Good attendance at school is key to success. Missing school for any reason can cause your child to fall behind in their learning and/or cause them to struggle with friendships.

At Sundon Lower School we consider 96% and above to be good attendance.

Punctuality

Our school gates open at 8.40 and school days start promptly at 8.45. (all children must be in school by this time)

Leave of absence

Guidance from Central Bedfordshire Council (August 2013) regarding family holidays during term time and the use of Fixed Penalty Notices (September 2014) make it clear that there is no right of entitlement to term-time leave and any requests for such leave will not, as a rule, be granted.

It is only in very ‘exceptional circumstances’ that leave will be granted.  Any decision as to what constitutes ‘exceptional circumstances’ is down to the discretion of the Headteacher.

The following instances are offered as examples of what might reasonably be considered to constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’:

• A parent or other close relative of the child has a serious, life-threatening or terminal medical condition and it is believed that the holiday requested may be the last opportunity for the family to experience such an event.
• A parent is in the armed forces and is shortly due to be posted overseas to a known danger-spot.
• The family is in an extreme state of crisis and it is considered that the holiday in question may help the family to avert or better deal with this crisis.

Fixed Penalty Notices

A Penalty Notice (£60 per parent/carer per child) may be issued when:

• A pupil is taken out of school during term-time for a holiday which has not been authorised by the school.
• A truancy patrol carried out by a School Attendance Officer has found a pupil absent from school and the absence has not been authorised by the school.
• A child’s school attendance has been poor and his/her school believe that the issuing of a Penalty Notice may lead to an improvement in the child’s attendance (for example, when a child is persistently late for school and his/her parents/carers fail to address the situation).

Further information on the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices can be viewed via Central Bedfordshire website at:

https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/info/4/pupil_support/526/non-school_attendance

Please support us by avoiding holidays during term-time.

To request a Leave of Absence, please download and complete the form below and then email it to the school office:   office@sundonlower.co.uk

Please read the notes above and ensure forms are returned to the school at least 6 weeks before the date when you want the period of absence to start (a separate application must be completed for each child).

School Attendance Statutory Guidance with effect from  19th August 2024

From 19^th August 2024 the government are providing statutory guidance with regards to school attendance. Statutory guidance sets out what schools and local authorities must do to comply with the law.

The guidance is given in a large document called Working together to improve school attendance, a copy of which can be found on the attendance page of our website or at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.

The key points to the document, which are most likely to affect pupils and parents are as follows:

Punctuality at school is important and expectations should be set out in the attendance policy.

Schools are only permitted to authorise absence from school in ‘exceptional circumstances’. The document goes on to state that “the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.”

When a pupil has 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence within 10 weeks, a fixed penalty notice is issued by the local authority. The following sanctions apply over a rolling 3-year period:

• 1^st offence - £160 fine per parent, per child (reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days).
• 2^nd  offence - £160 fine per parent, per child
• 3^rd offence – Court hearing, up to £2,500 fine or 3 months in prison and a criminal record.

Punctuality (school expectations).

Pupils are expected to be in their classrooms:

• by 8:55am for Oak Class and 9.00am for Years 1 – 4

Those pupils arriving after the time above has closed will be entered on the register as arrived late until

9.15am. Pupils arriving after 9.15am will be entered on the register as ‘U’. A ‘U’ code on the register is an unauthorised absence and counts towards a possible fixed penalty notice.

The school’s attendance policy has been updated accordingly and can be found below.

Kind regards
Miss V Paulding