Attendance
What You Need to Know
By law, children must be in full time education from the school term after their 5th birthday until the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16. As a parent, or anyone with parental responsibility or day-to-day care of a child, you are responsible for making sure they receive this education.
Useful Links:
GOV.UK - School Attendance and Absence
Thurrock - Your Responsibility as a Parent or Carer
What is Full Time Education?
Full time education means that your child should attend school every day and on time, unless they are too ill to attend, or there are exceptional circumstances and the school has authorised their absence.
Each school day is made up of two sessions; Morning and Afternoon. Therefore one school week has 10 sessions.
If your children arrives late, after the register closes, they will receive a ‘U’ code, which is counted as an unauthorised absence. This will impact the overall attendance percentage and can lead to you receiving an attendance stage letter.
When Can your Child Miss School?
Your child should only miss school when they are too ill to attend school, have a medical appointment that cannot be arranged outside of school hours, or you have advance permission from the Headteacher due to exceptional circumstances. You will be asked to provide evidence of your child’s illness, appointment, or exceptional circumstances. Without evidence, absences can be classed as unauthorised.
Holidays during term time are not considered as an exceptional circumstance and will result in an unauthorised absence code. If you still decide to take your child out of school and in result your child misses 10 school sessions this will result in a Penalty Notice Application being sent to the Local Authority.
Useful Link:
Guide to Attendance Stages
At Purfleet Primary Academy, every day really does count. When children attend school regularly and arrive on time, they are able to keep up with their learning, take part in class activities and build strong friendships.
Good attendance helps children feel settled, confident and part of the school community. It also helps them develop positive habits and routines that will support them throughout their education. By making attendance a priority, parents/carers are giving their child the best possible chance to enjoy school and achieve their full potential.
The Attendance Intervention Procedure will begin when a child’s attendance falls below 96% and the school has concerns that attendance may continue to decline. The purpose of the intervention is to work in partnership with families to identify and address any barriers that may be affecting a child’s ability to attend school regularly. The support offered at each stage is designed to help children achieve good attendance and ensure they have the best possible opportunity to succeed both academically and socially.
The following table explains each stage of the attendance intervention process.
Attendance Codes
There are multiple attendance codes that a school will use to inform the Local Authority of pupils attendance. Below are some of the more common codes in relation to absences.
Logging Your Child's Absence
Please contact the school before 8:30am on each day your child is absent and provide the full reason for their absence. This helps us ensure all children are safe and accounted for. Please be aware that if the reason given is simply "feeling ill" or "unwell", we may contact you for further information so that we can accurately record the absence and offer support where needed.
If we do not hear from you, we will follow our safeguarding procedures and attempt to contact you by telephone or email. Where we are unable to make contact, a member of staff may carry out a home visit to ensure your child is safe and well. This is part of our safeguarding duty and our commitment to keeping all pupils safe.
Ways to Report Your Child's Absence:
Who Can Help - Key Attendance Contacts
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child's attendance, please contact a member of the attendance and welfare team. We are here to work with families, provide support and help remove any barriers that may affect regular school attendance.
Miss Lawless - Attendance Officer
Ms Hooper - Education Welfare Officer
Mr Coman - Deputy Headteacher and Attendance Lead
Mrs Leonard - Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion
To ensure your email reaches the correct person please put the subject as FAO: STAFF NAME - PUPIL NAME
NHS Guidance - Should You Keep Your Child Off School?
Request of Absence
If, due to exceptional circumstances, you would like your child be absent from school during term time, then you must apply for this in advance. You should use the Leave of Absence Application Form, which is available from the School Office. We do not accept requests via email.
If you do not request a leave of absence in advance, your child’s absence will be recorded as unauthorised and you may be liable for a penalty notice or fine.
Thurrock Council - Attendance Penalty Notice Information:
