Attendance
Why It Matters
- Parents receive text messages with child's individual attendance percentage
- A Dojo message to all parents with the whole schools attendance and year group attendance
- 100% chocco lotto spin in assembly
- Class with highest attendance wins a pizza party
- Classes with over 94% attendance get to play Winoply in assembly where there are lots of opportunities for treats and prizes
- children with 100% for the term receive Bronze, Silver, Gold badges
- special treat for children with 100% for the year
What You Can Do
We understand that children will need time off school when they are poorly.
However, you can avoid attendance becoming a concern by engaging with school and not taking unnecessary days off e.g. holidays during term time. Trying to make appointments for your child, and other family members, out of school hours will reduce time missed in classroom. This will make less of an impact on their school life.
You may not realise how quickly the odd day off can lead to a big dip in attendance percentage, indicating to school and other agencies that there may be problems to address.
If your child is not in school regularly, they will miss out on fundamental learning in the classroom. This is extremely difficult to catch up on and affects all aspects of their future education, as well as forming bad habits.
If your child is unable to attend school because they are ill, then please contact school to let us know. If you do not inform school then school will need to make a home visit.
If you are attending an appointment and it can’t be rearranged or out of school time, please show the office your appointment card/text and your absence will be authorised.
Punctuality is just as important as attendance. If your child has 100% attendance but regularly arrives up to half an hour late, they are still missing vital learning.
If you are late, an adult must come into school and sign them in.
As part of our on-going support system for children and their families you will receive regular updates on your child’s attendance with a strong focus on how it affects their learning.
Most importantly we have an open-door policy. If you have ANY queries or would like support on any matter, we have a great welfare team who can provide referrals or advice.
Infection Control in Schools - advice on when to keep your child off school.
Leave of absence in term time – fixed penalty notices
The government has published new statutory guidance to schools around attendance which came into effect from the 19th August 2024. We have updated our attendance policy in line with this new guidance, but we also wanted to make you aware of the changes to fixed penalty notices for unauthorised leave in term time.
At Hasting Hill Academy, we strive to achieve excellent attendance for all our pupils. Children who attend school regularly positively impacts on their overall social, emotional and academic development. However, we recognise that some absence is unavoidable and we will support pupils and families in these exceptional circumstances.
Generally, the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. Therefore, we have revised our procedures for leave of absence in term time.
Leave of absence in term time.
Parents/carers must request authorisation from the headteacher if they want to take their child out of school during term time.A Request for Absence form must be completed at least two weeks in advance of the absence and there must be exceptional circumstances for this leave to be authorised by the school. In line with DfE guidance, the school does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. Leave of absence should also not be authorised for a pupil to take part in protest activity during school hours
Therefore, the following would not be considered as exceptional circumstances:
- A holiday as the parent/carer was unable to book leave within the holiday period
- A holiday where the parent/carer is unable to take leave within the summer holiday period
- A holiday with other relatives who have limited restricted/leave
- A holiday to visit family members living abroad
- A holiday due to limited leave or to seasonal employment
- A holiday where a child has an existing good attendance record
The headteacher will make the final decision regarding the authorisation of the absence.
A parent/carer can be fined for taking a child on holiday during term time, if it meets the threshold for a fixed penalty notice for children of compulsory school age. If the request for absence is not authorised, and the child is absent from school during that period, the parent/carer could receive a warning letter or be issued with a fixed penalty notice (by Sunderland Together for Children) for each child taken out of school.
The school must consider whether a penalty notice is appropriate in each individual case where one of their pupils reaches the national threshold for considering a penalty notice. When a leave request is not authorised or a parent/carer has not sought authorisation for the leave of absence and/or no explanation has been given for the absence, the school will consider a request for a penalty notice.
Together for Children will be issuing all Penalty Notices requested by schools in the area which meet the threshold of ten or more unauthorised sessions leave (in a block or accumulatively) taken without the permission of the school, and where the reason given does not meet any criteria for exceptional circumstances.
Changes to Penalty Notices for unauthorised leave of absence taken in term time: From the 19th of August 2024 only 2 Penalty Notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a 3 year rolling period and any 2nd Penalty Notice issued within that period is charged at a higher rate:
- The first Fixed Penalty Notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular child will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days, this will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
- A second Fixed Penalty Notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same child will be charged a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
- A third Fixed Penalty Notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first Penalty Notice.
- In a case where the national threshold is met for the third time (or subsequent times) alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering Prosecution but may include other tools such as one of the other Attendance Legal Interventions. The school can contact the LA to request the issue of a Penalty Notice, if there have been at least 10 sessions of unauthorised absence, in a block or accumulated, in the preceding 10 week period. The school regard any absence as potentially damaging to the continuity of learning; we therefore only authorise absence in exceptional circumstances after careful consideration. A leave of absence could only be authorised if requested in advance and is considered by the Headteacher as exceptional circumstances or as one of following reasons:
- Medical appointments
- Dental appointments
we do ask parents/carers try to organise routine appointments outside the school day