Attendance at Botley School

Botley School is a successful school and your child plays their part in making it so. We aim for an environment which enables and encourages all members of the community to reach out for excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. This will enable us to ensure an inclusive and resilient education for every child.

It is very important therefore that you make sure that your child attends regularly and the school policy sets out how together we will achieve this.

Each year the school will examine its attendance figures and set attendance/absence targets. These will reflect both national and Oxfordshire attendance targets.

The school will review its systems for improving attendance at regular intervals to ensure that it is achieving its set goals.

The policy will contain within it, the procedures that the school will use to meet its attendance targets.

Why regular attendance is so important

Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of others in the same class.

Regular absence will also impact on a child’s social and emotional well-being as it leads to pupils being excluded from play because they are not there to establish and maintain friendship groups every day. As an inclusive school, we want to make sure every child is in school to develop these skills.

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

The Botley School policy works to meet the statutory requirements laid out in the government guidance Working together to improve school attendance This guidance was last updated in August 2024. 

You can read the policy in full by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page

Absence Procedures

If your child is absent you must:

• Contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence
• Or, you can call into school and report to reception
• We need to know the child’s full name, class and REASON for absence.

If your child is absent we will:

• Telephone or text you on the first day of absence if we have not heard from you
• Visit you at home if we have not heard from you by day 3 of absence
• Invite you in to discuss the situation with our Attendance Officer or Headteacher if absences persist
• Set up an Attendance Contract where attendance is below 90% and not improving
• Refer the matter to the County Attendance Team if attendance remains consistently below 90%.
• Refer the matter to Social Care, the County Attendance Team and any other appropriate agencies if attendance falls below 50% or there are identified barriers to attendance that require outside agency support. 

Lateness

Poor punctuality is not acceptable. If your child misses the start of the day they can miss work and do not spend time with their class teacher getting vital information and news for the day. Late arriving pupils also disrupt lessons, which can be embarrassing for the child and can also encourage absence.

How we manage Time Keeping

The school day starts at 8.45 a.m. and we expect your child to be in class at that time.

Registers are marked by 8.50 a.m. and your child will receive a late mark if they are not in by that time.

At 9.15 a.m. the registers will be closed.  In accordance with the Regulations, if your child arrives after that time they will receive a mark that shows them to be on site, but this will not count as a present mark and it will mean they have an unauthorised absence. This may mean that you could face the possibility of a Penalty Notice if the problem persists.

If your child has a persistent late record you will be asked to meet with the Assistant Headteacher and/or Attendance Team to resolve the problem, but you can approach us at any time if you are having problems getting your child to school on time.

Exceptional Leave

All schools can grant a leave of absence for other exceptional circumstances at their discretion. Exceptional leave must be requested in advance by a parent who the pupil normally lives with. Schools are then expected to consider each application individually taking into account the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind the request. If a leave of absence is granted, it is for the school to determine the length of the time the pupil can be away from school. 

Holiday Requests

There is no automatic entitlement in law to time off in school time to go on holiday and the school will not authorise any exceptional leave requests for holiday or for the purpose of leisure or recreation. Taking holidays in term time will affect your child’s schooling as much as any other absence and we expect parents to help us by not taking children away in school time. Remember that any financial savings you think you may make by taking a holiday in school time are offset by the cost to your child’s education. 

1. It is widely known that the link between a student’s attendance and attainment is irrefutable.
2. Early poor attendance habits follow through into secondary school, further education and employment.
3. Graduates earn, on average, double that of young people that leave school with no qualifications.
4. All schools in Oxfordshire are encouraged to adopt a policy of not authorising Exceptional Leave.
5. Exceptional leave is most unlikely to be authorised when a student’s attendance is less than 95%.
6. Exceptional leave should always be refused when school is aware of any truancy.
7. Exceptional leave should always be refused when requests are regular (annual) or when patterns become identifiable.
8. Reasons for Exceptional Leave should be logged on the pupil’s record and shared as part of the transfer/transition process. 

The County Attendance Team can issue Penalty Notices for any unauthorised 'Exceptional Leave'.  (see below)

If you feel you have an exceptional reason for requesting absence from school, you must submit the Exceptional Absence Request Form (see below) to the school office, no later than 2 weeks prior to the planned absence. 

Penalty Notices

The school will refer families to the local Authority Attendance Officers for a penalty notice where the national thresholds set out in the statutory guidance are met as follows:

• The threshold is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks.  

• A session is half a school day. 10 sessions equates to 5 full school days.  

• A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session.  

• The threshold can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks).  

• These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks). 

•  The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).   

Before making the decision to refer, the school will carefully consider all existing support, mitigating factors, obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and any advice provided by the Local Authority Attendance team. 

Two penalty limit and escalation for repeat offenders

If repeated penalty notices are being issued, they are not working effectively to improve attendance. Therefore, only 2 penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in relation to the same child within a 3 year rolling period and a second notice is charged at a higher rate. 

• The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. 

• A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days. 

• A third 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. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, or other attendance legal interventions as decided by the local authority attendance team.