expectations as for all other schools and pupils. This will entail developing and implementing ways of addressing particular challenges that can arise.
A focus on school attendance for pupils with SEN entails schools and local authorities considering a number of issues that can help them plan actions to promote high attendance at both whole-school and individual-pupil level. These might include:
Focus on teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluation.
Curricular provision
Multi-agency services.
Serious, long-term and terminal illness.
Disagreements about provision.
Transport.
All schools, including special schools, should be working to eradicate all avoidable absences and to maximise pupils’ attendance. All schools, including special schools, are required to return absence data via the annual School Census. Schools should aim for and expect high levels of attendance. Some smaller special schools have low numbers of pupils, and consequently the absence of one pupil may have a higher impact on the overall percentage of absence. Therefore, schools and local
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Although the average attendance figure for special schools (91.1%) was below that of mainstream schools (94.8%) in Islington in 2012-13, it was significantly better than the averages for Inner London, London, England and the borough’s statistical neighbours.
It is important to look for trends in absence as part of self-evaluation. The questions schools might ask themselves include the following.
Are attendance rates for pupils with SEN improving year on year, proportionate to those for all other pupils?
Are the attendance rates of individual pupils improving?
If not, what is the impact on progress and attainment, and what plan of action is in place to address attendance issues?
If either attendance or attainment is not improving, what does the school’s monitoring and
evaluation of interventions indicate about the changes needed to the provision being made for the pupil?
Pupils with SEN may require a higher proportion of medical appointments as a result of their particular needs. Schools should consider ways of making parents, GPs and other health workers aware of the fact that appointments should be made out of school time wherever possible. Schools may find it useful to work in partnership with health colleagues in order to promote clinics on school premises.
All pupils in special schools have statements of SEN, or from September 2014, an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that must be reviewed at least annually. Other mainstream schools also have pupils with statements of SEN. Attendance should be considered formally as part of the annual review process as well as on an ongoing basis.
In effective schools and local authorities, the attendance record of the pupil forms an integral part of the review process. The pupil’s attendance data will be presented at the annual review meeting and any challenges in relation to regular attendance will be raised, which can then be discussed at the meeting. This ensures that all those involved with the pupil’s education are able to plan to remove any barriers to regular school attendance during the following year. In effective local authorities the attendance record of a pupil is a key element of information required during special educational assessment and review processes.
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1.10 Accessing School Attendance Data
Department for Education (DfE) Website
All schools and settings can access their performance data, which includes attendance at: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/
Entering specific school information on the front page will provide schools with their current published attendance figures, collected from Schools Census submissions. However, should they require attendance figures from previous years, then they should use the link: Performance Tables 1994-2012 (found in the lower left hand corner of the home page – see below).
School Data Dashboard
The School Data Dashboard provides a snapshot of school performance at Key Stages 1, 2 and 4 and can be found at: http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/.
The dashboard can be used by school governors and by members of the public to check the
performance of the school in which they are interested. It complements the Ofsted school inspection report by providing an analysis of school performance over a three-year period. Data can be filtered by key stage or by topic.
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Attendance Quintile Data
The Attendance Quintile data can be found on the School Data Dashboard. Attendance data relates to the percentage of sessions (mornings and afternoons are classified as sessions) attended by the whole school, not just the key stage. Attendance is calculated as 100% minus the percentage of overall absence.
What are the differences between the Ofsted and DfE similar schools measures?
For 2013 similar schools, Ofsted has aligned its methodology with the Department for Education (DfE) similar schools methodology. The methodology used to define schools as similar and to group them is now based on pupil level prior attainment data.
Similar schools are defined as those with similar prior attainment. Prior attainment and cohort data from the January Schools Census are extracted for each school in the relevant key stage.
Similar schools are grouped using a statistical neighbours approach:
Key Stage 2 schools are compared with the most similar 110 schools;
Key Stage 4 with the most similar 60.
The similar schools group sizes were chosen by grouping those schools that had very similar pupil attainment on entry. The group sizes differ because, as a minimum number, all schools with the same prior attainment score must be in the same group. This minimum number is larger for Key Stage 2.
Attendance Quintile (2013) – Islington outcomes
Quintile 1 Top 20% 2 Top 40% 3 Middle 20% 4 Bottom 40% 5 Bottom 20% 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 No. of schools 4 9 9 7 11 15 12 11 19 13 Breakdown 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 Primary* 3 6 6 4 9 13 10 10 17 12 Secondary** 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 2 1
*Primary National Level: 95.2% **Secondary National Level: 94.1%
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Section Two
Advice, Guidance and
Expectations
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2.1 What does ‘Good Attendance’ mean?
Is this good attendance?
What does 90% actually mean?
90% attendance = ½ day missed every week!
One school year at 90% attendance = 4 weeks of learning missed! Over 5 years of school = ½ school year missed!
Research suggests that for every 17 missed school days a year = one GCSE grade drop in achievement (DfE) – the greater the attendance, the greater the potential for achievement. For children and young people to work towards achieving their potential, attendance needs to be above 95%. So, the message here needs to be that 90% attendance is not nearly as good as it might first have seemed! There is no relationship between school attendance percentages and test/examination marks (where 90% would be considered good) and this must be communicated to parents/carers.
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2.2 Having an Attendance Policy in Place
A school’s attendance policy should set out its systems and procedures for ensuring regular school attendance and investigating the underlying causes of poor attendance. It is important that it is not just one member of staff who writes the policy. The policy will be more meaningful if developed in consultation with teachers, pupils, families, the Education Welfare Service, administrative and ancillary staff, governors and senior management.
The key components of an attendance policy should include the following:
1. The principles underlying the policy and how they apply to the whole school community:
- How the policy ties in to the school’s approach to promoting emotional well-being. - How the policy links with the school’s other policies.
- How these principles relate to the school’s overall aims and relate to the rest of the curriculum.
2. Aims and targets:
- Specific but realistic targets for improving and maintaining attendance figures. - The resources a school invests in improving attendance.
3. The rights, roles and responsibilities of governors, staff, pupils and parents:
- Details of the school’s partnership agreement with the Education Welfare Service. - The legal responsibilities of the Local Authority, school and parents should be cited. - Emphasis on a partnership approach between senior management, governors, and those
working to support attendance with parents and pupils should be outlined – a whole school approach, because attendance is everyone’s business.
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4. Procedures:
- The stages, processes and staffing involved in registration. - The practical system for lateness.
- How and when problems with attendance are communicated to parents/carers. - Processes used to reintegrate students returning to school after an absence. - Procedures for involving other support services around the child and family.
5. School action: monitoring and evaluation:
- How the school will evaluate the effectiveness of its strategies. - When will monitoring and evaluation take place?
- Who will be involved in monitoring and evaluation and how will they contribute. - How evaluations will be fed back into the policy.
A sample attendance policy can be found in Section 5: Appendix 5.5.
2.3 Attendance Codes, Descriptions and Meanings
The national codes enable schools to record and monitor attendance and absence in a consistent way which complies with the regulations. They are also used for collecting statistics through the School Census System. The data helps schools, local authorities and the Government to gain a greater understanding of the level of, and the reasons for, absence. The codes are:
Code Description Meaning
/ Present (AM) Present in school during registration.
Pupils must not be marked present if they were not in school during registration. If a pupil were to leave the school premises after registration they would still be counted as present for statistical purposes.
\ Present (PM)
L Late Late before registers closed.
Schools should have a policy on how long registers should be kept open. A pupil arriving after the register has closed should be marked absent with code U, or with another absence code if that is more appropriate.
Approved Educational Activity
2Attendance codes for when pupils are present at approved off-site educational activity are as follows:
Code Description Meaning
B Educated Off-Site (NOT Dual
Registration)
This code should be used when pupils are present at an off-site educational activity that has been approved by the school. Ultimately schools are responsible for the safeguarding and welfare of pupils educated off-site. Therefore by using code B, schools are certifying that the education is supervised and measures have been taken to
2
An approved educational activity is where a pupil is taking part in supervised educational activity such as field trips, educational visits, work experience or alternative provision. The activity must be of an educational nature approved by the school and supervised by someone authorised by the school. The activity must take place during the session for which the mark is recorded.
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safeguard pupils. This code should not be used for any unsupervised educational activity or where a pupil is at home doing school work. Schools should ensure that they have in place arrangements whereby the provider of the alternative activity notifies the school of any absences by individual pupils. The school should record the pupil’s absence using the relevant absence code.
Consortia Schools
Pupils attending consortia schools as part of their course only need to be placed on the registers of their ‘main’ school rather than on all of the schools they attend. They should be treated as guest pupils at the other consortia schools. The consortia schools however, must ensure they have suitable systems in place for monitoring and reporting the attendance and absence of the pupils involved, which must be shared with the ‘main’ school.
D Dual Registration (i.e. pupil attending another
establishment)
This code is not counted as a possible attendance in the School Census. The law allows for dual registration of pupils at more than one school. This code is used to indicate that the pupil was not expected to attend the session in question because they were scheduled to attend the other school at which they are registered.
The main examples of dual registration are pupils who are attending a pupil referral unit, a hospital school or a special school on a temporary basis. It can also be used for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, but only when the pupil is known to be registered at another school during the session in question.
Each school should only record the pupil’s attendance and absence for those sessions that the pupil is scheduled to attend their school. Schools should ensure that they have in place arrangements whereby all unexplained and unexpected absence is followed up in a timely manner. J At an interview with prospective employers, or another educational establishment
This code should be used to record time spent in interviews with prospective employers or another educational establishment. Schools should be satisfied that the interview is linked to employment
prospects, further education or transfer to another educational establishment.
P Participating in an approved sporting activity
This code should be used to record the sessions when a pupil is taking part in a sporting activity that has been approved by the school and supervised by someone authorised by the school.
V Educational visit or trip
This code should be used for attendance at an organised trip or visit, including residential trips organised by the school, or attendance at a supervised trip of a strictly educational nature arranged by an
organisation approved by the school.
W Work experience Work experience is for pupils in the final two years of compulsory education. Schools should ensure that they have in place arrangements whereby the work experience placement provider notifies the school of any absences by individual pupils. Any absence should be recorded using the relevant code.
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Authorised Absence from School
3Absence codes when pupils are not present in school are as follows:
Code Description Meaning
C Leave of Absence authorised by the school
Only exceptional circumstances warrant leave of absence. Schools should consider each request individually taking into account the circumstances, such as: the nature of the event for which leave is sought; the frequency of the request; whether the parent gave advance notice; and the pupil’s attainment, attendance and ability to catch up on missed schooling.
E Excluded (no
alternative provision made)
If no alternative provision is made for a pupil to continue their
education whilst they are excluded but still on the admission register, they should be marked absent in the attendance register using code E. Where alternative provision is made they should be marked using the appropriate attendance code.
H Holiday authorised by the school
Headteachers should not grant leave of absence unless in exceptional circumstances. The application must be made in advance and the head teacher must be satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances which warrant the leave. Where a leave of absence is granted, the Headteacher will determine the number of days a pupil can be away from school. A leave of absence is granted entirely at the Headteacher’s discretion.
I Illness (NOT medical or dental
appointments etc.)
Schools should advise parents/carers to notify the school as soon as possible when a child is ill. If the authenticity of illness is in doubt, schools can request parents/carers to provide medical evidence to support illness. Schools can record the absence as unauthorised if not satisfied of the seriousness of the illness but should advise parents of their intention. Schools are advised not to request medical certificates unnecessarily (particularly retrospective certificates), especially if the illness was not treated by a doctor at the time. Medical evidence can take the form of prescriptions, appointment cards, etc. rather than doctors’ notes.
M Medical / Dental appointments
Missing registration for a medical or dental appointment is counted as an authorised absence. Schools should, however, encourage parents to make appointments out of school hours. Where this is not possible, the pupil should only be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary for the appointment.
R Religious observance Schools must treat absence as authorised when it is due to religious observance. The day must be exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parents/carers belong. Where necessary, schools should seek advice from the parent/carers’ religious body about whether it has set the day apart for religious observance.
S Study leave Schools must record study leave as authorised absence. Study leave should be used sparingly and only granted to Year 11 pupils during public examinations. Provision should still be made available for those
3
‘Authorised absence’ means that the school has either given approval in advance for a pupil of compulsory school age to be away, or has accepted an explanation offered afterwards as justification for absence.
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pupils who want to continue to come into school to revise.
T Gypsy, Roma and Traveller absence
A number of different groups are covered by the generic term Traveller – Roma, English and Welsh Gypsies, Irish and Scottish Travellers,
Showmen (fairground people) and Circus people, Bargees (occupational boat dwellers) and New Travellers.
This code should be used when Traveller families are known to be travelling for occupational purposes and have agreed this with the school but it is not known whether the pupil is attending educational provision. It should not be used for any other types of absence by these groups.
To help ensure continuity of education for Traveller children it is expected that the child should attend school elsewhere when their family is travelling and be dual registered at that school and the main school. Children from these groups whose families do not travel are expected to register at a school and attend as normal. They are subject to the same rules as other children in terms of the requirement to attend school regularly once registered at school.
Unauthorised Absence from School
Unauthorised absence is where a school is not satisfied with the reasons given for the absence. Absence codes are as follows:
Code Description Meaning
G Holiday not authorised by the school or in excess of the period determined by the Headteacher.
If a school does not authorise a leave of absence and the
parents/carers still take the child on holiday, or the child is kept away for longer than was agreed, the absence is unauthorised. The
regulations do not allow schools to give retrospective approval. If parents/carers did not apply for the leave of absence in advance the absence must be recorded as unauthorised.
N Reason not yet provided for absence
Schools should follow up all unexplained and unexpected absences in a timely manner. Every effort should be made to establish the reason for a pupil’s absence. When the reason for the pupil’s absence has been established the register should be amended immediately.
O Absent from school without authorisation
If the school is not satisfied with the reason given for absence they should record it as unauthorised.
U Arrived in school after registration closed
Schools should actively discourage late arrival, be alert to patterns of late arrival and seek an explanation from the parent.
