Attendance Policy

Policy Reviewing

1. Key Principles

“All students at The Blandford School, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, have full access to the wide range of opportunities and experiences available at school.”

• Regular attendance at school is essential to each child’s academic success and life- chances.
• Attendance is a key element of safety and wellbeing.
• Learning in the classroom, with specialist teachers offers the best opportunity for securing good educational progress.
• We expect all children on roll to attend every day, when school is in session, as long as they are fit and healthy enough to do so.
• Securing good attendance is everyone’s business.
• Early identification, communication and action on attendance problems are critical in achieving successful outcomes.
• The barriers to accessing education are wide and complex, both within and beyond the school gates, and are often specific to individual students and families. Some children find it harder than others to attend school.
• Successfully treating the root causes of absence and removing barriers to attendance, at home, in school or more broadly, is best achieved when there is a strong culture of collaboration and partnership between The Blandford School, parents, local authorities and other partners (including the schools of any siblings) - each with clearly expressed and understood roles and responsibilities. Securing good attendance cannot be achieved by working in isolation.
• Legal action will always be the last resort. The attendance of children and young people at school is of vital importance.

2. Legislation, statutory guidance and linked policies

2.1 Parents/carers are legally required to secure full-time education for children of compulsory school age (Section 7 Education Act 1996). The education provision must be suitable to the child's age, aptitude and ability, and to any special needs the child has. This can be by regular
attendance at school, alternative provision, or otherwise (e.g. elective home education). A child who is registered at school must attend regularly and punctually.

2.2 This policy complies with the legal frameworks, statutory requirements and relevant guidance laid out in the following:

• Working together to improve school attendance (applies from 19 August 2024)(publishing.service.gov.uk)
• Stat guidance template (publishing.service.gov.uk)
• Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance
• Toolkit for schools: communicating with families to support attendance The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006
• Working together to safeguard children - 2018
• Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions (2015)
• Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school -GOV.UK(www.gov.uk)
• Home to school travel and transport (2014)
• School behaviour and attendance: parental responsibility measures Responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance (2023) Common Transfer File (2019)
• Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence
• Providing remote education: guidance for schools - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• What are reasonable adjustments and how do they help disabled children and youngpeople at school? – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)
• Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know – TheEducation Hub (blog.gov.uk)
• Suspension and permanent exclusion guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)
• Alternative provision - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Elective home education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

2.3 Furthermore, this policy should be read in conjunction with the following statutory guidance and policies:

• Keeping children safe in education 2023
• Behaviour in Schools Advice for headteachers and school staff (2022)
• Behaviour and Relationships policy
• Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
• Exclusions Policy
• Equality Information and Objectives Policy
• Supporting Children and Young People with Medical Conditions Policy
• Dorset Council Attendance Strategy 2023
• School safeguarding policies
• School establishment procedures for attendance
• Promoting Educational Attendance in Dorset 2024-2025
• Children's Services code of conduct for the issue of fixed penalty notices - Dorset Council
• Home - ACE (dorsetcc. local)
• Physical and medical needs service (PMNS) | Dorset Nexus

2.4 The Blandford School will work with the local authority to ensure clear, consistent and timely support is provided to parents in fulfilling their legal duty including the appropriate use of legal action as set out in the statutory guidance. The processes set out in this policy will be consistently and rigorously applied with a judicious combination of support and sanctions for those parents who need it.

Where there are discrepancies because of a more recent DfE publication, the most recent legislation will take precedence over this policy, until such time as it can be updated

3. Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 This policy is designed to ensure that the monitoring and dealing with attendance issues is fair and consistent; and to ensure that our approaches to managing low/poor attendance concerns are pro-active, timely and effective. Through a coordinated, rigorous and supportive
approach, schools will contribute to keeping children safe - improving their outcomes, wellbeing and future prospects.

3.2 We ask parents to:

• ensure that their child arrives at school on time, with the correct uniform and the
  necessary equipment
• promote the importance of punctuality and good attendance at school
• follow the correct procedure for reporting the absence of their child on each day of absence, providing a specific reason for the absence by leaving a phone message on the school absence line
• avoid unnecessary absence, for example, by only making routine medical appointments outside of the school day
• request a leave of absence, by email in advance of any planned absence, including medical appointments, college interviews and sporting fixtures with a copy of the letter or email notification.
• request a leave of absence for any absence you believe to be exceptional circumstances for consideration by the Headteacher. The school is unable to authorise any leave of absence for a family holiday.
• keep the school informed of any circumstances which may affect their child’s attendance
• pro-actively engage with any support offered by the school, partner or local authority,
  to improve attendance and reduce the need for legal intervention

3.3 Administration staff will

• Safeguard all children by completing all day-to-day monitoring of attendance and punctuality, informing parents of those who are absent from school for the day without prior notice or have truanted a lesson.
• Contact parents by text message if a student fails to arrive at school after the register has closed and no parental contact has been received.
• Ensure the coding of the attendance register is correct and accurate (Appendix A)
• Prioritise students who are assessed as higher risk if absent from lesson. Guidance and Welfare staff will liaise with Heads of Year and Senior teachers if a safeguarding risk requires an immediate response, such as contact with parents or outside agencies, including the police.
• Use School attendance data to carefully monitor attendance alongside the Heads of year and alert parents when there is an early cause for concern.
• Alert the Local authority when a child is absent from education or receiving a different provision to most students
• To update and maintain the admissions register
• To monitor and track all students on alternative provision and make regular parental contact for those not attending The Blandford School setting whilst they remain on roll.