Crampton Primary School is committed to providing a welcoming, caring environment, whereby each member of the school community feels wanted and secure. We believe that all pupils benefit from education and from regular and punctual attendance and good behaviour. We recognise that good attendance correlates with high levels of achievement and pupils need to attend school regularly and punctually if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Crampton Primary School is therefore committed to every pupil achieving the maximum possible attendance at school.
We expect that children will:
We expect that all parents / carers will:
Parents and carers can expect that the school will:
We will encourage good attendance by:
From 1st June 2014, the local authority (Southwark Council) introduced Penalty Notices to families in cases of unauthorised absence e.g. Holidays taken during term time.
The Head Teacher has the discretion to authorise a short period of absence; when making a decision the following will be taken into consideration:
A Southwark produced application form, available from main reception, must be completed to request term time absence and returned to school. The parent will be informed of the decision taken.
The current school times due to Covid-19 restrictions | |||
Year Group(s) | Start of school day (Arrival after the start of the school day and the closure of the morning register will be recorded as a late arrival) | Morning Register Closed (Arrival after the closure of the morning register will be recorded as an unauthorised lateness) | End of school day |
Reception | 08.45 | 09.15 | 14.45 |
Years 1 to 5 | 08.55 | 09.25 | 15.15 |
Year 6 | 08.30 | 09.00 | 14.30 |
By law, only the school can authorise absences, not a parent or guardian
An authorised absence is when a parent or carer phones, comes in person to the school or when a pupil brings in a note AND the school finds the reason acceptable. An unauthorised absence is when no note or phone call is received or the reason given is not acceptable by the school.
Absence for the following reasons would normally be authorised
Absences for the following reasons would not normally be authorised
The Home School Liaison Officer has specific responsibility to check on attendance and is committed to keeping pupils safe.
Attendance reports will be analysed on a regular basis for one day patterns etc. where attendance is below 95%.
A child whose attendance falls below 90% is classed as persistent absence, the Home School Liaison officer will continue to monitor attendance which may include intervention from the Head Teacher or Educational Welfare officer.
It is our routine procedure to:
Children Missing Education Protocol
Taken from Southwark Children’s & Adults Services, February 2017
The Department for Education statutory guidance (2016) defines Children Missing Education as ‘children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at school’.
Children may come to miss education for a number of reasons, including the following:
Southwark faces particular challenges with a highly mobile population and significant movement in and out of the borough throughout the school year. Children missing education have been identified as a priority by Southwark Safeguarding Children’s Board.
Children missing education are plainly at risk of educational under-achievement, with a potential long-term impact on their opportunities. They may also be exposed to other risks: ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (DfES, 2016) states that: ‘A child going missing from education is a potential indicator of abuse or neglect and such children are at risk of being victims of harm, exploitation or radicalisation’. Ofsted (2014) has identified that ‘Children who are missing from home, school or care are at greater risk of sexual exploitation’.
‘Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges’ (DfES, 2016) explains that we should follow the school procedures for dealing with children who go missing from education, particularly on repeat occasions, to help identify the risk of abuse and neglect including sexual abuse or exploitation and to help prevent the risks of their going missing in future. We put in place appropriate safeguarding responses to children who go missing from education.
We must inform the Local Authority when we are about to add or delete a pupil’s name from the school admission register for any reason. This applies to all children with the exception of those starting or leaving school at standard transition points, i.e. at the start of the first year and completion of the final year of education normally provided by that school. The legal basis for these duties is set out in Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016, with further details in Annexe A of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (DfES 2016) and ‘School Attendance: Guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities’ (DfES, 2016).
We will notify the local authority within five days when a pupil’s name is added to the admission register, and must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register as soon as the ground for deletion is met and no later than the time at which the pupil’s name is deleted from the register. Where we notify the local authority that a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register, we are required to provide:
‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (DfES 2016) states that ‘It is essential that schools comply with these duties, so that local authorities can, as part of their duty to identify children of compulsory school age, who are missing education, follow up with any child who might be at risk of not receiving an education and who might be at risk of being harmed exploited or radicalised’.
DfES School Attendance guidance (2016) also states that ‘All schools must agree with the relevant local authority, the regular interval that the school will inform the local authority of any pupil who fails to attend school regularly, or has been absent without the school’s permission for a continuous period of 10 days or more’.
Southwark’s process for identifying and tracking children missing education is led through the Pupil Tracking and Licensing Team in the Education Access division in Southwark Children’s and Adults’ Services.
Where a child remains on our school roll and there are concerns about them not receiving full time education as a result of poor attendance or other factors, we will notify Southwark Early Help Localities Service.
Southwark expects that we will have undertaken reasonable checks to confirm the destination school and/or address of a child leaving the school, including telephone calls, letters and where appropriate home visits to establish this information.
In order for this policy to be successful every member of staff makes attendance a high priority and conveys this to the children
This policy will be subject to evaluation and review and subject to changes in local and national policy.
Date: September 2022
Date of next review: September 2023