Attendance

At Burgh by Sands School, we believe that regular attendance helps children to get the most out of their school experience, including their achievement, wellbeing and wider life chances. There are only a few circumstances in which a child is able to miss school, such as illness or if permission has been given because of an exceptional circumstance.

Missing a day or more of school can cause unnecessary anguish and upset for children: not only are they missing out on lessons which may make learning more difficult for your child when they return, but they may also miss out on special events and social aspects of learning and development. We work closely with parents and carers to ensure that every child attends school regularly and on time.

If your child misses school without a good reason, the local authority can intervene and you may be issued with a fine.

From September 2024, the Department for Education introduced a new national framework which means that the same rules apply to all schools and local authorities when considering whether to issue a fine. Under the new framework, all schools are required to consider a fine when a child misses 10 or more sessions (five days) for unauthorised reasons and has to report these to the LA. In many cases, schools and local authorities will offer support to try to improve your child’s attendance first, but if this is not effective, or the absence is for an unauthorised holiday in term time, you could be issued with a fine.
From August 2024 the amount of the fine increased to £80 if paid within 21 days or £160 if paid within 28 days. If a second fine is issued for the same child within a three year period the amount will be £160.
The number of fines you can receive for each child is capped at two within a three year period from the date of the first fine. If this limit is reached, other action, such as a parenting order or prosecution, will be considered by the Local Authority. Fines are issued separately to each parent.

Reporting Absence

We know you make every effort to get your children to school on time, each day, but sometimes illness is unavoidable. There are also times when a child is ill in school and we have to ask you to pick them up early. And, of course, the '48-hour rule' applies when pupils are physically sick. See NHS Guidance - Is my child too ill for school? for information about whether you should keep your child off school.

There are several ways a parent or carer can inform us of absence:

by telephone, where Mrs Anna Graveson records this information and communicates it to the teachers;
by email to office@burgh-by-sands.cumbria.sch.uk
by personal contact (face to face when dropping siblings at school)

If we don’t hear from you

For safeguarding reasons, it is vital that you let us know why your child is absent from school. There have been serious case reviews showing how absence from school can impact on the safety of a child, and this highlights the importance of organisations like schools knowing that children are safe and well.

If we don't hear from parents (please view our link to our First Day Calling procedures)

We will attempt to make contact by phone.
We will visit the child's home to make sure they are safe if we have not had contact from the parent/carer on day one of absence after a follow up call on day 2 is attempted
If we haven't heard from parents by the third day of absence, we will inform our local support officer for Access and Inclusion.

It is therefore essential that we hold up-to-date contact details. If you change your phone number or address, please let us know immediately.

Letters to parents regarding absence

Each term, we contact parents by telephone or face to face if we have concerns regarding attendance, if your child's attendance continues to remain low-below 90% or drop below 85% we send out letters to parents This may be regardless of the reasons for absence eg illness or term-time holidays. If attendance remains below 90% over time we may ask parents to attend a formal attendance review meeting in school, we will look at goals to achieve higher attendance and make a formal agreement together and thereby keeping children safe and avoiding any penalties from our LA.

Term Time absences

In line with Government and Local Authority policy, any holidays taken in school time have to be recorded as an unauthorised absence. Our school is accountable to the DfE and Cumberland LA for attendance.

Holidays in term-time are the main reason for lower attendance, and Cumbria LA ask schools to refer absences to them for the issuing of a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). We use NAHT guidance for 'exceptional circumstances' when making a decision about what is deemed authorised or unauthorised - and our reasons are closely monitored and scrutinised by those above us. We have authorised a number of days off due to exceptional circumstances (e.g. day of wedding or funeral, religious celebration etc.) but most do not fall under this category and have to be designated as unauthorised.

Impact of absences

Absences affect how well children do in school. 90% attendance may look reasonable., but if you stretch that out over a child's time in school, 90% from Reception to Y9 means that a child has missed a whole school year.

Please refer to the graphic below to understand the impact that attendance has on your child's learning.

Attendance Matters