At Ranelagh we want your child to get the best from their education. We know that attendance is a major factor which impacts directly on how well children do at school. It is a focus nationally and the aim is that more children will reach their potential through improved attendance and punctuality. It is a parent/carer’s legal responsibility to ensure the child attends school daily. Whilst we understand that children do become ill through the year, consistent attendance should result in attendance of a percentage close to 96%. We want to raise the profile of attendance and to inform you of our current practice. 
 

• The start of the school day is for ALL CHILDREN.
• The doors to the school will be open from 8.40am
• Registers are taken in class at 8.55 am.
• Children who arrive after this time will need to enter via the school office and will be marked as late.

• Any pupil who arrives AFTER the register has closed (9.10am) will receive an unauthorised late mark.

We want to raise the profile of attendance at Ranelagh and work with families to make sure our children get the most from their education; promoting good attendance and punctuality through:

• Newsletters
• School displays

• Reporting on attendance in school reports and at parent evenings.

• Celebration assemblies

• First-day absence contact

From September 2024, new procedures will come into place which aim to keep parents better informed of their child's attendance and deal with any attendance issues early and quickly:

• If your child is absent we will:

• Telephone or text you on the first, and every subsequent day of absence, if we have not heard from you.  However, it is your responsibility to contact us;
• If we are unable to make contact with parents by telephone, we will telephone emergency contact numbers, send letters home and a home visit may be made, in the interests of safeguarding;

• If absence continues we will:

• Write to you if your child’s attendance is below 95% (1^st letter), 92% (2^nd letter), 90% (final letter) or where punctuality is a concern;
• Arrange a meeting so that you may discuss the situation with our Senior Attendance Champion.
• Create a personalised action/support plan, such as an attendance contract, to address any barriers to attendance and make clear each person’s role in improving the attendance patterns of your child;
• Offer signposting support to other agencies or services, if appropriate;
• If attendance does not improve then the matter would be referred to the Local Authority for relevant legal sanctions, if attendance deteriorates following the above actions.

There is now a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England, of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. The 10 sessions of absence do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence (G, O and/or U coded within the school’s registers). The 10-school week period can span different terms, school years or education settings.

Sanctions may include issuing each parent (for each child) with a Penalty Notice for £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days (for the first offence). A second Penalty Notice issued within a three-year period will result in a fine of £160 per parent, per child. If a third offence is committed the matter may be referred to the local authority for consideration of prosecution via the Magistrates Court. If prosecution is instigated for irregular school attendance, each parent may receive a fine of up to £2500 and/or up to 3 months in prison. If a parent is found guilty in court, they will receive a criminal conviction.

There is no entitlement in law for pupils to take time off during the term to go on holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure or recreation, or to take part in protest activity in school hours.