Attendance is Attainment

 Being in school every day will enable your child to:

• Access the lessons needed to thrive and reach their potential
• Maintain friendships and develop new ones
• Have access to social and sporting events offered by the school
• Explore potential careers
• Build aspiration
• Develop work habits such as good punctuality which are essential to thrive in the world of employment

Attendance Procedures

Children are expected to attend school every day to make sure that they are getting the most out of their education. Good attendance at school is incredibly important for children to achieve great educational outcomes and reach their full potential.

Absence reporting

If your child is too unwell to attend, then please call the school by 8.40am to provide details of:

• Child's name 
• Class
• Date of absence
• A brief description of the illness

We recognise that there may be other medical or dental appointments that take place during school time. Wherever practical or possible, these should be arranged for school holidays but where this is not possible then the school must be notified of the child’s absence, in advance and proof of the appointment must be provided.

We offer a supportive approach to attendance and encourage families to come and speak with us if there are any barriers to your child attending school.

Below is guidance for to show if your child can come to school/how long you may need to keep your child off from school with the below medical conditions:

Attendance – The legal part

The law requires children of school age to be in full-time education during the 38 weeks of the school year. It is highly disruptive to your child’s education if they are absent due to family holidays or other non-urgent reasons. In addition, there is then a knock-on impact on other children in the classroom because teaching time needs to be spent with your child upon their return to help them catch up with what they have missed.

For all other absences a written case must be made for consideration by the Headteacher, at least two weeks in advance.

Parents should note that authorisation is only expected to be granted in exceptional circumstances. If absence is unauthorised then this is counted as truancy and, in line with local schools, a fixed penalty notice will be served for unauthorised absences of 5 days or more.

We recognise that in addition to the situations above there may be genuine short-term domestic or family emergencies and these will be dealt with sensitively and using common sense on a case-by-case basis.

As of August 2024, Northamptonshire’s County Council’s guidance on attendance has been changed. Penalty notices can now be issued for 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absences including lateness in a rolling period of 10 weeks. A combination of these absences over a 10-school week can be from a period of different terms and/or school years.

Periods of unauthorised absence the school will contact Northamptonshire County Council who will prepare an order for prosecution. Penalty Notices are issued to each parent of each child and the amount will be £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. If a second penalty notice is issues within a rolling 3-year period, then the charge will be a flat rate of £160 per parent per child if paid within 28 days. In both instances failure to pay the penalty in full at the end of the 28-day period may result in prosecution.