PUPIL ATTENDANCE GUIDELINES

As a school we have now enacted our Governing Body decision that all requests for pupil holidays during term-time will be refused unless there are exceptional circumstances.
 

Our Governing Body appreciate the problems that families currently face in funding family holidays in these difficult economic times but we are duty bound to try, with the support of our Education Enforecement Team and Solihull MBC, to tackle the issue we are facing at Peterbrook, of the increasing numbers of parents expecting to have holidays in term-time. As always, we are putting the learning needs of our pupils as our first priority. The following are attendance strategies that we follow in supporting pupil school attendance.

Tracking

• Print out a weekly report of children falling below 95% attendance
• Investigate reasons behind falling attendance e.g. illness, holiday during term-time
• Check attendance history for a pattern of low attendance

Monitoring

• Check previous week’s print out to monitor deterioration or improvement in attendance

• Our attendance team discuss and monitor whole school attendance and identify any children who’s attendance may be of concern on a regular basis

Actioning

• Send a letter to the parent/s advising them when their child’s attendance has fallen below 90%
• Medical evidence is requested for illness if a child's absence continues to be of concern

• If no improvement is observed a meeting is then arranged between the headteacher and parent/s to discuss how attendance can be improved

• An Attendance Profile form is completed by the headteacher with suggested strategies

• Possible referral to Child and Family Support Worker for intervention if parents would like additional support

• A referral is made to the Education Enforcement Team if no improvement is observed once the actions above have been followed.  The Education Enforcement Team may issue a Fixed Penalty Warning Notice, or a Fixed Penalty fine for continued absence

Promoting Regular Attendance

A range of reward activities are in place to support pupil attendance and have fun at the same time!

Sam the Bear
A fortnightly award given to the class with the highest attendance.  The pupils are given Sam the Bear to keep in class for a two week period and are allowed one 15 minute extended playtime referred to as ‘Golden Time’ (see PDF’s)
 

100% Attendance Certificate 
Awarded to pupils at the end of the academic year.

School Council Involvement
Children are asked for their suggestions on how they think attendance could be improved – possibly through competitions for designing poster, etc. School Councellors action their suggestions.

Newsletters
Reminders to parents about the importance of regularly attending school and the impact of holidays during term-time are inserted into newsletters periodically.

Punctuality

To bring to their attention the importance of punctuality a letter is sent to the parents of children regularly arriving late.

Late Gate