Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised if the pupil’s parent notifies the school in advance of the appointment and provides evidence of the appointment.

However, we encourage parents to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

The pupil’s parent must also apply for other types of term-time absence as far in advance as possible of the requested absence.

A pupil who arrives late:

• Before the register has closed will be marked as late, using the appropriate code

• After the register has closed will be marked as absent, using the appropriate code

 

Good punctuality is very important for a settled start to the day and form tutors will monitor punctuality to morning registration.

 

Morning registration takes place at the start of day at 8.40am and students should be on the school site by 8.38am, giving them enough time to reach their form room by 8:40am. Students arriving onto the site after 8.38am will be recorded as late. We recognise that on rare occasions a student may be late due to extenuating circumstances on a particular morning. Please do contact the school so we are aware before your child arrives.

 

Any student who is on school site by 8:38am but arrives to their form room after 8:40am will be marked as late and given an “L” code on the register.

 

Students arriving late to school (after 9:00am) should report directly to main reception on entry. Any student arriving to school after 9.00am without a valid reason will also receive an appropriate sanction from their Head of Year. Students arriving after 9.00am without an acceptable explanation will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

In cases where the absence at registration was for attending an early morning medical appointment, the appropriate authorised absence code will be entered when supported with evidence (letter or appointment card) from home.

Students who arrive late to any lesson will receive a late ‘L’ mark. Heads of Year will monitor and action accordingly.

At 2.07pm a bell will notify students to move to their period 5 lesson. Any student who arrives to their period 5 lesson after 2:10pm will be marked as late.

On the third occasion a student is late they will be issued an after-school detention. Parents/carers will receive 24-hours notification of this detention via email. Heads of Year will contact parents/carers to arrange a meeting to discuss ways forward to rectify punctuality concerns.

 

Truancy of tutor time will result in students being issued an after-school detention. Parents/carers will receive notification of this detention via email along with an unauthorised mark on their registration.

Where any pupil we expect to attend school does not attend, or stops attending, without reason, the school will:

• Send a message via ClassCharts to the pupil’s parent on the morning of the first day of unexplained absence to ascertain the reason. This will then be followed by a telephone call if there is no response to the message.

• Identify whether the absence is approved or not

• Identify the correct attendance code to use and input it as soon as the reason for absence is ascertained – this will be no later than 5 working days after the session(s) for which the pupil was absent

• Call the parent on each day that the absence continues without explanation, to make sure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary. If absence continues, the school will consider involving an education welfare officer

• Where relevant, report the unexplained absence to the pupil’s youth offending team officer

• Where appropriate, offer support to the pupil and/or their parents to improve attendance

• Identify whether the pupil needs support from wider partners, as quickly as possible, and make the necessary referrals

• Where support is not appropriate, not successful, or not engaged with we will issue a notice to improve, penalty notice or other legal intervention as appropriate

In September 2013 the government introduced new regulations making it clear that Headteachers must not give approval for any leave of absence during term time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances.  The Headteacher will allow pupils to be absent from the school site for certain educational activities, or to attend other schools or settings.

 

The Headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to a pupil during term time if the request meets the specific circumstances set out in the 2024 school attendance regulations.  A leave of absence is granted at the Headteacher’s discretion, including the length of time the pupil is authorised to be absent for.

 

Leave of absence will not be granted for a pupil to take part in protest activity during school hours.

 

As a leave of absence will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, it is unlikely a leave of absence will be granted for the purposes of a family holiday.

 

The school considers each application for term-time absence individually, taking into account the specific facts, circumstances and relevant background context behind the request.

 

Any request for term time leave should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least two weeks before the absence, and in accordance with any leave of absence request form, accessible via the school website or via collection of a paper copy from school reception. The Headteacher may require evidence to support any request for leave of absence.   You must have received written authorisation before your child can be absent from school.

 

Parent/carers may be issued with a penalty notice fine or prosecution should leave of 5 days or more be taken which is not authorised by the Headteacher, or where repeated incidents of leave in term time for less than 5 days occur or where the unauthorised absence contributes to wider poor attendance that meets the legal threshold.  Absence deemed for the reason of unauthorised leave in term time will be marked in the register with the attendance code “G”.

 

You may be issued with a penalty Notice should leave be taken which is not authorised.  If unpaid, this could lead to prosecution under Section 444(1) of The Education Act 1996.

 

Although some parents may find themselves in difficult circumstances which require them to organise holidays in term time, The Ripley Academy believes students should not miss school for this reason.  Whilst we understand the difficulties parents/carers may have in organising holidays during the school holidays and the benefits to be had from cheaper term-time holidays, this type of absence is detrimental to a child’s education.

Other valid reasons for authorised absence include (but are not limited to):

• Illness (including mental-health illness) and medical/dental appointments (see sections 4.2 and 4.3 for more detail)

• Religious observance – where the day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the pupil’s parent(s) belong(s). If necessary, the school will seek advice from the parent’s religious body to confirm whether the day is set apart

• Parent(s) travelling for occupational purposes – this covers Roma, English and Welsh gypsies, Irish and Scottish travellers, showmen (fairground people) and circus people, bargees (occupational boat dwellers) and new travellers. Absence may be authorised only when a traveller family is known to be travelling for occupational purposes and has agreed this with the school, but it is not known whether the pupil is attending educational provision

• If the pupil is currently suspended or excluded from school (and no alternative provision has been made)

Other reasons the school may allow a pupil to be absent from the school site, which are not classified as absences, include (but are not limited to):

• Attending an offsite approved educational activity, sporting activity or visit or trip arranged by the school

• Attending another school at which the pupil is also registered (dual registration)

• Attending provision arranged by the local authority

• Attending work experience

• If there is any other unavoidable cause for the pupil not to attend school, such as disruption to travel caused by an emergency, a lack of access arrangements, or because the school premises are closed

Our school will make use of the full range of potential sanctions – including, but not limited to, those listed below – to tackle poor attendance. Decisions will be made on an individual, case-by-case basis.

The Headteacher (or someone authorised by them), local authority or the police can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age, by issuing a penalty notice.

If the school issues a penalty notice, it will check with the local authority before doing so and send it a copy of any penalty notice issued.

Before issuing a penalty notice, the school will consider the individual case, including:

• Whether the national threshold for considering a penalty notice has been met (10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks)

• Whether a penalty notice is the best available tool to improve attendance for that pupil

• Whether further support, a notice to improve or another legal intervention would be a more appropriate solution

• Whether any obligations that the school has under the Equality Act 2010 make issuing a penalty notice inappropriate

 

Each parent who is liable for the pupil’s offence(s) can be issued with a penalty notice, but this will usually only be the parent/parents who allowed the absence.

 

The payment must be made directly to the local authority, regardless of who issues the notice. If the payment has not been made after 28 days, the local authority can decide whether to prosecute or withdraw the notice.

 

If issued with a first penalty notice, the parent must pay £80 within 21 days, or £160 within 28 days.

 

If a second penalty notice is issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil, the parent must pay £160 if paid within 28 days.

 

A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of the issue of the first penalty notice. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time within those 3 years, alternative action will be taken instead.

 

A penalty notice may also be issued where parents allow their child to be present in a public place during school hours without reasonable justification, during the first 5 days of a suspension or exclusion (where the school has notified the parents that the pupil must not be present in a public place on that day). These penalty notices are not included in the National Framework, not subject to the same considerations about support being provided, and do not count towards the limit as part of the escalation process.

For further information, please click here to download Derbyshire County Council Advice for Parents

The Headteacher (or someone authorised by them), local authority or the police can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age, by issuing a penalty notice.

If the school issues a penalty notice, it will check with the local authority before doing so and send it a copy of any penalty notice issued.

Before issuing a penalty notice, the school will consider the individual case, including:

• Whether the national threshold for considering a penalty notice has been met (10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks)

• Whether a penalty notice is the best available tool to improve attendance for that pupil

• Whether further support, a notice to improve or another legal intervention would be a more appropriate solution

• Whether any obligations that the school has under the Equality Act 2010 make issuing a penalty notice inappropriate

 

Each parent who is liable for the pupil’s offence(s) can be issued with a penalty notice, but this will usually only be the parent/parents who allowed the absence.

 

The payment must be made directly to the local authority, regardless of who issues the notice. If the payment has not been made after 28 days, the local authority can decide whether to prosecute or withdraw the notice.

 

If issued with a first penalty notice, the parent must pay £80 within 21 days, or £160 within 28 days.

 

If a second penalty notice is issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil, the parent must pay £160 if paid within 28 days.

 

A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of the issue of the first penalty notice. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time within those 3 years, alternative action will be taken instead.

 

If the national threshold has been met and support is appropriate, but parents do not engage with offers of support, the school may offer a notice to improve to give parents a final chance to engage with support.

 

Notices to improve will be issued in line with processes set out in the local code of conduct for the local authority area in which the pupil attends school.

 

They will include:

• Details of the pupil’s attendance record and of the offences

• The benefits of regular attendance and the duty of parents under section 7 of the Education Act 1996

• Details of the support provided so far

• Opportunities for further support, or to access previously provided support that was not engaged with

• A clear warning that a penalty notice may be issued if attendance doesn’t improve within the improvement period, along with details of what sufficient improvement looks like, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis

• A clear timeframe of between 3 and 6 weeks for the improvement period

• The grounds on which a penalty notice may be issued before the end of the improvement period

The school will monitor attendance and absence data (including punctuality) half-termly, termly and yearly across the school and at an individual pupil, year group and cohort level.

 

Specific pupil information relating to attendance will be shared with the DfE daily as part of their data collections.

 

Data will be collected each term and published at national and local authority level through the DfE’s school absence national statistics releases. The underlying school-level absence data is published alongside the national statistics.

 

The school will benchmark its attendance data at whole school, year group and cohort level against local, regional, and national levels to identify areas of focus for improvement and share this with the governing board.

The school will monitor attendance and absence data (including punctuality) half-termly, termly and yearly across the school and at an individual pupil, year group and cohort level.

 

Specific pupil information relating to attendance will be shared with the DfE daily as part of their data collections.

 

Data will be collected each term and published at national and local authority level through the DfE’s school absence national statistics releases. The underlying school-level absence data is published alongside the national statistics.

 

The school will benchmark its attendance data at whole school, year group and cohort level against local, regional, and national levels to identify areas of focus for improvement and share this with the governing board.

Persistent absence is where a pupil misses 10% or more of school, and severe absence is where a pupil misses 50% or more of school. Reducing persistent and severe absence is central to the school’s strategy for improving attendance.

 

The school will:

• Use attendance data to find patterns and trends of persistent and severe absence

• Consider potential safeguarding issues and, where suspected or present, address them in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education

• Hold regular meetings with the parents of pupils who the school (and/or local authority) considers to be vulnerable or at risk of persistent or severe absence, or who are persistently or severely absent, to:

• Discuss attendance and engagement at school

• Listen, and understand barriers to attendance

• Explain the help that is available

• Explain the potential consequences of, and sanctions for, persistent and severe absence

• Review any existing actions or interventions

• Provide access to wider support services to remove the barriers to attendance, in conjunction with the local authority, where relevant

• Consider alternative support that could be put in place to remove any barriers to attendance and re-engage these pupils. In doing so, the school will sensitively consider some of the reasons for absence

• Implement sanctions, where necessary

• Hold attendance meetings in school with the Attendance Officer, Head of Year, student and parent/carer

• Hold attendance panel meetings in school with the Head of School/Deputy Headteacher, Attendance Officer, student, parent/carer and any other associated professional
• Use Notice to Improve Letters and monitoring periods

• Students with diagnosed medical conditions whose attendance level is around 90% may be invited, with their parents, to attend a Medical Attendance Support Panel meeting to discuss ways in which the student may be supported by the school to improve attendance levels. The aim of the meeting is to ensure that the school is doing everything it can to support the student and to ensure that all appropriate services are in place and medical advice from CAMHS or a paediatrician is taken into account.

• All Medical Attendance Support Panel meetings will take place with the student’s parent or carers present. If the parent or carer declines to attend, they will be given the option to give their consent for the meeting to take place without them. In this exceptional case, the student’s form tutor will also attend the meeting to further support the student concerned.

• Any student who has an attendance level below 96% will be under the remit of the Attendance Officer. The Attendance Officer makes decisions in relation to home visits, fixed penalty warning letters, fixed penalties, referral to the Attendance Panel, fast track referral and/or any other appropriate action in conjunction with the Deputy Headteacher.

• Any student with a level of attendance at or below 90% can, in liaison with the Attendance Officer, be subject to an Attendance Panel referral.

• The panel, which will consist of parents/carers, student, the Attendance Officer and the student’s Head of Year will examine the reasons for the absence and by working together will develop strategies for improving the student’s attendance. The student’s attendance will be reviewed every four weeks until a 90% (or above) attendance is achieved.

• If any student who has been referred to the Attendance Panel continues to record a decline in attendance, parents/careers may be subject to a further Attendance Panel referral with a member of the Senior Leadership Team or they will be subject to the fast-track process which will be initiated by the Attendance Officer. This process will fast track the parents or carers of persistent absentees to court to consider legal proceedings.

The Local Authority will be notified of any student who is absent for 20 consecutive school days (and not receiving any education). This is done by submitting a referral to the Children’s Services Attendance Team and is a legal requirement. The school will include details of the action that they have taken to date. Please refer to the school’s ‘Children Missing in Education’ policy which can be found on the school website.

It is important that parents keep the Deputy Headteacher informed when they are considering changing schools, as we have a duty to inform the Local Authority of any child that we believe has left our school and has not provided forwarding information on their destination and education provision. If we are unable to establish your child’s new school, we would have to refer them as a missing child to Derbyshire County Council. As a result, your child’s name may be kept on a missing register and efforts will be made to trace them. It is also important to know about a new school so that we can send on your child’s records.