Attendance

- The Importance of Excellent Attendance - The Role of Parents - The Role of the School & Educational Welfare Officer - Penalty Notices - Attendance and OfSTED - Attendance at Benhurst - How can we further raise attendance at Benhurst? - Questions

The Importance of Excellent Attendance https://www. youtube. com/watch

The Role of Parents - Ensure your child/children understand the importance of good attendance/punctuality. - Not letting children take time off school for minor ailments, particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work. - Arrange appointments and outings after school hours, at weekends or during school holidays. - Under normal circumstances, you should not expect the school to agree to your child going on holiday during term time. - Take an interest in your child/children’s education. Ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities. - Discuss any problems they may have at school and let us know of any concerns.

The Role of the School & Educational Welfare Officer - Key Personnel Pupil Admissions & Attendance Officer – Mrs Bastin gbastin@benhurst.havering.sch.uk Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) – Robbie Evans Robbie.Evans@havering.gov.uk Head teacher – Mr Denchfield ddenchfield@benhurst.havering.sch.uk

The Role of the School & Educational Welfare Officer – What we do - Provide regular attendance information to parents via the website and Mr Denchfield’s letters. - Award the Attendance Trophy in KS1 and KS2 Celebration Assembly. - Offer a flexible way to report absences (website, telephone, letter, in person). - Mrs Bastin contacts parents where first day absences have not been reported to ensure the school has the correct details for reasons of absence. - Mrs Bastin and Robbie tracked and monitored all pupil absences. - Where appropriate, parents will be advised by letter of attendance concerns. - Should attendance/lateness concerns persist, parents will be invited in to school to discuss their child/children’s attendance. - Children who are absent from school for multiple periods of illness may be asked to provide medical evidence. Where this is not provided, absences are rerecorded as unauthorized. - Robbie runs a ‘late gate’ and meets with parents whose children are persistently late.

Penalty Notices Unauthorised absence Penalty notices can be used if a pupil is absent from school without permission or good reason and if the absence is unauthorised by the school. In all cases a warning notice will first be issued. Following the warning notice, if a pupil has twenty unauthorised sessions of absence within a given number of days, a penalty notice will be issued. Persistent lateness If a pupil arrives at school after the register has closed, it is recorded as an unauthorised absence. Twenty unauthorised sessions will result in a penalty notice being issued. In all cases a warning notice will be issued. Holidays in term time Schools are no longer allowed to authorise any leave during term time except in very exceptional circumstances which is at the head teacher's discretion. Unauthorised leave if taken will result in a fixed penalty fine being issued. What is the cost? The penalty is £60 per child per parent if you pay within 21 days or £120 thereafter. Payment must be within 28 days to avoid prosecution

Attendance and OfSTED The ‘outstanding’ descriptor in the OfSTED Handbook: “Pupils value their education and rarely miss a day at school. No groups of pupils are disadvantaged by low attendance. The attendance of pupils who have previously had exceptionally high rates of absence is rising quickly towards the national average.” Inspectors will consider: - overall absence and persistent absence rates for all pupils, and for different groups in relation to national figures for all pupils. - the extent to which low attenders are improving their attendance over time and whether attendance is consistently low (in the lowest 10%). - punctuality in arriving at school and at lessons.

Benhurst Average Attendance Havering Average Attendance (Primary) Year Benhurst Average Attendance Havering Average Attendance (Primary) National Average Attendance (Primary) 2016-17 95.5% Not yet available 2015-16 95.7% 95.8% 96.1% 2014-15 95.6% 96% Attendance at Benhurst Our school target for 2017-18 is 96% Currently, our attendance for 2017-18 is 96.4% (to 31/10/17)

Illness absences at Benhurst Year Percentage of overall attendance 2016-17 2.87% 2015-16 2.95% 2014-15 3.16% Illness absences at Benhurst

Holidays absences at Benhurst Year Unauthorized holidays 2016-17 0.60% 2015-16 0.39% 2014-15 0.37% Month Unauthorized holiday days 9/16 40 10/16 43 11/16 37 12/16 42 1/17 16 2/17 46 3/17 4/17 2 5/17 112 6/17 360 7/17 190 Holidays absences at Benhurst

How can we further raise attendance at Benhurst How can we further raise attendance at Benhurst? - Continue to raise the profile through letters, Celebration Assemblies. - Continue to monitor children’s absences and lates and meet with parents to raise concerns and support where possible. - Presentation to the Parent Partnership Group (also add the presentation to the website) - Rewarding good attendance - Consider different holiday times

Questions