St Mary Magdalen's Catholic Primary School and Nursery

At St Mary Magdalen’s we want all children to have the best possible attendance to enable each and every child to reach their full potential. In the last academic year, our whole school attendance figures slipped well below local and national levels and it is our duty as a school to ensure that all children in our school have a good level of attendance.

There is a strong link between good school attendance and achieving good results for children. We also know that there is a direct link between poor attendance and poor attainment for a child and young person.

We will be sending letters to parents or carers of children whose attendance does not meet acceptable thresholds and will invite you to meet with us so that we can support the family to ensure the child’s attendance improves. We all want the best for every child in our school and appreciate your support in this matter.

If your child is between 5 and 16 years old and is a registered pupil at a school, it is your legal responsibility to make sure that your child has a suitable education either by regular school attendance or otherwise.

Parental support is critical in ensuring that children achieve in education, and support and guidance is always available from our school. We know that we need to work together with parents/carers to support our children to attend school and to be successful. We want all parents/carers to help their children by making sure they attend school every day and arrive on time. Doing this will ensure that your child feels confident, up to date with learning, and up to date with their circle of friends.

At St Mary Magdalen’s, we want all children to have the best possible attendance at school to enable each and every child to reach their full potential. In the last academic year, our whole school attendance figures slipped well below local and national levels and it is our duty as a school to ensure that all children in our school have a good level of attendance.

90% attendance sounds good, but this means that your child is missing:

• One half day each week
• Nearly four weeks every school year
• Over one school year in a school career

We want all our students to aim for 100% attendance and punctuality. We define good attendance as consistently over 96.0%:

• 100% Excellent Attendance
• Over 96.0% Good Attendance

On 1st September 2013, the Government rules changed in relation to holidays or trips during term time. We are no longer allowed to authorise leave for holidays or trips during term time.

Parents need to be aware that if their child is out of school for holidays or trips, legal action for unauthorised absences can be taken.

• Each parent/carer will receive a Penalty Notice of £120.00 for each child. This will be reduced to £60.00 if paid within 21 days of the fine being issued.
• Any such Penalty Notice or prosecution may relate to your child’s attendance record both prior to and subsequent to this letter.
• Each parent/carer may receive a court summons, which may lead to a criminal record and a fine.
• Your child is also at risk of losing their school place

The Government have made it very clear that children have 13 weeks holiday from school to use to go away.

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013, which came into force on 1st September 2013, removes reference to holidays and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. The amendments now make it clear that headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless exceptional circumstances exist.

Definitions of these circumstances do not exist within this legislation and in order to treat all requests fairly we use the National Association of Head Teachers guidance that suggests the following as circumstances, which might be considered to be exceptional:

• Visits to seriously ill relatives
• Bereavement of a close family member is usually considered an exceptional circumstance but for the funeral service only, not extended leave.
• Important religious observances are often taken into account but only for the ceremony and travelling time, not extended leave. This is intended for one off situations rather than regular or recurring events.
• Wedding within the immediate family.
• Service personnel returning from a long tour of duty.
• Families needing time together to recover from trauma or crisis.

The school adheres to the Brighton and Hove City Council’s Code of Conduct with regards to student attendance. It may therefore be necessary to issue fixed-penalty notices in some circumstances.

Fixed Penalty Notices are issued by Brighton and Hove Council in line with the current DfE guidance 'Working Together to improve school attendance'. This guidance is statutory and came into effect on 19th August 2024.

The national threshold for triggering a Fixed Penalty Notice is met when a pupil has been recorded as having had unauthorised absence for 10 or more sessions (5 or more school days) in a period of 10 school weeks.

• The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
• A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
• A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.

CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN PENALTY NOTICES MIGHT BE ISSUED:

• Persistent late arrival at school (after the register has closed amounting to 6 sessions in a period of 6 school weeks).
• Pupils whose attendance has not reached a satisfactory level (90% attendance – 2015 threshold) during a 6-week period following intensive support.
• Where parents allow their child to be present in a public place during school hours without reasonable justification in a fixed term or permanent exclusion.
• Penalty notices will be issued as a result of persistent absence as outlined in our Attendance policy, which can be found on our school website.
• Penalty notices will be issued for all unauthorised holidays taken during term time, unless exceptional circumstances exist which is authorised by the Headteacher.

Children do get ill which does mean they may need to have a few days off of school.  I am aware however, that sometimes children are missing school when they could actually be in.  Sometimes it is worth children coming into school and giving it a go! The traffic light guidance below may help you decide if your child is well enough to come into school.

If your child is having a regular, reoccurring medical issue please let us know.  We could get the school nurse involved and hopefully address your child’s medical needs and improve their attendance.