Attendance & Punctuality

Don’t miss a moment of the greatest years of your life!

Regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.

At Bolton Brow Primary Academy we know that regular attendance is directly linked to raising achievement and develops skills for life and work. Please support the school in this by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives ready to learn and on time at 8.45 am.

Being 20 minutes late every day means you miss 100 minutes of learning every week. Multiply this by 39 weeks a year = 3900 minutes missed a year. Basically this is 65 hours missed a year!

Understanding types of absence

Every ½ day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical appointments and emergencies.

An absence is classified as Unauthorised if the reason was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as what is acceptable and what is not.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

  • A birthday

  • A shopping trip

  • Day trips

  • Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances

Promoting Attendance and Support

We believe that working together with parents is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.

We have lots of high profile rewards and systems in school to promote good attendance and punctuality with the children.

Certificates and prizes are given termly in recognition of good attendance and improved attendance.

Our Head of Safeguarding, Mr P Kelesidis, and the deputy safeguarding leads, Miss C Wardle and Mrs C Wheale, are happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Come and talk to us if you are having problems

What should I do if my child is absent from school?

Contact the school office on the first morning before and notify us of the absence and provide a reason.

School will phone you if we don’t hear from you.

Punctuality

It is very important that all children arrive on time. If your child arrives late, they will not be able to come into school via usual morning entrance doors but should instead come through the main school entrance. We will then be able to mark registers and ensure your child is marked for a school dinner.

Please note that if your children arrives at school later than 9:30, we are required to mark them as absent for that half day session.

If children are regularly late, a parent will be expected to attend a meeting to look at how punctuality can be improved.

Attendance Monitoring

Because attendance and punctuality is so important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance, or if pupils are regularly late to school.

As a school within Calderdale, we adopt measures and involve external agencies if the level of attendance requires us to do so. A computer generates reports termly and letters are sent to ALL parents where attendance is below 90%.

“Remember regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.”

Myth busters

Know the facts

  • Our attendance policies and procedures are developed directly from the government guidance document “Working together to improve school attendance” (May 2022). In addition, the law clearly defines the responsibilities of parents/carers, schools and local authorities.

  • Authorised absences are ultimately absences from school and as such have to be recorded and will count against a pupil’s overall attendance for that academic year. The difference between authorised and unauthorised absence is if the school authorises the pupil absence, then they have accepted the reason which has been given and they will not take any further action.

  • Legislation clearly states that is the school who decides whether an absence is authorised or not. Providing notice of an absence does not in itself mean it meets the threshold for authorising said absence. School will consider each absence on a case by case basis and will always base the decision on government guidance.

  • Schools are legally required to take attendance registers twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If a pupil arrives at school or class after this register has closed, they will be marked with a “U” as per government guidance. A “U” code will show that the pupil was in school but will be classed as an absence and count against their overall attendance figure. Pupils arriving on time is incredibly important.

  • The law which governs school attendance introduced in September 2013 states Headteachers may not grant leave of absence during term-time unless there are exceptional circumstances:

    “An application for leave of absence should (and from certain schools must) not be granted unless it is made in advance by a parent the pupil normally lives with and the school is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances based on the individual facts and circumstance of the case which justify the leave. Where a leave of absence is granted, the school will determine the number of days a pupil can be absent from school. A leave of absence is granted entirely at the headteacher’s discretion.”

    Where absence is not granted in advance, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents are subject to a penalty notice and/or other legal interventions.

  • Legal intervention is the responsibility of the local authority in which the school resides. Schools are legally required to share attendance data and in consultation with schools, the LA will decide if legal action is required.

  • Any monies generated from penalty notices are used by the local authority to cover the legal and administrative costs of the process. Any monies remaining is reinvested in local education services, it does not go to the school.