Attendance matters!

Your child should attend school every day, this is important for their success and wellbeing and is a legal requirement.

The only reasons a child should not be in school are:

• Illness
• Medical or dental appointment
• Bereavement
• Religious observance
• If your child is not in school, please contact us before 10am 

If a message is not received in school, our Family Engagement Officer or other member of staff will ring and enquire as to the nature of the absence.

Please be aware, a reduction in attendance will notified to you via letter and a possible referral to the Attendance and Wellbeing Service (AWS) could follow. 

A parent or carer can request a term time holiday, this may or may not be agreed by the Head teacher, please do not book holidays in term time without making this request.

The request should be made in writing, please see below for a form to do this and the request will be reviewed. If a pupil's attendance is lower than 95% then it is unlikely to be agreed, meaning the holiday is not authorised and a fixed penalty notice will be issued.

Fixed Penalty Notices for non attendance at school

A school attendance fixed penalty notice (FPN) is offered as an alternative to prosecuting parents or carers who do not ensure their child attends school regularly.

A School Attendance FPN is £60 if paid within 28 days of receipt of the notice and rises to £120 if paid after 28 days but within 42 days of receipt.  If the FPN is not paid in full by the end of 42 days we must either:

• prosecute parents/carers in the usual way using section 444(1) and (1A) of the Education Act 1996
• withdraw the FPN (in limited circumstances as set out in the Code of Conduct)

Reasons for issuing a school attendance fixed penalty notice

We can issue a School Attendance Fixed Penalty Notice for the following reasons:

1. where a pupil has accrued 10 or more sessions of unauthorised absences in the current term
2. where a pupil has been persistently late on 10 or more occasions in the current term, arriving more than 30 minutes after the registration period
3. where a parent(s) refuses to engage with a school in the interest of improving their child’s school attendance levels
4. where a pupil is repeatedly caught truanting in public places during school hours (Police can request a penalty notice be issued for this offence)
5. where a holiday in term time has been requested but has been unauthorised (see guidance on holidays in term time)

If a school requests a fixed penalty notice to be issued, we will review the information and only issue a fixed penalty notice if it is appropriate to do so.

For reasons 1 to 4, parents will be given 15 days to ensure that their child attends school and as long as no other unauthorised absence is recorded by the school during that time, a fixed penalty notice will not be issued. However, if an unauthorised absence has been recorded by the school in that 15 day period, a fixed penalty notice will be issued.

Please check the RCT page for further information:

https://www.rctcbc.gov.uk/EN/Resident/SchoolsandLearning/Schoolattendance/FixedPenaltyNoticesforNonAttendanceatSchool.aspx