Attendance in schools
A good education will help to give your child the best
possible start in life. Most children are normally educated at
school and regular attendance is of vital importance. Poor school
attendance damages educational achievement and the future progress
of young people. Promoting and supporting good attendance at school
is essential to learning and attainment.
The Law
By law, all children of compulsory school age (between 5 and 16)
are required to receive education at school or otherwise. Parents
are responsible for making sure this happens, either by registering
your child at a school or by making other arrangements to provide
an effective education. If your child is registered as a pupil at a
particular school, that school must give permission for him or her
to be absent. If your child does not go to the school at which he
or she is registered, the Local Authority could take legal action
against you.
What can Parents do to Help?
- Make sure that your child goes to school regularly, arrives on
time and adheres to the school's rules on going to all lessons.
It's a good idea to start these positive habits at an early age,
while your child is in primary school.
- If your child starts missing school, we recommend that you work
with the school to resolve any issues that may be preventing your
child from maintaining regular attendance.
- If your child is ill, contact the school on the first day of
your child's illness.
- If your child is ever off school, you must tell the school why.
Do this by following the arrangements put in place by the
school.
- If you want permission for your child to miss school for
example because of a special occasion such as a wedding, you should
ask for permission well in advance and give full details.
- Do not expect the school to agree to shopping trips during
school hours.
- Take an interest in your child's school work.
Family Holidays during Term Time
- From 31 August 2010, only 5 days leave may be authorised for
holidays or in exceptional circumstances.
- This is not an automatic entitlement and approval is at the
Head Teacher’s discretion.
- Each application will be considered on their own merits,
including the impact on the pupil’s education, their overall
attendance pattern and whether tests or examinations are taking
place in the lead up to and during the period of absence
- Parents are being asked to avoid booking holidays in
term-time.
- Applications for holidays during term-time must be made in
writing to the Head Teacher at least 4 working weeks prior to the
requested start of the holiday. A form can be obtained from
the school office.
- Allowing your child to be absent from school for holidays and
other similar reasons are unacceptable and are known as
unauthorised absence. Continued unauthorised absence can lead to
prosecution.
Knowsley Council
- The local authority is responsible, by law, for making sure
that registered pupils of compulsory school age attend their school
regularly.
- We employ school attendance service staff to monitor school
attendance and to help parents meet their responsibilities.
- School attendance staff work closely with schools.
- If your child is not attending school regularly, the school
attendance service may visit you.
- It is important that you co-operate with the Local Authority to
make sure your child overcomes his or her attendance problems and
gets a education.
If you do not do everything you can to co-operate with the
school and the school attendance aervice, we may have no choice but
to consider instigating legal action. This could result in parents
being issued a fixed penalty notice of up to £100, fined up to
£2,500 for each child who is not going to school and/or a
possibility of imprisonment for up to 3 months.
Parenting contracts
Where parents need support to prevent their child from
truanting, schools and local authorities may offer to enter into a
parenting contract. This is a voluntary agreement between the
parent and school or local authority where the parent
agrees to comply with certain requirements and the school
or local authority agrees to provide them with the
support that they need.
Children missing from education
The Ofsted Out of School Report in 2004 estimated that there
were approximately 10,000 children missing from education in the
UK. In Knowsley we seek to ensure that all pupils have access to
education. These ‘missing’ children can be amongst the most
vulnerable.
If you know of a child who is missing from education we need to
know. Please email pupilmobility@Knowsley.gov.uk
or phone 0151 443 3296 .