Attendance

ATTENDANCE

Pupils attend school for a maximum of 190 days each academic year. Regular attendance is vital for your child’s educational progress.

The Local Education Authority expects all parents/carers to ensure that their children attend school whenever possible. Absences due to holidays taken during school time could hinder academic progress.

Unfortunately, by law, we are unable to authorise any holiday absence in term time because of the amendment to the law as outlined below:

“The amendments make clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.”

DfE Amendment to ‘The Education (Pupil Registration)(England) Regulations 2006.

The authorities are particularly interested in unauthorised absence because, from their point of view, this could indicate that either a child is unsupervised or that the parent is withdrawing them illegally from school.

Timekeeping is also important in the education of your child. Lateness is monitored by our Attendance Officer. If your child is late often, then you will be contacted and offered any support that you might need to ensure that your child can arrive at school on time everyday.

If we have concerns about your child’s attendance then in the first instance we will contact you to offer support by phone or letter, however if your child’s attendance does not improve, then you will be requested to attend an attendance meeting or be visited at your home; you also risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted.

Illness

If your child is ill and unable to attend school, we request that you notify the school on the first day of absence by telephoning the school on 01503 250565.

A new National Framework for Penalty Notices for school absence was introduced by the Government on 19 August 2024. If your child is absent from school without authorisation, you will be committing an offence under the Education Act 1996. We may submit a request to

Cornwall Council for a Penalty Notice to be issued, in accordance with Sections 444A and 444B of the said Act. Penalty Notices are issued per liable parent, per child and each carry a fine of £80 if paid within 21 days or £160 if paid after this but within 28 days. If your child is further absent from school without authorisation within any 3- year period, you will be committing a further offence under the Education Act 1996. We may submit a request to Cornwall Council for a Penalty Notice to be issued, in accordance with Sections 444A and 444B of the said Act. Penalty Notices for a second offence are issued per liable parent, per child and each carry a fine of £160, payable within 28 days. Importantly, fines per parent will be capped to two fines within any three-year period. Once this limit has been reached, other action such as a parenting order or prosecution will be considered. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice may also result in legal action. If you are prosecuted and attend court because your child has not been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500. Cornwall Council may also apply for the costs incurred in taking the matter to Court, including legal costs.

Absence not authorised by the school may also result in a prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court under Section 444(1) or Section 444(1A) of the Education Act 1996, leading to a fine of up to £2,500 and/or a custodial sentence. Again, Cornwall Council may also apply for the

costs incurred in taking the matter to Court, including legal costs. Money raised from fines is only used by the local authority to cover the costs of administering the system, and to fund attendance support.