THE MINSTER SCHOOL ATTENDANCE POLICY

Transcription

1 THE MINSTER SCHOOL ATTENDANCE POLICY School Lead: Governor Lead: Assistant Head (Pastoral) Chair of SDP&P Committee Last reviewed Spring 2018 Approved Spring 2018 Date of next review Spring 2019 Signed by Chair of Governors or Chair of Committee: Date: 20/03/2018 This policy has been written with due regard to the school internal equality policy

2 CONTENTS Aim 1 Roles 1 Procedures and Strategies 2 Appendix: Attendance responses 3

3 ATTENDANCE POLICY AIM Our aim is to encourage full attendance at school. There is a clear link between attendance, motivation and achievement. Students need to feel secure at school, whilst following courses appropriate to their ability. Early detection of problems with attendance is important. Non-attendance at school can also provide early warning of potentially more serious problems. Every member of staff has an important role to play in encouraging good attendance and punctuality and preventing absenteeism. The Tutor s role is crucial in monitoring attendance and subject teachers too need to report absences. All staff have a part to play in the successful reintegration of students on their return to school. Parents/Carers need to be aware of the school s systems and be involved at an early stage if problems arise. Parental support is an important part of monitoring good attendance. The importance of good attendance is stressed in the students timetable backing sheets, together with an explanation of absence procedures. We expect parents/carers to recognise the importance of regular attendance at school and seek their support in: Ensuring that, with the exception of illness, their child attends school every session Ensuring that their child arrives on time to every session Keeping school informed of a student s absence Responding to any absence enquiry letters, which are sent out by the school Attending Parents Evenings ROLES Student: Strive for 100% attendance Be on time to school and to all lessons. Teacher: Students are registered for every lesson of the day using Lesson Monitor. Staff use SIMS to call up a register and having completed it, save it. This is done in the first 10 minutes of the lesson whenever possible. Staff must not overwrite marks which have already been put into the register and must use one of only 3 codes: / Present N Absent L Late (the number of minutes late must also be recorded) The Present code is used when students arrive late for a lesson with a note from another member of staff (e.g. Music Teacher or Nurse) explaining their lateness. A present code is also used when a bus arrives late and students are late for first lesson as a result. A paper or electronic register for trips and other activities is sent to the Attendance Officer. The Attendance Officer must be told in advance of alterations to normal student timetables, e.g. lists for trips, in-school events. 1

4 Attendance Officer: The Attendance officer oversees the attendance systems in the school by: Monitoring absence on a daily and lesson by lesson basis and contacting parents/carers Processing manual registers for exams, trips and other activities Conducting a daily register audit (missing registers) Liaising with parents/carers re absence (receiving letters, phone calls, voic , e- mail or face to face) Generating daily messages to the parents/carers of students who have unexplained absence on the previous day when appropriate Writing to parents/carers on a weekly basis regarding any unauthorised absences which are between 1 and 2 weeks old Ensuring that absence information is correctly recorded including unauthorised absence for absences 3 weeks old or older Providing weekly Attendance Reports on a weekly basis for the pastoral team and Tutors and also for parents/carers and staff as required/requested Providing lists of students with poor attendance to Heads of House on a weekly basis Discussing with Progress & Achievement Leaders those students who need referring to other agencies, such as the Early Help Unit, and making referrals Sending termly communication to the parents/carers of students with particularly good attendance Ensuring that traditional registers are maintained Tutors: On a weekly basis, tutors will refer to the absence record supplied by the attendance officer. Tutors will: Remind students of the need for notes for whole sessions missed Question odd lesson absences, and record and return to attendance officer Refer students with ongoing attendance or punctuality issues to pastoral team Tutors will not collect absence notes or holiday forms for students but will refer these students to Student Services. Progress and Achievement Leaders: The Progress and Achievement Leaders, alongside Pastoral Support Assistants, will become involved when students have ongoing attendance or punctuality issues. Progress and Achievement Leaders will use the data provided by the Attendance Officer to decide who to refer to the Early Help Unit. They will also decide when parents should provide medical evidence for absences based on students identified as being a cause for concern. The Progress and Achievement Leaders will also request letters from the Attendance Officer for students whose attendance needs to be raised with parents/carers. The Progress and Achievement Leader may also involve the Assistant Head (Pastoral) or the Behaviour for Learning Mentor when this is appropriate. The Progress and Achievement Leader, with the Pastoral Support Assistants, is also responsible for rewarding good attendance and for monitoring and reporting on the 2

5 attendance of students in his or her care. Progress and Achievement Leaders lead on developing individual approaches to improving attendance when this is necessary. Pastoral Support Assistants: Pastoral Support Assistants will work closely with their associated Progress and Achievement Leader to address attendance concerns. Each day Pastoral Support Assistants will telephone student s known to be pupil premium who have not attended school that day. Pastoral Support Assistants will support the Progress and Achievement Leader with all aspects of promoting good attendance and punctuality in their allocated year group. The Pastoral Team : This refers to the close working of the Progress and Achievement Leaders with the Pastoral Support Assistants and others. This term refers to the working together of all members of the pastoral team school. In many cases this work will be led by the Pastoral Support Assistants. Assistant Head (Pastoral): The Assistant Head monitors the overall attendance of students in the school through line management meetings with the Pastoral Team. The Assistant Head will provide a termly report to governors. Assistant Head (Curriculum): The Assistant Head will monitor and approve as necessary all alterations to student curriculum timetables where alternative provision is appropriate. The Assistant Head will report on this as necessary. PROCEDURES AND STRATEGIES Authorising Absence: Absences would normally be covered by a note, a phone call or an from parents/carers. If a student is absent for more than three days without notification, a letter should be sent home. Patterns of absence are monitored and figures for attendance are recorded on school reports. Only the school can approve absences, not parents or carers. If the Assistant Head (Pastoral), the Attendance Officer, Pastoral Support Assistant or the Progress and Achievement Leader are unhappy about the reasons given then these should be investigated. If a doubt remains about the explanation offered, or where no explanation is forthcoming, then the absence must be treated as unauthorised. First Day Calling: We recognise that good attendance at school helps to support good progress for students. We also know that a student missing from school is a possible indicator of a variety of safeguarding concerns including abuse and the risks of Child Sexual Exploitation. Missing from school is also a risk indicator for the threat of radicalisation and the new Prevent duty for schools makes clear that we must be alert to this threat. 3

6 As part of our on-going attempts to improve the attendance of all our students, when students are absent from school and no reason has been provided for this absence, the Attendance Officer will contact home to discover why that student is absent. Term Time Absence: Holidays should not be taken during term time as these are very disruptive to students education. The school will only allow time off during term time in exceptional circumstances. In practice, all term time requests for time away from learning will be declined unless there are genuine and unavoidable circumstances where refusal to authorise would be detrimental to a child s emotional or physical health or development. If a parent/carer believes that there are exceptional circumstances they should ask for a term time absence form from the Attendance Officer. Once this has been completed and returned to the Attendance Officer, they will receive written advice as to whether this request will be authorised or not. Parents/carers should only book holidays once they have been informed as unauthorised holidays will be recorded as unauthorised absence. Any such exceptional request should be made with as much notice as possible. Internal Truancy: Internal truancy is followed up by the Pastoral Team, investigating the reasons for students who are not present in lessons and issuing an after-school detention. The Attendance Officer will be informed and will record the absence as unauthorised. Additional sanctions will be applied to persistent truants. Punctuality: Students should be encouraged to be punctual for all lessons. A student will be marked late if he/she arrives after the register has been completed. Lateness is monitored through tutor group reports by tutors. Students who are persistently late will be sanctioned. Individual teachers and departments should follow-up punctuality issues within individual subject areas, the Pastoral Team focusing on the broader picture of punctuality across school. Prolonged Absence: Prolonged absence because of illness would involve referral to the Health Related Education Team service by the Pastoral Team in conjunction with the Attendance Officer and cooperation with them in setting of work to be done at home. After a lengthy absence returning to school can be difficult for some students. Staff need to be sensitive to these difficulties. Support and help should be given with catching up on missed work and with settling back in to the school routine. Anxious students: Some students suffer from anxiety which can be linked to coping with the large number of students in school, working in some areas and attending assemblies. These students will need a good deal of support if they are to overcome, or learn to cope with, their anxieties. Strategies which have been used to help these students include: re-integration on a gradual and planned basis review of the student s timetable, grouping and tutor group a safe place for the student to work in or go to if necessary a named person to act as support and counsellor referral and support from the Family Service 4

7 referral to the Educational Psychologist Rewards: Certificates are presented each year to students with good attendance (100% and 98%). Tutor group s attendance will also be recognised with the best group each week being awarded a certificate as well as the most improved tutor group. Interventions: Tutors and the Pastoral Team will identify when interventions are needed by the Attendance Officer and Targeted Support, based on data and suggestions by the Attendance Officer. Attendance will also be reported through the yearly school reports to every student s parents or carers. Links to other policies This policy should be read alongside and in conjunction with other policies, in particular the: Child Protection Policy Behaviour Policy LA guidance on Children Missing from Education (CME) LA flowchart: The Graduated Response to Non-Attendance 5

8 Appendix A: Support for Students Absent from School Students may be absent from school for a number of reasons. Physical injuries can mean an extended time away from school as can chronic illness. Anxiety Related Non-Attendance (ARNA) may lead to absence from school and may play a part in making a return to school more difficult for students who have been absent for other reasons. Parents and carers may support absence from school for a range of reasons; the school will work with them to emphasise the need for their child to attend school. We will work with parents, students and other agencies where appropriate to support students to return to school and to achieve the best educational outcomes. We will also support students to identify and achieve appropriate progression routes to secure their future life chances. This protocol has been drawn up in conjunction with the Local Authority (Educational Psychology Service and Fair Access Team). The Minster School offer: Minster School provides education at school. This may include securing provision at an alternative placement for students where this will better meet their needs. Such a placement will be carefully chosen to optimise a student s academic achievement as well as to meet their social, emotional and behavioural needs. Minster School does not provide education at home or through the use of tutors other than in exceptional circumstances and as part of a planned programme designed to secure transition back into the main school environment. In these cases it is unlikely that such provision would persist for more than a few weeks unless there are clear signs of progress towards reintegration into school. For students who are temporarily unable to attend school due to illness or injury, Minster School will provide work for students to complete at home. Feedback will be given on any work returned to school. Support with understanding the work and with transition back into school will be provided through telephone conversations, and occasionally, visits to the student s home. Where the health needs of a student mean that he or she is unable to access education at school for an extended period, including where anxiety plays a part in this, the school may make a referral to the Health Related Education Team (HRET) from the Local Authority to secure appropriate support. This is a time-limited service with a view to full re-integration back into school. 6

9 Appendix B: Anxiety Related Non-Attendance (ARNA) Anxiety is an important contributor to school non-attendance. It may play a part in absence for other reasons including where a student is suffering with physical illness. Although some level of anxiety is normal and natural, extreme anxiety can interfere with everyday life and cause significant disruption to socialising or going to school. A student suffering from ARNA will want to stay at home during school hours where they may show reduced emotional distress. Parents may find it very hard to keep encouraging their child to attend when they can see that distress is reduced by staying at home. The school will work with parents and students to sustain and build on existing levels of school attendance rather than settling for the current levels of non-attendance. It is important to recognise that ARNA is a continuum of need. There are students attending school with high levels of anxiety who need support to avoid becoming non-attenders. They are represented in quadrant B in the diagram below. A number of strategies are used in school to support students struggling with high levels of anxiety. These include: supported break and lunch times meet and greet at the front door on arrival re-integration on a gradual and planned basis review of the student s timetable, grouping and tutor group a safe place for the student to work in or go to if necessary a named person in school to act as support and counsellor regular reviews with parents or carers referral and support from a Targeted Support worker referral to the Educational Psychologist The Local Authority and Educational Psychologists advise that providing education in the home can be counter-productive in cases where ARNA plays a part in a student s absence. This may support students in moving from quadrant B above to quadrant D. In these cases, students need to be encouraged to leave the home, to meet other people and to be supported in overcoming their anxiety. We understand that this is a difficult process and that students and their parents may need support in recognising that staying at home is self-defeating and that they need to persist with the difficult challenge of engaging with social situations and school. 7

10 Appendix C: Usual attendance and absence responses Prompt Unexpected first day absence Second (and subsequent) day of absence Past absences with no explanation following return of student to school. Response Text message sent (9:30am) by the Attendance Officer Pupil Premium students parent or carer will also receive a phone call/message (from 11am) from the relevant PSA The Attendance Officer (or PSA) will phone home if there has been no response yet received to the first day text. Pupil Premium students will receive a further phone call from the relevant PSA with consideration of: support with work (how much can they be expected to do) encouragement of return advice on seeking medical appointments Initially this will be queried with the student by his/her tutor. Should there still be no response, this will be followed up by letter. 8

11 Appendix D: Responses to developing absence concerns Prompt Missing Learning request Concerns about physical illness Concerns about anxiety At the half term review: absence above 5% At the half term review: absence above 10% At the half term review: significant attendance concerns are identified. Third day of nonattendance Response If Parents or Carers make an application for time out of school for a student to be authorised, a decision will be made by the Assistant Headteacher in line with the approach set out in Appendix I. Most such requests will be turned down. Once a decision has been made whether to approve the absence, this will be communicated home by the Attendance Officer. If the Pastoral team (PAL, PSA, Attendance Officer) identify that a student is likely to be absent for an extended period (1 week or more) they will be added to the Currently Absent log. An will be sent to all teachers asking for work to send home Work will be sent through or post The PSA will contact home to check there are no issues with completing the work Support in school to avoid anxiety issues developing into non-attendance will be put in place in line with Appendix B. The school Attendance Officer will send standard s raising concern (see Appendix H). The school Attendance Officer will send a standard letter raising concern (see Appendix H). Parents will be informed that their child is now at risk of being classified as persistently absent from school. A meeting will be held in school with parents or carers. This will aim to lead to a shared understanding of the concerns and the reasons for absence. The discussion may include: Requesting evidence of medical reasons for absence Any extra support which can be put into place to address anxiety issues A possible referral to the Early Help team which could be the first step towards prosecution for non-attendance. The extent to which a student should be ill before parents decide to keep them away from school The PSA will also flag a concern to the PAL who will begin an absence intervention plan in line with Appendix F. A PSA will phone home to discuss: The suggested date of return How to complete any missed work Any possible anxiety related to absence or return (including consideration of meet and greet) Reasons for absence if these are not already known Pupil Premium students will also be offered more extensive support for catching up with work including liaison with teachers and checking that the work is completed 9

12 Appendix E: Responses to more entrenched absence concerns Prompt Significant long term attendance concerns, such as: Six week absence above 30% Absence is repeatedly or persistently above 10% - the student will be PA at end of year On-going medical issues Identified ARNA For Pupil Premium students we will intervene earlier. HRET team has been involved but reintegration has not been successful or the student is too ill to attend school or work with HRET. Response In all such cases, an in-school planning meeting will be held and an absence intervention plan will be used. This will be led by the relevant PAL but will include other staff in school and parents or carers of the student. Each case will need an individual response to best support an improvement in attendance. For students with health issues, whether anxiety related, physical or both: Referral to the Health Related Education Team (HRET) will be made to support transition back into school and to help identify further barriers to reintegration. Work will be provided by teachers for use by the HRET team. In cases of ARNA, this should not be seen as an acceptable alternative to attending but as a part of the reintegration plan. The relevant PSA will make regular contact ( , phone, video calling, occasional home visits) to support the student s sense of belonging at school. Consideration of an Early Help Referral where the young person or family could benefit from more support. Referral to Fair Access will be made for consideration as a complex case where the Local Authority should be responsible for educational provision. (See Illness and your child s education. ) In cases of physical illness: Work will be provided and marked by teachers if appropriate School will use inclusion funds to support staffing needed for liaison with the home including home visits or contact from school ( , phone, video calling) Where SEND needs are identified and AFN/HLN funding can be secured, home tuition will be considered In cases of ARNA: The PSA will continue to make frequent contact, at least twice per week, ( , phone, video calling, occasional home visits) to support the student s sense of belonging at school and to progress their ability to overcome the barriers to returning to school. Meetings with student, parents, mental health professionals, Educational Psychologist and Fair Access team will be held with an emphasis on planning for a return to school. Where SEND needs are identified and AFN/HLN funding can be secured, consideration will be given to the short term use of a tutor to deliver the curriculum content. This will only be where there is movement towards reintegration into school and will follow a planned progression, for example, bedroom study area out of school teaching (eg library) in-school after school day in-school during school day in lessons. Tuition will not be provided where this may be seen as an alternative to school attendance. Whilst work may continue to be made available for the student to complete at home, this does not constitute teaching. 10

13 Appendix F: Attendance Intervention Plan Student Name: Tutor Group: Tutor: Mentor: Other key workers: Parent name and contact: Identification of initial concerns: Attendance concerns: Other concerns: Judgement: Authorised Medical Unauthorised - ARNA Unauthorised - Parental condoned absence Unauthorised - Truancy Individual circumstance which will not be repeated Plan Date Actions Review 11

14 Appendix G: Attendance booklet 12

15 Appendix H: Leave of absence APPLICATION FOR LEAVE OF ABSENCE WHICH WILL RESULT IN MISSING LEARNING DURING TERM TIME EVERY DAY COUNTS Attached is an application form for you to request permission for your child to be absent from school. Before completing the application form, please read these notes carefully: The law states that you do not have the right to take your child out of school during term time. The Local Authority works with schools to reduce the numbers of children missing school because of holidays taken in term time and schools can refuse your request to take your child out of school. If you wish to take your child on holiday during term time, you must apply for permission in advance in writing using the attached form. Permission for authorised leave of absence may only be granted for holidays in exceptional circumstances. Guidance from the government state that absence for holidays in term time due to the following reasons will not be authorised: availability of cheap holidays availability of desired accommodation poor weather experienced in the school holiday period overlap with beginning or end of term holidays booked before checking with the school day trips There are certain times of the year when a child may experience extra problems because of missing school. These include examination periods, at the time of starting a new school and at the start of a new school term. In deciding whether to authorise your child s absence and give permission for a holiday in term time, the school will take these and other factors into account. If the school refuse your application and you still take your child out of school the absences will be treated as unauthorised. Unauthorised absences may lead to a Penalty Notice or a Summons being issued against you for irregular school attendance. In the light of the recent change by the Government to make it more difficult for schools to authorise time off school, The Local Authority have made clear that in determining whether circumstances are exceptional, consideration should be given to the following points: The likelihood that particular circumstance would recur That the circumstances mean that the holiday would significantly improve a child s health or wellbeing That the circumstances mean that the holiday would prevent a deterioration of a child s health or wellbeing 13

16 That the circumstances mean that a child s educational development is unlikely to be impaired Having read these notes, if you still wish to apply for a leave of absence for your child to accompany you on holiday during term time then please complete the application attached. This form should be returned to your child s school as far in advance of the proposed holiday as possible. APPLICATION BY PARENT/CARER FOR CHILD S LEAVE OF ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL DURING TERM TIME WHICH WILL RESULT IN MISSING LEARNING Pupil s Name Tutor Group/Class Home Address. I wish to apply for my child to be absent from school during the following dates: Date of Last day at School.. Date of Return to School.. Total number of school days missed. Could you please explain the circumstances that make it necessary to be away from school during term time? Please continue overleaf if necessary including how this time off will affect the health or wellbeing of your child. 14

17 I make application for my child named above to have authorised absence from school for the reasons stated. I understand that if this is not agreed then any absence will be treated as unauthorised and may lead to the issue of a Penalty Notice or a Summons for irregular school attendance. Name of Parent/Carer making application.. Signed Date PLEASE RETURN COMPLETED APPLICATION FORM TO YOUR CHILD S SCHOOL GIVING AT LEAST 4 WEEKS NOTICE OF INTENDED ABSENCE Please do not book your holiday until you know that the school will authorise your child s absence 15