Why is Excellent Attendance so Important? 

Excellent attendance at school allows a child to have the best possible start in life:

• To learn and make excellent progress
• To build confidence and self-esteem
• To understand responsibility
• To develop new skills
• To grow as individuals
• To gain qualifications
• To make new friends, have fun and develop life skills
• To develop awareness of other cultures
• To ensure they have good mental and physical health
• To ensure they are safeguarded 

'Every Day Counts!'

Our strategy is communicated with parents and pupils right from our first meetings at the start of children's time with us in our induction meetings for parents. We over communicate this to pupils in school and to parents in letters, termly newsletters and in other communication. Children cannot achieve academically, personally or socially if they do not attend school regularly. They miss out on the incredible experiences we offer both inside and outside of the classroom and the extensive support we give for pupil mental health and well-being.

Excellent attendance at school is an expectation at Old Mill to support pupils in achieving their best. We aim to achieve 96% average whole school attendance, or above. Our whole school attendance is significantly above the national average every year due to our rigorous approaches and our supportive parents. 

What Guidance does the School Follow? 

Our attendance strategy and policy meets the requirements of the Department for Education’s (DfE) Working Together to Improve School Attendance statutory guidance for schools, which applies from August 2024. It also refers to the new National Framework for issuing penalty notices and reflects changes to the law introduced through the Education Penalty Notices England Amendment Regulations 2024, on school attendance parental responsibility measures.  Old Mill Primary School adheres to the Leicestershire County Council’s Local Code of Conduct for Issuing Penalty Notices 2024.) The detail of this information can be found in our Attendance Policy. 

Rigorous Monitoring and Support for Families 

Mrs Smith-Stewart, our Head teacher, is our Senior attendance Champion. She is supported in the rigorous daily, weekly and monthly monitoring of attendance by Mrs Snow, our attendance manager as well as Mrs Natalie Johnston, our school's Attendance Officer (AO). 

We follow our Attendance Policy to positively support families whose children are not attending school regularly enough or are late frequently. We are successful in helping families to reverse poor attendance due to our partnership approach with parents, their wider family, the pupils themselves and many multi agencies such as health, social care and benefits organisations. 

Parents are informed regularly by letter, of their child's attendance, if there is a cause for concern. Meetings and bespoke support is offered to all families who need help with their child's attendance. 

Attendance is reported formally on pupil's mid year and end of year reports. Parents can request a paper copy of their child's attendance at any time from the school's office. 

Informing us of your Child's Absence 

Parents/ carers are expected to telephone or email school or complete the Ping absence form by 9.00 am on the first day of absence, indicating the reasons for absence and likely length of time of the absence.

If this information is not received, the school has in place a system of first-day contact.  This means that parents will be telephoned, or a Ping message sent on the first day a pupil is absent without explanation to establish a reason for the absence.

Where it is not possible to make contact with parents on the first day of absence, the school will continue to try to make contact by phone.

Parents/ carers should continue to inform the school on each day of absence, unless agreed otherwise.

The above procedures may change if a pupil is considered as vulnerable, at the discretion of the Senior Attendance Champion/ Head teacher, where a home visit may be made.

Lateness

Registration closes at 9.10 am. Any pupil who arrives after registration closes will count as absent (authorised), before this, we will use a ‘late’ code to show the pupil was late to registration. Being late to school has serious impact on pupils' ability to settle and to feel part of their class and school community. 

Routine Medical and Dental Appointments

Parents/ carers should, where possible, not book non urgent medical and dental appointments in school time. When appointments are urgent or unavoidable, we ask that parents return their child to school immediately afterwards – or send them to school beforehand. We do not routinely expect to see evidence of appointments. We may on occasion, ask parents for their GP appointment text or hospital letter at the discretion of the Senior Attendance Champion/ Head teacher.

Term Time Holidays

Any requests for time off for a holiday will not be authorised, unless in the most exceptional of circumstances. Old Mill Primary follows the statutory guidance for schools which states that Head teachers should not authorise term time holidays.

If parents/ carers decide to take their child out of school for a term time holiday, it is their statutory duty to inform the school using the Leave of Absence form (available from the office) or by using the electronic form on PING.

Parents/ carers should send the form to the school in a reasonable amount of time before the holiday. It is not acceptable to place the request the day before the holiday commences or on the morning the holiday commences and expect an immediate response. Parents/ carers will be informed if the absence is authorised or unauthorised and any further action, in a letter from the Head teacher.

Penalty Notices for Term Time Holidays

The school will only seek to use penalty notices through the Leicestershire Local Authority, who are the receivers of any funds raised from the notices. The Leicestershire Local Authority issues the penalty notices to each parent, for each child who is absent from school. For more information, please read our Attendance Policy.