Attendance, Punctuality & Term Time Holidays

Every child has the right to receive a full-time education

"The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school. Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school."

Working together to improve school attendance, DfE 2022

Monitoring Attendance & Punctuality

The attendance and punctuality of our pupils is regularly monitored. Registers are taken at 8.50am and at 1:30pm daily. Any absence should be reported by parents before 9am.

Reporting absence:

• Call: 01494 524791 opt 2 (leave a voicemail)
• Email: attendance@millbrook.bucks.sch.uk
• Send a WhatsApp message to: 07519 652711

Please ensure you include your child's full name, class and symptoms that they are experiencing.

We will try and phone, send a text and send an email to parents to request information about their child's absence if we have not received a notification from you This allows us to ensure that pupils are safe and that parents are aware if their child is not in school.

The overall attendance at School and the individual attendance of pupils is regularly monitored - all staff hold a responsibility to promote and encourage good attendance at Millbrook Combined School.

Our Senior Attendance Champion is:

• Mrs Harding – Deputy Head

Our Attendance Officer is:

• Mrs Catlin

Attendance expectations at Millbrook Combined School

We want all our pupils to have excellent attendance so they can benefit from the teaching, curriculum, wider experiences and social opportunities that we are providing.

We are acutely aware of the DfE statistics highlighting that pupils who achieve well are noted to have higher levels of attendance, compared to those who do not. We want all Millbrook pupils to achieve to the best of their ability.

We are also aware that excellent attendance is a protective factor for pupils who are vulnerable.

We therefore expect parents to support regular attendance at Millbrook for their child, except in exceptional circumstances, such as illness, which means that they are unable to safely attend school and medical appointments that cannot be scheduled outside of school time.

When is a child too unwell for school?

This can be a difficult decision to make. With some illnesses it is very clear. However, with general coughs, colds and viruses it can be more complicated. A good guide is that if they are struggling to stay awake or are running a high temperature, they should be staying at home. Otherwise, send them to school and we will contact you if they are struggling.

There is some guidance here from the NHS which clearly outlines when children should be kept off school for particular conditions:

NHS: Is my child too ill for school? - NHS

The most common illnesses that you may want information on are listed below:

• Vomiting or diarrhoea - your child must stay at home until 48 hours have passed since the last incident.

• Chicken pox - your child must stay at home until the spots have started to scab over.

• Headlice - children can attend but should be treated as soon as possible.

• Covid - three days' absence is recommended by the NHS.

• Conjunctivitis - children can attend but should be treated as soon as possible

Attendance for pupils with Medical Conditions or Disabilities

We understand that some pupils will have lower attendance rates due to medical conditions (including mental health) or disabilities requiring regular treatment or medical appointments and that some of these pupils will also have more days when they are too unwell to attend school.

We endeavour to work closely with these families to support regular attendance and get the best outcomes for the child, providing any reasonable adjustments that may be needed. In cases where parents are telling us that low attendance is related to a medical need, we will contact the GP practice for confirmation. We may also contact Bucks School Nursing Team for advice.

What does our school do regarding attendance?

• We provide 190 days of planned curriculum delivery – not a day should be missed.

• We monitor attendance daily.

• We work with parents and families where attendance is becoming a concern.

• We report levels of attendance to educational bodies such as the DfE and the Local Authority, and Bucks Safeguarding team if we feel the absence may indicate a safeguarding concern.

• We aim to achieve an overall attendance target of at least 97%, which is above the national average for attendance in primary schools.

• We refuse term-time holidays.

• We refer families for fines, if the threshold is met

What can you do to help and support your child with attendance?

• Report the absence of your child as early as possible on the first day of absence.

• Ensure that your child is in the classroom prior to registration on time.

• Avoid taking any holidays during term time.

• Understand that the beginning and end of each term at school is just as important as any other time.

• Do not allow your child time away from school unless it is absolutely necessary.

• Encourage a pattern of punctuality and good attendance with your child – let them see that it matters- this sets them up for their future success.

• When one of your children is off, make sure that you get the others to school on time as normal.

• Take notice of how much time your child has been away from school.

• Let us know if you are about to move house, leave the area or need to change your address and/or any of your contact numbers. This is to ensure that we always have up-to-date contact information in case of emergency.

• Arrange dentist/GP and routine appointments outside of school hours.

How do we help and support you?

• We communicate individual attendance figures at Parents' Evenings and on your child's annual report.

• We phone, speak to you in person and/or write to parents if we feel that absence is causing a concern or there is a persistent absence.

• In the first instance we try to work with parents where a pattern of poor attendance is emerging.

• We aim to explore whether there are any barriers to attendance that we can help and support with.

• We work closely with the local authority on improving the attendance of pupils.

• Where a pupil has been identified as having persistent absence, we follow the Buckinghamshire guidance (see flow charts below).

• We want to help and support you in ensuring good attendance and punctuality- please speak to us!

Punctuality - what if your child is late?

• They might feel self-conscious.
• They will miss crucial learning at the beginning of the lesson.
• They will miss the social part at the beginning of the day.
• They may be reluctant or refuse to enter the classroom.
• It causes disruption for all other class members.

Term time holidays

The DfE are very clear that term-time holidays are not an acceptable reason for a child to be out of school. Their guidance states:

"You have to get permission from the head teacher/Attendance Officer if you want to take your child out of school during term time.

You can only do this if:

• you make an application to the Attendance Officer in advance by filling out an ‘Application for leave of Absence’ form
• There must be exceptional circumstances. (Too expensive to go during school holidays is not exceptional circumstances)

Requesting a planned absence in term time

In line with this guidance, any requests for a planned absence must be submitted prior to the absence using a form which can be collected from the school office. It is extremely rare that any request for a term time holiday will be authorised by the Headteacher. While we appreciate that holiday costs rise significantly during school breaks (as this is something that also affects our staff), this will not lead to an authorised request.

Fines for absence during term time

Millbrook Combined School works with Buckinghamshire Council on term-time absence and refers unauthorised absences once they meet the criteria.

From August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country will be £80 per child, per parent if paid within 21 days, or £160 per child, per parent if paid within 28 days. This rate is in line with inflation and is the first increase since 2012. In the case of repeated fines, if a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160 per child, per parent.

The fines are applied and received by Buckinghamshire Council and the money does not come to the school.