Attendance
Attendance at Sandfield Primary School.
Attendance is a priority at Sandfield. We firmly believe that all pupils benefit from a high level of attendance. As a staff we do all we can to encourage parents and carers to ensure that pupil’s achieve maximum possible attendance and that any barriers to this are identified early and acted upon promptly.
The school’s attendance target for 2024-2025 has been set by the Inclusion Team/Inclusion Officer at 97.0%
Punctuality and the Start of the School Day:
Sandfield will keep daily records of morning and afternoon attendance and punctuality as well as monitoring individual pupil’s overall attendance and punctuality. Registration takes place promptly between 8.45 and 8.50am. Any pupils who arrive up to 9.05am will be recorded as late and receive a ‘late’ mark in the register. Registers close at 9.05am and after this time, lateness is recorded as an unauthorised absence and subsequently a missed session. Persistent lateness by a pupil will be referred to the Home School Link Worker and / or the Inclusion Team/Inclusion Officer and can be subject to penalty notices.
Please remember to send a message via MCAS to the school office before 9.15am if your child is unwell and is going to be absent from school. Wherever possible medical appointments should be made after school or in the school holidays.
Ways to Help with your child’s punctuality:
· Prepare all bags and uniform the night before
· Set an alarm allowing some extra time in the morning in case of delays
· Have a consistent morning routine
· Consider putting a visual routine in place to support with the morning routine
· Have a ‘plan B’ connect with local families who may be able to help out if the need arises.
If you need further support with this, please contact Lucy Lidstrom, HSLW via the main school office.
Attendance
If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, please consider sending them in as they often perk up on arrival. Our staff team will monitor children carefully throughout the day and, under your instruction, can give basic medication (calpol, antihistamine etc.) if we have received written instructions from you to do this.
There are 175 non-school days to make appointments, to go on trips and go on holidays.
Medical Appointments – Parents/carers are encouraged, whenever possible, to book medical and dental appointments outside of the school day. When appointments during school hours are unavoidable, please inform the school office with a copy of the medical appointment letter via parents@sandfield.surrey.sch.uk. Please note that absence is not authorised for a whole day for an appointment.
Family holidays – The school holiday dates and inset days are published a year in advance and are available on the school’s website. Family holidays need to be booked within the school holiday dates. Family holidays are not deemed exceptional circumstances and will not be authorised. Please see the Fixed Penalty Notice letter that has been sent out by parent mail with regards to fines for holidays in term time.
If you would like the Headteacher to consider an absence for any other reason than those stated above, the Application for Leave of Absence should be completed and submitted to the school office before any leave is taken.
School Support:
We will work to support families to achieve good attendance by:
-being on the gate to meet and greet your pupils every morning – the gate is staffed throughout the week by Mr Osmand (caretaker), Mrs Collins (headteacher), Miss Mcillroy (deputy Head and Y2 teacher), Lucy Lidstrom (HSLW), Mrs Mabinda, Mrs Donnithorne and Mrs Elliot (office staff)
-offering a morning club to support work life balance for our families.
-safeguarding your children – registers are checked every morning and contact will be made with parents by 0930 if they are not in school and no information has been shared by parents.
-contacting families in writing when attendance falls below 95%
-inviting families to attendance planning meetings where we can agree and sign up to attendance targets.
-making referrals – if further support is needed then we will make referrals for external support
– sharing attendance data termly
Excellent Attendance 97% and above you will receive a termly update on your child’s attendance and your child will be able to fully access all of the opportunities at Sandfield Primary.
Initial concerns 95-97% you will receive letter to support your understanding of the impact of the absence.
90 to 95% you will receive written confirmation of your child’s attendance, noting concerns and impact.
Unacceptable Attendance Below 90% you will receive a letter to state that you must now provide medical evidence for any absence otherwise it will be unauthorized
Penalty Notices:
From September 2024, in line with the August 2024 publication of Working Together to Improve School Attendance document https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance a Penalty Notice may be issued as an alternative to the prosecution of a parent/carer for their child’s unauthorised absence from school and will be used by Surrey County Council in the following circumstances:
1. Pupils identified by police and Attendance Advice Officers engaged on Truancy Patrols and who have incurred unauthorised absences.
2. Leave of absence in term time (5 days or 10 sessions or more)
· This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks).
· Please be aware that The Education Regulations 2013 state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
· The Headteacher is also required to determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if leave is granted.
3. The issuing of a Penalty Notice will also be considered where it is judged that a parent is failing to ensure their child’s regular school attendance. This will be considered when a pupil has incurred 10 or more unauthorised sessions in the previous 10 school weeks, which may include a pupil arriving late after close of registration.
Amount Payable for a Penalty Notice and Consequences for Repeat Unauthorised Absences
1. If you have not incurred a Penalty Notice relating to your child/children in a rolling 3 year period since 19th August 2024, then the Penalty Notice will be charged at the rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80.00 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
2. If you have incurred a Penalty Notice relating to this child/children since 19th August 2024, the rolling 3 year period will be activated from the date of the first Penalty Notice and the second Penalty Notice will be charged at the flat rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. There will be no reduction for payment within 21 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.
3. If you have incurred 2 Penalty Notices relating to this child/children in the rolling 3 year period since the first Penalty Notice was issued, then you will NOT receive a third Penalty Notice – Surrey County Council will have no option but to consider a prosecution, per parent/carer per child, in the Magistrates Court under Section 444 Education Act 1996
