At Great Waldingfield Primary School, we value children’s attendance. Poor attendance has been shown to negatively impact children’s attainment. If a child is absent from school, they cannot learn. Our Attendance Officer has termly meetings with the Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) to discuss emerging patterns of absence and resolve attendance issues.

We are always happy to work with families to improve a child’s attendance when they are struggling. We want all our children to be happy and achieve their potential, good attendance is a significant part of that.

• Good attendance is classed as 95%
• Persistent absence is defined as less than 90%

 

Reporting your child’s absence

By law, the school must record absences and the reasons given. It is the parent/carer’s responsibility to notify the school if their child is absent.

We ask that you call the school on 01787 374 055 and leave a message on the absence line before 9am. A doctor’s note may be requested for an absence period of 3 days or more.

Sometimes you might feel unsure whether your child is too ill to go to school. The NHS website can guide you on this: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Children can come to school with a cough or cold as long as they do not have a high temperature. If your child has a high temperature, they should stay off school and can return when the temperature subsides.

Sickness and diarrhoea: We ask that children remain off school for 48 hours since their last episode of sickness/diarrhoea to prevent the spread of infection.

Medical absence

We ask that Doctors/Dentist appointments are booked outside of the school day; however, we recognise that this is not always possible. If your child has an upcoming appointment, we ask that you bring a copy of the appointment letter to the school office with the date and time of the appointment, or email us at admin@greatwaldingfield.suffolk.sch.uk .

Lateness

The school gates are open for drop off from 8:35am – 8:45am. At 8:45am, the gates are closed, registers taken and the first session starts. Any child arriving between 8:45am and 9am will be marked ‘Late’ in the register. Any children arriving after 9am will be marked with an unauthorised absence for this lateness. Any child who is persistently late will be discussed with the EWO and dealt with in the same way as children with an emerging pattern of absence.

Term time absence

If you consider an absence from school to be an exceptional circumstance, you can request an absence request form from the school office or download one from our website:  Request for Absence 

We ask that this is returned to the school office at least 15 school days before the date you wish to remove your child from school.

There is no entitlement in law for pupils to take time off during the term to go on holiday.

The law specifies that headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are "exceptional circumstances". The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 state that “the need or desire for a holiday” is not considered an exceptional circumstance.
At Great Waldingfield Primary 'exceptional circumstances' will be interpreted as:
being of unique and significant emotional, educational or spiritual value to the child which outweighs the loss of teaching time and cannot be taken outside of term time.
It is important for parents/carers to be aware that while decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, requests will normally be refused.

Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN)

The Department for Education has introduced a new statutory national Framework, that all schools in England must follow.

There is now a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence, including lateness. Fines will be issued per parent, per child.

If a Penalty Notice is issued for an offence of unauthorised absence, the first will attract a fine of up to £160 per pupil (£80 if paid within 21 days); A second offence in three years will attract a fine of £160 per pupil. Schools cannot issue a third penalty notice in 3 years, and must consider other sanctions, which may include prosecution.

 

School Penalty Notices for School Attendance are changing

from 19th August 2024

With the introduction of the new National Framework for Penalty Notices issued by the DfE, the following changes will come into force for School Penalty Notice Fines issued after 19th August 2024.

National Threshold There will be a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The 10 school week period can span different terms or school years. Please note: the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.

 

First Offence The first time a Penalty Notice is issued for unauthorised absence the amount will be £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days. Reduced to £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days.

Per Parent*, Per Child A School Penalty Notice is issued to each parent* for each child that was absent For example: 3 siblings absent for term time leave would result in each parent receiving 3 separate penalty notices

    

Second Offence    (within 3 years)  The second time a Penalty Notice is issued for unauthorised absence the amount will be £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days.

*Parent Section 576 of the Education Act 1996 defines "parent" as:  All natural (biological) parents, whether they are married or not.  Any person who, although not a natural parent, has parental responsibility for a child or young person Any person who, although not a natural parent, has care of a child or young person.

 

Third Offence and any Further Offences (within 3 years)  The third time an offence is committed a Penalty Notice will not be issued and the case could be presented straight to the Magistrate's Court.  Prosecution can result in Criminal records and fines of up to £2,500.  Cases found guilty in Magistrates' Court may show on the parent's future DBS Certificate due to 'failure to safeguard a child's education'