Attendance at Lumbertubs Primary School

As a school, we have a duty of care to closely monitor every child's attendance. Attending school is extremely important and the Government set a target that they expect all children of compulsory school age to attend school for at least 96%+ of the year. Good Attendance is incredibly important for a child's academic success.

Make friends and feel included

Learn new things and develop skills

Increase their confidence and self esteem

Improve social skills and achieve their potential 

PUPIL ABSENCE PROCEDURE

Parents/carers are expected to inform the school on the first day of a child's absence before 8.45 am when registers are completed.

To report your child's absence you can:

• Leave a brief message on our school landline by calling 01604 408147 or school mobile 07948072485 Please confirm your child's name, class, reason for absence and how long you expect your child to be absent from school, if known.
• Email the school team at bursar@lumbertubs.northants-ecl.gov.uk

The school will make every effort to contact parents/carers who do not contact the school, to check the child's welfare and clarify the reasons for absence. Where appropriate, a home visit may take place.

Please not that if your child's illness is a result of diarrhoea or/and vomiting Government advice is that pupils can return to school 48 hours after the diarrhoea and vomiting ends.

Please see the useful guide below:

TERM TIME ABSENCE

Government guidelines state that 'Headteachers should not grant any leave of absences unless in exception circumstances'. Lumbertubs Primary School will rightly prioritise attendance and holidays in term times will not be authorised.

In exceptional circumstances, request for term time absences should be submitted through Leave of Absence Form prior to the absence. The school will notify you in writing of the decision and the implication of term time absence. The school are obliged to notify the Local Authority of term time absences and as such you may be liable for a Penalty Notice payable directly to the Local Authority. 

Please see the use guide below:-

PERSISTENT ABSENCES AND IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE

The Education Act 1996 Section 444 states:

• Section 444(1) if a child of compulsory school age who is registered pupil at a school fail to attend regularly at the school, his parents is guilty of an offence.
• Section 444(1a) if in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) the parent knows that his child is falling to attend regularly at the school and fails to cause him to do so , he/she is guilty of an offence.
• Any pupil who falls below 90% attendance will become a persistent absence pupil and therefore reported through every schools termly census.
• Irregular attendance refers to a series of short absences where there has been an unsatisfactory explanation for the absence or no reason provided.
• Where there is an ongoing concern regarding a child's absence and school have been unable to secure improvements in attendance, a referral will be made to the School Attendance Support Officer (SASO). Referral to SASO may lead to the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice or even prosecution.

Where a child is out of school for an accumulative total of 5 days or more(10 sessions) (90%) over a period of ten weeks, the school will deem this as irregular attendance and will consider a referral to Local Authority for consideration of legal action.

For more support on attendance and behaviour in school please here.

The chart below identifies the possible amount of lost learning to poor attendance. How does you Child compare? Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life.

National primary pupil attendance is around 96% . This means that a child needs to attend school for at least 188 out of 195 ( no more than 7 days across the whole year) to meet national expectation.

Every lesson missed impacts on the rest of your child’s learning and your child has to work harder at closing the gap between themselves and their peers