Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education. Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any problems if your child does not want to go to school.

The St. Nicholas School Attendance Policy is available for more information.

 

Regular school attendance

Good attendance shows secondary schools and future potential employers that your child is reliable.

St. Nicholas Catholic Primary School records details of all children’s attendance and absence from school. We do so at the beginning of morning and afternoon sessions. If your child is absent, you must inform the school immediately.

The school will record the absence and the Local Authority will receive this information for each child. The Department of Education also receives annual attendance data for the school.

 

Your responsibilities as a parent

By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. For most parents, this means registering their child at a school. Although some parents choose to make other arrangements to provide a suitable, full-time education.

Once your child is registered at a Primary School, the parent is legally responsible for making sure they attend on a regular basis.  If your child does not attend school on a regular basis, you could be subject to a fine or be prosecuted in court.

 

How to prevent your child from missing school

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

• making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality.

• taking an interest in their education, ask about schoolwork and encourage them to get involved in school activities.

• discussing any problem they may have at school and letting their teacher or principal know about anything serious.

• not letting children take time off school for minor ailments, particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work.

 

To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:

• after school hours.

• at weekends.

• during school holidays.

• You should not expect St. Nicholas Catholic Primary School to agree to your child going on holiday during term time.

 

Support on school attendance

A child’s school attendance can be affected if there are problems with:

• Bullying.

• Housing or care arrangements.

• Transport to and from school.

• Work and money.

 

If your child starts missing school, you might not know there is a problem.  If there is a problem, please approach their teacher or the school leadership team.

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St. Nicholas approach to supporting and improving school attendance.

 

The Strategic Approach

St. Nicholas Catholic Primary School adopts the Birmingham City Council - Support First approach; in support of the national attendance improvement strategy - Working Together to Improve School Attendance. The emphasis is on developing a school culture and climate which builds a sense of connectedness and belonging to ensure all children can attend school and thrive.  The approach ensures we prioritise building solid working relationships with children and parents prior to any escalation.  The staged approach we use ensures we identify triggers early that can lead to poor attendance issues such as mental health issues, lack of trust, communication and relationship breakdowns and the possible lack of networking opportunities both internal (in-school) and external (external agencies).

 

Aims

 

• Increase school Attendance and reduce Persistent Absence to meet set targets.

• Ensure Attendance is well managed within the school, with the appropriate level of resources allocated.

• Enable the school to make informed use of Attendance data to target interventions appropriately, focusing on the key demographic groups highlighted in the DfE paper.

 

Objectives 

 

• create an ethos within the school in which good attendance is recognised as the norm and every child/young person aims for excellent attendance.

• make attendance and punctuality a priority.

• set focused targets to improve individual attendance and whole school attendance levels.

• record and monitor attendance and absenteeism and apply appropriate strategies to minimise absenteeism.

• develop a systematic approach to gathering and analysing relevant attendance data.

• provide support, advice and guidance to; parents, children and young people and develop mutual cooperation between home and the school in encouraging good attendance and in addressing identified attendance issues.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​St. Nicholas Catholic Primary School follows the Birmingham City Council - Support First approach. The approach is evidence-informed and completely child-centred and allows the school to understand the whole school approach to supporting and improving attendance, this is completely aligned to our CORE SCHOOL VALUES – FAITH, ACHIEVEMENT and HAPPINESS.  We create welcoming environments to allow all children to gain a sense of belonging and ultimately achieve academically through regular school attendance. 

The St. Nicholas School Attendance Policy is translated into practise through the processes and systems we follow. The escalated approach supports children at each stage, parents who do not engage with support understand why, at times, we must follow this process. 

All staff receive attendance training to support the whole school approach, they understand their role in improving attendance. Certain staff are identified to engage in specialist training to continue to support families and children who work with external partners.

We use data information to support children as this allows us to understand the groups, and individuals, who require specific programmes of intervention. Reviewing each programme allows us to understand the effectiveness of support and change what is not working.

Finally, we train and support all staff to understand the ‘root cause’ of concerns. Staff use the wider curriculum to allow all children to feel valued and accept themselves.  We celebrate attendance success and ensure children returning from long absence receive a planned transition.

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DfE: Working Together to Improve Attendance

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From September 2024 the DfE: 'Working Together to Improve School Attendance' paper replaced all previous guidance on school attendance except for statutory guidance for parental responsibility measures.  

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