Attendance
Useful links, and more information
- Improving school attendance, DfE
- School attendance, parent responsibility measures, DfE
- Attendance Advice Leaflet for parents
- School Attendance - The Law
Your child's attendance, aiming for 97%
Each term we review your child's attendance at school. We aim for all pupils to attend school regularly, this means attendance of 97% and above. We know that specific health needs and some exceptional circumtances can impact on school attendance for some pupils through the year.
The Department for Education (DfE) are clear, attendance at school should be prioritised as there has been too much disruption to schooling over the last two years.
DfE guidance tells us that we must:
‘regularly communicate expectations for attendance and punctuality and school performance through your regular channels of communication with staff, pupils and parents’
‘establish robust escalation procedures which are initiated before absence becomes a problem, for example by: sending letters to parents and carers’
January 2022
We know that events come along in life, children become unwell, medical appointments need to take place. The DfE suggests good attendance is 95%, this allows for these life events. In a school year of 190 days this is around 10 day’s absence. Attendance that falls below 95% becomes a concern, because it can easily slip to 90%, just another 9 days absence. This is the equivalent to 1 day in every 2 weeks.
For us, attendance of:
- 94%-95% is starting to cause a concern.
- 96-97% is good attendance,
- Over 97% is excellent – this is our target for your child.
In line with government guidance and our attendance policy, we will be sending out letters to parents of all pupils whose attendance has fallen below 90%.
Any absence, authorised or not are registered as non-attendance at school and count towards your child’s overall attendance. There are very few things that don’t count towards this overall attendance figure. If your child is not on the school premises, they are absent from school, whatever the reason.
This includes:
- Illness, including self-isolation, even if you have followed our absence procedures, or we have asked you to collect your child
- medical appointments (including speech and occupational therapy)
- authorised leave for exceptional circumstances
- being late after the registers close
- your child not wanting to come due to anxiety
- open days at other schools
- religious observance
- exclusions or suspensions
- remote or hybrid learning at home
- any unauthorised absence
If you have any worries or concerns about attendance at school please contact the school office on 01457 852721 or email enquiries@simmondley.derbyshire.sch.uk .
