School attendance

Why regular school attendance is so important

Regular attendance at school is vital to help children achieve and get the best possible start in life. Children who frequently miss school often fall behind.

Regular school attendance is closely linked to good educational outcomes, like GCSE grades. It may also lower the chances of children engaging in crime or antisocial behaviour.

Attending school is also important to a child’s wellbeing and development. When children miss school, it is not just about missing lessons, it’s also about losing valuable time that can be spent with their friends and teachers. Missing school can also cause anxiety about returning to their setting.

Talking to your child and their teachers could help to solve any difficulties you have in getting your child to go to school. There are other forms of support available if you still have problems.

What the law says

By law, all children of compulsory school age (5 to 16) must receive and are entitled to a suitable full-time education. Most parents register their child at a school. However some choose to make other arrangements to provide a suitable, full-time education.

Once your child is registered at a school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly at their setting. If your child fails to do so, you risk receiving a fixed penalty notice or being prosecuted.

A child must go to school every day it's open. There are a few exceptions, like medical reasons or if the school gives permission in advance.

Support

Children can struggle to attend school for a wide variety of reasons. 

Within Bracknell Forest, we operate a support first approach to making sure your child is able to attend their place of education. If the barriers to your child’s attendance lie within school, it is school’s responsibility to work with you to help overcome any issues you or your child may have.

School contact information, including the school’s senior leader responsible for attendance, can be found in a school’s attendance policy.

Lateness

Schools are required to take an attendance register twice a day. This is at the beginning of the morning session and again at the beginning of the afternoon session. A child who is not present when the register is taken will be marked absent for the entire session.

Late arrival at school can:

• disrupt the other children in the class
• be stressful for your child if they are late when entering the classroom
• cause poorer outcomes

If your child is frequently late to school, this may result in a fixed penalty notice.

Holidays during term time

It is at the discretion of individual headteachers whether or not to authorise absence for taking your child out of school during term time. You can only do this if there are exceptional circumstances. It is up to the headteacher to decide if the reason you provide is exceptional.

If you decide to take your child on holiday during term time without permission, the headteacher may ask Education Welfare Services to issue a fixed penalty notice.

Sickness and medical appointments

Children can usually attend school if they have minor symptoms. Parents or carers need to make a judgement if a child is too ill to attend. View your child’s attendance policy on their school’s website for information about reporting this type of absence.

Medical appointments should be made outside of school hours where possible. If you are unable to get an appointment outside of school time you should send your child into school wherever possible either side of this.

Notice to improve

A notice to improve is a final opportunity for a parent or carer to get support and improve attendance before a penalty notice is issued.

If the national threshold is met and the support needed has not been engaged with or has not worked, a notice to improve may be sent.

An authorised officer may decide not to issue a notice to improve. This can happen where support is appropriate but the officer does not believe that a notice would change a parent or carer’s behaviour.

For example, because the parent or carer has already received one for a similar offence. This may result in other avenues being explored to improve attendance.

The notice to improve will be sent to each parent or carer of the pupil by first class post. An identified improvement period of 4 or 6 weeks will be included in the notice to improve, in order to achieve sustained change. 

If unauthorised absence continues during the improvement period, the school will tell the council and Education Welfare Services will consider issuing a fixed penalty notice at the request of the school.