School Attendance Guidance for Practitioners:
Children 11-18 years
1. Context
2. Education is not statutory for young people in the older age range, after the end
of Year 11, and should be considered in relation to age and development. For
advice about schools admissions contact Access team or use the online
admission form. Link
3. Thresholds and action:
Universal
4. What does good attendance look like?
5. School absence rates in City of York secondary schools are low.
6. Data for the Local Authority for 2010-11 shows that absence rates in
secondary school years are:
Y7
4.5%
Y8
5.2%
Y9
5.6%
Y10
5.8%
Y11
7.3%
Overall absence average for
LA
5.7%
7. Any child achieving lower absence than the average for their year, as indicated
above, needs acknowledging as a good attendee. Always use opportunities to
remind parents of the good attendance of their child
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8. Parents can be reminded that children who attend well are much more likely to
achieve academically. Evidence shows that children who miss school for more
than 17 days will drop a grade in their GCSES.
Emerging/Vulnerable
9. The child or young person may have inconsistent attendance at school, maybe
with poor punctuality.
10. Attendance is worse than school/LA average but not yet at Persistent
Absentee (PA) level.
11. A PA is anybody with 15% or more absence for whatever reason. (The DfE
collect data termly from all schools about the number of PAs they have.)
12. The DfE have suggested that from January 2015 they intend to lower the level
of absence at which a pupil becomes a PA to 10%.
13. Even though a child may have 90% attendance this means that they are
absent 10% of the time, which may appear satisfactory but is actually almost
twice the average for a secondary school pupil. It will mean over a school year
they will be absent for almost 4 weeks. If the child has 20% absence then the
child will miss more than a half term and over their secondary school career
they will miss the equivalent of a full year of education.
14. A practitioner known to the child or family will have a role in supporting good
attendance. You may make enquiries about a child’s attendance and use
opportunities to point out that, for example, 90% attendance is below average.
Opportunities to praise can also be found, such as a child’s attendance being
at 90% but on an improving trend
15. If the child is at risk of becoming a PA then this should be mentioned to
parents and to the school. They may be unaware. You can identify whether a
child is at risk of becoming a PA using the termly thresholds below.
15% threshold
(Cumulative)
2014-15
Autumn Half Term 1
12 sessions absence
Autumn Half Term 2
22 sessions absence
Spring Half Term 1
31 sessions absence
Spring Half Term 2
39 sessions absence
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Summer Half Term 1
47 sessions absence
Summer Half Term 2
58 sessions absence
16. Provide parents and the child with opportunities to share any concerns about
school i.e. is the child struggling with work? Do you know of any barriers to
better attendance i.e. is the child acting as a young carer? If so seek consent
to share this information with the school or encourage the parent to share with
school.
17. Find out who the attendance lead is in the school. You may suggest a meeting
with the school, parent and pupil that you can attend to support parent/child.
18. Consider a Common Assessment (CAF) or Family Early Help Assessment
(FEHA) and Team Around the Child/Family (TACF) meeting. The Children’s
Advice Team can provide names of others working with the family, or with
siblings, who may also be able to support your work in regard to the good
attendance of the child. (Parental consent to contact the Children’s Advice
Team is ideally required unless this is a safeguarding issue. Equally parents
consent is required to talk to other agencies.) Advice about Integrated Working
tools such as CAF and FEHA is available on the YorOk website or from the
Children’s Advice Team. Link
19. Is the absence authorised? If so this means that the school has accepted the
reasons, given for the absence and it is therefore legitimate absence.
However if there are high levels of authorised absence this may indicate some
unmet medical needs. Suggest to the parent that they talk to their GP about
the child’s absences. Is there an underlying cause for the regular illnesses?
20. Schools are entitled to ask for evidence from parents so that they can satisfy
themselves that the absences are genuine. Schools can not request medical
sick notes but they can ask for evidence of appointments with the GP etc. such
as appointment cards. Alternatively the parents may provide consent for
school or others working to support them to contact their GP or school nurse.
See guidance available on medical absences. Link
21. You may wish to discuss the high levels of authorised absence with school and
propose that they talk to the parent. The school may wish to consider whether
they continue to authorise high levels of absence.
22. If necessary remind parents that only schools can authorise this absence and
that the school may want clarification or information that may help them better
support the child.
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23. Suggest to the parent they use good common sense when deciding whether
their child needs to stay at home. Early morning aches often pass and children
should not be kept at home “just in case” when they could be learning in
school.
24. For some children taking holidays in term time contributes to them being PAs.
Parents do not have a right to take their children out of school for holidays;
only head teachers can authorise holidays and the circumstances in which
they can are limited. In 2013 DfE stated that head teachers must only
authorise requests for leave of absence for holiday in term time in exceptional
circumstances. Guidance is available on Family Holidays in term time.
Guidance is available on York OK website re. holidays in term time. Link
25. Parents can be reminded that children who attend well are much more likely to
achieve academically. Evidence shows that children who miss school for more
than 17 days will drop a grade in their GCSES.
Escalating/Complex
26. Frequent absences: - attendance has reached level where pupil is deemed to
be a Persistent Absentee (15% or more absence). Their absences may be
compounded by poor punctuality.
27. Within the City of York, using the 15% figure, data for 2013-14 shows that we
have almost 430 (out of over 8,500) pupils in secondary schools that would be
regarded as PAs.
28. As a practitioner working with a child or family do you know what the children’s
school attendance is like?
29. For all pupils at PA level, or near, schools should, unless there are strong
reasons not to, invite parents/carers in to meet with them.
30. It is likely that by this stage the school will have previously expressed their
concerns to the parents. Despite expressing their concerns they have seen no
significant improvement and as such they may consider inviting the parents to
attend a School Attendance Panel meeting. As a practitioner who knows the
child/family you may be able to offer the parents support at this meeting.
Support in helping develop positive home/school links can be vital as this is
one of the single biggest factors in ensuring children do well in school.
31. The Children’s Advice Team can be contacted, ideally with parents consent,
unless it is a safeguarding issue.
32. If the child has significant levels of unauthorised absence then it is possible an
offence is being committed by the parents.
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33. As above ask why the child is absent so often; is it due to holidays, exclusions,
illness etc.
34. For all unauthorised absences, parents can be reminded of the impact on their
child’s education of poor attendance and that poor attendance may have
possible consequences for them too. The Local Authority can prosecute
parents with the maximum penalty being a fine of up to £2500 and/or a 3
month custodial sentence. Alternatively a Fixed Penalty Notice could be issued
to parents meaning they have fine to pay of up to £120 per parent per child. A
leaflet is available from the YorOk website. “Is your child missing out”
35. If a significant number of absences are due to exclusions then consider talking
to Danesgate Community for advice.
36. Consider initiating a CAF or FEHA planning process and contacting the
Children’s Advice Team. This may identify barriers to improved attendance
and bring in further sources of support i.e. mentors, Children in Need service,
Family Focus or parenting support. Advice about Integrated Working Tools is
available on the YorOk website. Link
37. As a practitioner you may have a role in writing to the parents to explain
formally your concerns. This may be part of the evidence the LA presents to
court. Remember this only happens when all other attempts to protect a child’s
right to their education have failed. For advice contact Mark Smith (Schools
Adviser: Attendance and Integrated Working) on 01904 555187 or
mark.smith@york.gov.uk)
38. You may also support parents in attending any Pre Court Meeting held by the
LA.
Acute
39. Constant absences, attendance is significantly worse than Persistent Absentee
level (15% or more absence) and the child is likely to be missing more than
they are present. Poor punctuality may also be a concern.
40. Continue with previous strategies.
41. Children who are acute non attenders may be considered by the Behaviour
and Attendance Partnership. Ask school to consider a referral.
42. Also consider the appropriateness of legal measures, seek advice from Mark
Smith School Adviser: Attendance and Integrated Working on 07748 182 897
or mark.smith@york.gov.uk)
October 2014
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