Attendance
It is widely known that the link between a pupil’s attendance and attainment is evident. Early poor attendance habits follow through into secondary school and employment. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines, so may affect the learning of others in the same class. Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school (above 96% attendance) is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.
Helping to create a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility – parents, pupils and all members of school staff. In May 2022, the Government issued a new document – 'Working together to improve school attendance.' This document outlines the importance of children attending school, and makes the responsibilities of all involved in a child's education clear, including parental responsibility:
"It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school."
"Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances, such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school."