Attendance and Punctuality
“Education is the passport to the future, and attendance is the stamp that gets you there.”
Badsley Primary School regard good attendance and punctuality as high priority.
We are committed to a whole school approach to attendance and punctuality. Badsley Primary School regards education as paramount whilst being sympathetic and supportive to individual family circumstances.
Every child has a right to education and parents are legally responsible for making sure that their child/children, once enrolled at a school, attend/s regularly and punctually. Regular attendance at school is the single most important factor in a child/children making appropriate progress and achieving success. Good regular and punctual attendance means doing well academically, developing better relationships with other children and positive behaviour. It also sets up good habits for when young people enter into work and life.
Every half day absence from school has to be classified by the school as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about absence is always required.
Our aim is to ensure our school works in partnership with parents, our local community and the local authority to support and promote good attendance and punctuality.
Working Together to Improve School Attendance - Important Changes from August 2024
The Department for Education has issued new statutory guidance for attendance called 'Working Together to Improve School Attendance' (see document above). This came into effect on the 19th August 2024. It details what schools, parents and Local Authorities should do to improve pupils’ attendance at school.
There are some important changes to attendance management from the 19th August 2024 which will affect the support parents and pupils receive from our school, and the legal sanctions that are used in certain circumstances.
Schools are legally obliged to provide support and intervention for pupils who are at risk of persistent absence (90% attendance or below). At Badsley Primary, this will take the form of meetings with parents, school-based interventions, and the offer of support from outside agencies and professionals.
At Badsley Primary School, we are very keen to identify the barriers to attendance that families face and will welcome opportunities to overcome these barriers together. However, when a child's attendance falls outside of the parental legal obligations to send their child to school, there are legal pathways that must be followed.