Attendance

Attendance is taken very seriously at Middlestone Moor Primary Academy and we aim for an environment which enables and encourages all students to achieve their potential. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education, it is vital that they attend regularly, and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason is unavoidable. Parents/carers are responsible for ensuring that their child arrives at the school punctually.

Please see the School Office page for specific school timings during the day.

Why is regular attendance important?

Any absence, even one day, affects the pattern of your child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any student’s absence disrupts teaching routines and so may also affect the learning of others in the same class.

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and allowing absence from school without good reason, creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution. We fully support the Local Authority policy on fixed penalties for absence and will refer persistent non-attenders to the Attendance Improvement Team for legal proceedings.

Sometimes a child may be reluctant to attend school. Any problems with attendance are best sorted between the school, parents/carers and the child. It is never a good idea to cover up their absence to excuse them from attending, this usually makes things worse. All school staff are fully committed to working with parents/carers and students to ensure as high a level of attendance as possible so it is important that, as soon as you realise there may be a problem, you contact the school in order that steps can be taken to resolve any issues.

Reporting an Absence

If your child is unable to attend school you must:

• Contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence, preferably before 8.45am. Phone the school on 01388 816351 if school is not yet open please leave a message – make sure you state your child’s name, class teacher and the reason for absence. Please speak clearly and spell any unusual names.
• Or, you can call into school and report to reception, who will arrange for a member of staff to speak with you.

If your child is absent we will:

• Telephone you on the first day of absence if we have not heard from you
• Invite you in to discuss the situation with our Family Support and Attendance Worker if absences persist

Good Attendance

• Excellent attendance – attendance above 98%, less than 4 days absence in the academic year
• Good attendance – attendance above 96%, less than 8 days absence in the academic year
• Below average/low attendance – attendance below 90%, 20 days absence in the academic year. These students have missed 4 weeks of school.
• Exceptionally low attendance – 85% or below, 30 days or more of absence in the academic year, equating to six weeks of school missed. These students will find it hard to keep up with the work, and may result in a drop of more than one grade at GCSE
• Persistent absentee – these students have attendance of 90% or below, the educational welfare service and attendance improvement team will be notified and steps will be taken to help improve attendance

Reasons for Absence

Every half-day absence from school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents), as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information about the cause of any absence is always required, preferably in writing.

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason and that are permitted under government guidelines like illness, medical/dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, emergencies or other unavoidable cause. Medical and dental appointments, where possible, should be made for after school or during school holidays. The school understands that this isn’t always possible, however, students should attend school prior to or following a medical/dental appointment and avoid a full day’s absence.

Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which no “leave” has been given. This type of absence can lead to the School and the Educational Welfare Service using sanctions and/or legal proceedings.   This includes:

• Parents/carers keeping children off school unnecessarily
• Absences which have never been properly explained
• Children who arrive at school too late to get a mark
• Shopping, looking after other children or birthdays
• Day trips and holidays in term time which have not been agreed

Regulations for taking holidays in term time (Introduced August 2024)

On 19th August 2024, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced a new National Framework for school penalty notice fines. The key change is the introduction of a single national threshold that applies to all schools in England.

New National Threshold

A Penalty Notice must now be considered when a pupil has:

• 10 sessions of unauthorised absence
  (10 sessions = 5 school days)
• Within a rolling 10‑school‑week period
• The absences do not need to be consecutive and can include any type of unauthorised absence.
• The 10‑week period can span different terms or school years.

Important Note

• The DfE states that holidays or absences for leisure/recreation are not considered exceptional circumstances and will not be approved.

Absence during term time means that students miss out on valuable learning time. Any request for leave during exam periods will not be authorised as this is the most important time in a child’s education.

If you take your child out of school without the school’s permission, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence which affects your child’s attendance figure for the whole year and may result in each parent being issued a fixed penalty fine for each child taken out of school.