Attendance at Buckingham Primary School
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High Attendance Children who attend school regularly benefit in the short and long term. A child with good attendance is setting themselves up for a better future once they leave school. Employers want staff who are reliable, and good attendance is a sign that your child can be trusted. Low attendance There is a clear link between poor attendance at school and lower academic achievement. Even taking a small amount of time off school can be problematic. Your child is likely to fall behind in their work and find it hard to catch up. The fact is, if your child doesn’t attend school regularly, they are less likely to do as well as other children. Absence also impacts on the social elements of schooling, which could affect your child's ability to make and keep friends. Children who miss schooling during the early years are likely to start school already behind their peers, particularly in the acquisition of language and their social development. Being late for school affects a child’s learning too. A child who is 10 minutes late every day will miss 30 hours of lessons during a year. In summary, low attendance may lead to fewer chances and fewer choices when they are looking for work and developing social relationships later in life. Did you know? · If a child has 90% attendance that means that he/she is absent for lessons for half a day every week. · If their attendance stays at 90% during the academic year he/she will miss 4 weeks of school, which equates to nearly half a term. · If his / her attendance stays at about 90% from Year 1 to Year 6 he / she will have missed 27 weeks which is over half a school year. |
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Leave of Absence Requests
Holiday during term time is not authorised unless in exceptional circumstance e.g. death in the family, religious celebration. Please click here for the leave request form.
The government has made improving school attendance a high priority. New legislation was introduced in September 2013 regarding pupil attendance and Bucks County Council has now issued further information to all schools regarding the introduction of penalty notices. The information below explains the new legislation to parents. This is a government-led initiative and means that all schools must adopt this approach.
Following DFE guidelines, issued in September 2013, we would like to reiterate that, we are not in a position to authorise any leave of absence during term time. These measures are beyond the school’s control and all local heads have agreed to follow county guidance and policy. We actively discourage parents from arranging holidays during term time and will only authorise absence for such holidays in exceptional circumstances. ‘Exceptional Circumstances’, means that the parent/s must outline their case as to why their child/children should be treated differently to the norm. This must be submitted in a letter to myself prior to the absence taking place and before any holiday is booked and monies paid. Unfortunately, if leave is taken without authorisation, it will be recorded in the school attendance register as an unauthorised absence, which is as truancy. This reflects poorly on the school. Penalty notices came into effect from 1st April 2014. This means parents could be subject to a fixed penalty fine of £60 per child per parent for holidays taken in term time. We would like to make clear that the school does not benefit financially from this at all. This is a fine levied by the Educational Welfare Specialist Unit at Bucks County Council and is collected by them and retained by them. In addition to holiday leave, the County Council has also issued guidelines on irregular school attendance. This refers to pupils whose attendance is 95% or below. Parents of pupils falling into this category could also be subject to penalty notices. I would like to remind parents that if your child is absent from school, it is your responsibility to inform the school on the first day of illness and to provide regular updates to avoid their absence being recorded as unauthorised. Valuable office time is currently lost making attempts to contact parents to obtain reasons for absence. The County Council has issued the following criteria to ensure the consistent delivery of penalty notices:
Irregular school attendance;
Overt truancy (including pupils found during truancy sweeps);
Parentally-condoned absences;
Unauthorised holidays in term-time;
Being in a public place during the first five days of an exclusion
To clarify, these guidelines refer only to children of compulsory school age. Children reach compulsory school age on the term following their fifth birthday.
Ofsted judge our attendance as a key measure of our performance and we have always aimed to achieve a high attendance rate. We urge parents to support our ongoing efforts to reduce the lost days of education which can affect your child’s progress. Our current attendance policy is being reviewed by governors and will be available on the website in due course. This outlines all our procedures for any absence including holidays, appointments and sickness.
I am sure with continued partnership with parents, we can meet the government expectations. We thank you for your continuing support.
Holiday during term time is not authorised unless in exceptional circumstance e.g. death in the family, religious celebration. Please click here for the leave request form.
The government has made improving school attendance a high priority. New legislation was introduced in September 2013 regarding pupil attendance and Bucks County Council has now issued further information to all schools regarding the introduction of penalty notices. The information below explains the new legislation to parents. This is a government-led initiative and means that all schools must adopt this approach.
Following DFE guidelines, issued in September 2013, we would like to reiterate that, we are not in a position to authorise any leave of absence during term time. These measures are beyond the school’s control and all local heads have agreed to follow county guidance and policy. We actively discourage parents from arranging holidays during term time and will only authorise absence for such holidays in exceptional circumstances. ‘Exceptional Circumstances’, means that the parent/s must outline their case as to why their child/children should be treated differently to the norm. This must be submitted in a letter to myself prior to the absence taking place and before any holiday is booked and monies paid. Unfortunately, if leave is taken without authorisation, it will be recorded in the school attendance register as an unauthorised absence, which is as truancy. This reflects poorly on the school. Penalty notices came into effect from 1st April 2014. This means parents could be subject to a fixed penalty fine of £60 per child per parent for holidays taken in term time. We would like to make clear that the school does not benefit financially from this at all. This is a fine levied by the Educational Welfare Specialist Unit at Bucks County Council and is collected by them and retained by them. In addition to holiday leave, the County Council has also issued guidelines on irregular school attendance. This refers to pupils whose attendance is 95% or below. Parents of pupils falling into this category could also be subject to penalty notices. I would like to remind parents that if your child is absent from school, it is your responsibility to inform the school on the first day of illness and to provide regular updates to avoid their absence being recorded as unauthorised. Valuable office time is currently lost making attempts to contact parents to obtain reasons for absence. The County Council has issued the following criteria to ensure the consistent delivery of penalty notices:
Irregular school attendance;
Overt truancy (including pupils found during truancy sweeps);
Parentally-condoned absences;
Unauthorised holidays in term-time;
Being in a public place during the first five days of an exclusion
To clarify, these guidelines refer only to children of compulsory school age. Children reach compulsory school age on the term following their fifth birthday.
Ofsted judge our attendance as a key measure of our performance and we have always aimed to achieve a high attendance rate. We urge parents to support our ongoing efforts to reduce the lost days of education which can affect your child’s progress. Our current attendance policy is being reviewed by governors and will be available on the website in due course. This outlines all our procedures for any absence including holidays, appointments and sickness.
I am sure with continued partnership with parents, we can meet the government expectations. We thank you for your continuing support.