Frequently Asked Questions
Advice and Guidance on School Attendance
Peninsula Education is here to help
Do you have a question or need some advice about school attendance? We’ve included the answers to our most frequently asked questions below, so read on to see if the answer to your question is on this page.
Attendance advice for staff and parents too
Whether you’re parents, teachers, administrative staff, Senior Leadership Team, School Governors, or like us, Education Welfare professionals, we all have one goal – to help children achieve their best by keeping them in school.
So we’ve included answers for both staff members and parents that we hope will provide guidance in different situations relating to school attendance. Feel free to take advantage of our free advice and if you have any other questions, just get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.
FAQs for Parents
According to The Education Act of 1996, all children of compulsory school age are to receive an education appropriate to their age and ability. In this instance, compulsory school age means children between ages 5 and 16. This means that if your child is on school roll then they must attend regularly. As a result, if your child is not coming to school regularly you could be liable for prosecution.
Some parents choose to home educate their children – it is not illegal to do so and many children experience a rich, well-rounded education as a result.
The Raising Participation Age guidance requires that young people between the ages of 16-18 should be in either full-time education or work-based training. This is different to the law around school attendance and you would not be liable for prosecution but it may affect your entitlement to benefits.
When the school does not agree that the reason for your child’s absence was acceptable, they will mark the absence down as unauthorised. This means that they have acknowledged your child wasn’t present, but that they did not give permission for that absence.
Just some examples of unauthorised absences include your child being absent to celebrate a birthday, go shopping, or go on holiday during term time.
Generally, a school will tell you when they aren’t going to authorise an absence and explain why, but if you have concerns that an absence has been unfairly marked as unauthorised, then you should speak to the school.
Make sure your child attends school every day and arrives on time.
Become familiar with the school’s attendance policy.
Contact the school as soon as you know that your child is going to be absent, on the first day of an absence or in advance of any future absences, to let them know why, and how long your child is likely to be off.
Try to book medical or dental appointments outside of school times wherever possible.
Speak to the school as soon as possible if you are concerned about your child’s attendance, behaviour, or have concerns about how they are settling in at school.
When the school does not agree that the reason for your child’s absence was acceptable, they will mark the absence down as unauthorised. This means that they have acknowledged your child wasn’t present, but that they did not give permission for that absence.
Just some examples of unauthorised absences include your child being absent to celebrate a birthday, go shopping, or go on holiday during term time.
Generally, a school will tell you when they aren’t going to authorise an absence and explain why, but if you have concerns that an absence has been unfairly marked as unauthorised, then you should speak to the school.
When the school does not agree that the reason for your child’s absence was acceptable, they will mark the absence down as unauthorised. This means that they have acknowledged your child wasn’t present, but that they did not give permission for that absence.
Just some examples of unauthorised absences include your child being absent to celebrate a birthday, go shopping, or go on holiday during term time.
Generally, a school will tell you when they aren’t going to authorise an absence and explain why, but if you have concerns that an absence has been unfairly marked as unauthorised, then you should speak to the school.
FAQs for Schools
Authorising time off for holidays during term-time is the decision of Headteachers, and only agreed under very exceptional circumstances.
As a school, you should have an Exceptional Circumstances Form for parents to submit the dates of any holiday, an expected return to school date, and their reasons for needing to go away during a school term. If the Headteacher does not agree with these reasons, then they can mark the absence as unauthorised.
Schools can also issue Penalty Notices to parents for unauthorised leave taken during term time under certain circumstances.
If you’re still not sure what to do, get in touch for support from our experienced team of Education Welfare Officers, or take our courses Keeping Better Student Registers and Understanding Attendance and the Law where we cover this issue in greater detail.
Where a child’s attendance falls significantly under the average attendance rate of 96% in England and there are lots of absences due to illness, the Headteacher can write to the parents making them aware that future absences due to illness will need to be supported with medical evidence. This evidence can take the form of a sick note from the child’s GP, a prescription, or an appointment card.
It is important that in these circumstances schools record reasons for illness and look for patterns of absence. Some children will have genuine medical needs which require a large amount of time away from school. You should support these children to access as much education as appropriate for their needs.
If you need further advice in this area then contact us for support, or consider taking our Keeping Better Student Registers and Addressing Persistent Absence courses where we cover this question in greater depth.
In order to make sure a child with long term medical needs has their educational needs met, it’s important to hold discussions with parents and other professionals as soon as possible to create a learning strategy. This may involve a combination of time within school and time at home learning remotely.
You should also liaise with your Local Authority Medical Needs Officer to ensure that where required, additional education is provided; e.g. in the form of hospital education.
Regular reviews of attendance and attainment should be held with all professionals to ensure that as the needs of the child change, you and other professionals are responding accordingly.
If you would like to know more about what to do in this situation, get in touch for in-house support, or take our Addressing Persistent Absence course which covers this in more detail.
You should ensure that you hold more than one contact number for a child wherever possible. Where contact has been made with the telephone numbers held and no appropriate response has been given for the absences, then you should consider whether a visit to the family property is needed to check whether the family are at home. This visit could be carried out by school staff or an Education Welfare Officer.
Where the home looks to be unoccupied, the school must refer to the Children Missing Education (CME) team within their Local Authority to try to establish where the child is. Schools can remove a child from roll if, after 20 school days, the school and the Local Authority have failed to establish the whereabouts of a child.
To learn what to do in this situation in more depth, take our course Attendance, Safeguarding, and CME. And to keep your staff safe when making home visits, take Safer Lone Working for Staff. If you want advice in-person or for our experienced Education Welfare Officers to make home visits on your behalf to locate a missing pupil, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
No. In this instance the parent is requesting a flexi-school arrangement and it is appropriate for you to ask the parent to put into writing the reasons for this request before you consider it.
You can then look at this request in light of the evidence provided and determine whether you feel that the new arrangement would meet the child’s needs; does not place an undue responsibility on the class teacher/school, and that any reason taking them away from school is an appropriate activity for the child (i.e. one which couldn’t take place at any other time outside of school hours). Where it is evident that the request is purely being made to support a parent with work hours and/or childcare this would not generally be approved.
Where a child is flexi-schooled it is important to have an agreement in writing which regularly reviews the arrangement, as the needs of the child involved may change over time. Schools are also responsible for safeguarding the child and this must be taken into account when making any agreement.
It is advisable that Headteachers seek advice from their Local Authority before agreeing a flexi-school arrangement – particularly if the child has an Education Health Care Plan, is known to social care or is a Child in Care. If a Headteacher decides to not authorise the request, then there is no route of appeal for this.
If you would like to talk further about setting up a support package to help with questions just like this one, get in touch and we’d be more than happy to help.
