Attendance

At Silkmore Primary Academy, attendance is monitored daily and contact will be made to all parents where we have not received a legitimate reason for your child’s absence. We will also follow up any voicemail messages received with a phonecall.

Attendance is tracked and analysed regularly and if we feel that there are concerns around your child's attendance, we will send out attendance reminders. You will then be invited in for a meeting where we can sit and look at what support we can offer together to help to improve your child's attendance.

Please be aware of the following:

• If your child has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10 school-week rolling period, you may be issued with a Penalty Notice. (A session = a morning or an afternoon i.e a day = 2 sessions)
• These 10 sessions may include any unauthorised absence, including leave in term time, such as holidays that are not agreed, and do not have to be consecutive. Unauthorised absences are recorded for children who are late after the register has closed, do not provide medical evidence for appointments or have not contacted school to inform the reason of the absence.
• Penalty Notices are currently set at £160. This can be reduced to £80 but only for the first Penalty Notice issued, if paid within 21 days – this reduction does not apply to any subsequent Penalty Notice.
• Any 2nd Penalty Notice, to the same parent for the same child, issued within three years of the date of the first Penalty Notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160.
• A third Penalty Notice will not be issued within a three-year rolling period, to the same parent for the unauthorised absence of the same child, - alternative action or legal measures will be utilised for subsequent offences.
• Absence for leave in term times will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances – please note that holidays or extended leave for family visits cannot be considered as exceptional circumstances. We understand the challenges of the costs of holidays during the school holidays and of having extended family who live abroad, however the guidance from the DfE is clear that we cannot authorise these absences. As a school we will always consider exceptional circumstances that sit outside these reasons on a case-by-case basis.

If pupils are consistently late, this could contribute to their unauthorised absence levels and result in action being taken by the Local Authority. The school gates close at 8:50am in order for the children to be registered by 8:55am ready to start learning at 9am.

Maintaining a good level of attendance is not only essential for your child’s day to day learning but is also crucial in setting positive habits and mindsets for their future.

If you need support with your child’s attendance, please come and talk to a member of your child’s class team or Mrs S.Williams, our attendance lead.