Attendance & Lateness
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ASPIRE - LEARN - FLOURISH
The Aspire Learning Federation is made up of two schools - Elm Park Primary School and R J Mitchell Primary School in the London Borough of Havering.
Registration and punctuality procedures
Registers are taken twice a day, once at the start of the school day and once during the afternoon session. Pupils arriving late but before the end of the Registration period will be coded L (Late before registers close) which is a present mark. The number of minutes late will be recorded in the register. Pupils arriving after the registers have closed will be coded U (Late after registers close) which counts as an unauthorised absence.
The school expects pupils in Reception and Years 1, 2, to be in class by 8:45 am and pupils in Years 3, 4 to be in class by 8:40 am Years 5, 6 to be in class by 8.35am.
Nursery pupils should be in class by 8.45am or 12.30pm
Gates open at 8:30 am to give parents and carers a suitable period of time to drop their children off at school.
Only the Head of School or designated member(s) of staff acting on their behalf can authorise absence. If there is no known reason for the absence at registration, then the absence will be recorded as unauthorised, until a satisfactory reason is provided. If the reason given is not satisfactory in the school’s view, and/or evidence of the reason cannot be provided, the absence will be coded as O (Unauthorised absence).
Absence notes received from parents/carers will be kept for the remainder of the academic year; or longer if there are concerns that require further investigation or legal action. If a pupil is persistently late, the Attendance Officer will arrange to meet with the family as soon as the pattern is identified.
First Day Absence Contact
Parents are expected to notify the school each day if their child is unable to attend for an unavoidable reason, such as illness. If the school does not receive notification, we will text/telephone on the first day of absence, to try to ascertain the reason. First day contact will be carried out as early as possible in the school day, in order to notify parents whose children may have set off for school, but not arrived, as quickly as possible.
Please telephone or e-mail the school absence email address on the first day of your child's absence. In the subject heading of your email please put your child's name and class. Please contact the school on day 3 and regularly after this if your child is still absent. When your child returns to school if you have not sent an email, a letter should be sent to school to confirm the reason for their absence.
rjmschooloffice@theaspirelearningfederation.co.uk
In line with guidance from the Department of Health to schools, please ensure that if your child has vomited or had an episode of diarrhoea, you must allow 48 hours before they return to school.
Continuing Absence Procedures
In the event of an absence of three or more days without contact from the family, a home visit may be made. Any child who is absent without explanation for eight consecutive school days (85%), who has a pattern of erratic attendance (85%), or persistent lateness after the registers close will be referred to the Havering Attendance Officer so that further investigations can be made. Such cases will be allocated to a Havering Attendance Officer who will visit the home, set targets for improvement, signpost sources of support if needed, and ultimately recommend court action or a Penalty Notice if there is no improvement.
Frequent/Persistent Absence Procedures (absence of 15% or more)
The Attendance Officer will be responsible for putting in place actions for each pupil of concern. Initially the school will try to resolve the problem with parents/carers, but if the pattern continues the school will refer to a Havering Attendance Officer if the problem appears to be a medical one. In cases where there appear to be issues requiring outside intervention to support the family and the child, referral may be made through the Triage system for external agency support. All PA pupils and their parents will be subject to an Action Plan or Parenting Contract. Such a plan or contract may include allocation of additional in-school or external support.
Consequences of Poor Attendance /Punctuality
For pupils whose attendance and/or punctuality fails to improve, after a range of interventions and support measures have been tried by the school, the ultimate consequences may be one of the following:
The school may ask the Council to issue a Penalty Notice on its behalf.
DfE regulations (Sept 2013) state that we are no longer able to grant leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Holidays are not classed as exceptional circumstances.
Any request of absence should be sent into school via a letter addressed to the Head of School giving full details. This should be sent into school at least 14 days before the period of absence.
Fixed Penalty Notices changes – September 2024:
The threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks).
These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks).
The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).
FPN will be issued per parent per child as follows:
- 1st Offence £80 fine – will be issued and would need to be paid within 21 days.
If payment is not received within 21 days, the fine will increase to £160 and must be
paid within 7 days. Failure to pay the fine of £160 will result in prosecution in the
magistrates’ court.
- 2nd Offence within 3 years £160 fine – will be issued and would need to be paid within 21 days. Failure to pay the fine of £160 within 21 days will result in prosecution in the magistrates’ court.
- 3rd Offence within 3 years - Where a family is identified to be fined on a 3rd occasion within a 3-year period, these cases will be referred straight to the magistrates’ court for prosecution