Attendance/Absence

School attendance is mandatory for all pupils.

If your child is ill, please notify the school office on 0208 427 0903.

Please click below to open the attendance policy.

Belmont School recognises the clear link between the attendance and achievement of pupils. The aim of this policy, is to encourage the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality for pupils within Belmont School to support learning and development.

The importance of attendance and punctuality is underpinned by an awareness of safeguarding issues. It is important to see our children every day and provide an educationally safe and secure environment.

To gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that all pupils attend regularly and on time. Pupils should aim to attend every day that the school is open. We set a target for all pupils to aim for 100% attendance with the expectation all pupils achieve at least 97%. As a school we define regular attendance as 97% or above (we class this as good attendance).

Belmont School believes Teachers, Parents, Carers, Pupils and all members of Belmont School community have an important contribution in improving attendance and punctuality ensuring pupils attend to achieve. This Policy sets out how we will achieve this together and should be read in conjunction with the Attendance Roles and Responsibilities Guidance attached to this document.

Aims

Maximise the overall percentage of pupil attendance and punctuality at Belmont School.
Reduce the number of pupils who are persistently absent and raise the profile of attendance and punctuality amongst the school community.
Provide support advice and guidance for parents, pupils and staff.
Develop clear procedures for the maintenance of accurate registration for pupils.
Ensure a systematic approach to gathering, analysing and acting upon attendance data.
Ensure a whole school approach to ensure consistency of intervention strategies.
Continue to promote effective partnerships with the Local Authority, Children’s Services, Health and other partner agencies.

Why Regular Attendance is very important

Any absence affects education and regular absence will seriously affect pupils’ learning. Pupils who have time off often find it difficult to catch up and do well.

90% attendance is equivalent to a pupil missing a half day schooling per week or approximately 118 lessons per year.

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and permitting your child to have any absence without a good reason from school is an offence in law (The Education Act 1996) and may result in legal action.

Promoting regular Attendance at Belmont School

This is everyone’s responsibility; all members of staff, parent/carers and pupils. To help us all focus on this, Belmont School will ensure:

Appropriate interventions are in place to improve punctuality.
An appropriate curriculum is provided and will be reviewed regularly.
The need for high quality teaching and learning throughout the school is recognised as being essential to the promotion of attendance.
Pupils are provided with appropriate support to minimise absence from school. This includes Belmont School and multi-agency provision, as appropriate.
Special Educational Needs, disadvantaged and Looked After pupils and other vulnerable groups are given appropriate support, and attendance is monitored rigorously.
Effective partnerships with parent/carers are encouraged through regular contact and support provided.
Parents/carers are kept informed of pupils’ attendance and punctuality through first day contact, termly progress reports, individual letters and meetings when required.
Good attendance and punctuality is recognised and is celebrated in termly reports.
Attendance and punctuality is regularly discussed with pupils in class and at assemblies.
Staff attendance roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and all staff should ensure these are followed.

Attendance Expectations and Absence Procedures

A child not attending school is considered to be a safeguarding matter. This is why information about the cause of any absence is required.

Expectations of Parent/Carer

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is a parent/carer’s legal responsibility (Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act) and permitting absence from school that is not authorised by the school creates an offence in law.

Ensure your child arrives for school on time:

	Start Time:	Finish Time
Year 6	8.35am	3.05pm
Year 5	8.35am	3.05pm
Year 4	8.35am	3.05pm
Year 3	8.35am	3.05pm
Year 2	8.35am	3.15pm
Year 1	8.35am	3.15pm
Reception	8.35am	3.15pm
Nursery am	8.35am	11.35am
Nursery pm	12.15pm	3.15pm

Telephone school if your child is to be late.
For routine non-emergency medical and dental appointments please ensure they are made outside of school hours. Attending a medical appointment is still classed as an absence from school and it will affect your child’s attendance percentage. If your child has to attend a medical/dental appointment within the school day please send your appointment letter or card to us via the office@belmont.harrow.sch.uk, without this evidence the absence will be unauthorised.
Contact school preferably by 8:00am for each day of absence if your child is unable to attend through illness, giving an indication of the expected duration and return date to school (via School Website, telephone, email to office@belmont.harrow.sch.uk.
If a ping message/email/phone call is received, because of your child’s absence, it is important that you respond to this ping/email/phone call to ensure your child is appropriately safeguarded.
Contact the Office Team by phoning the main school and selecting the Absence Reporting Line, if the reason for absence requires a more personal. If we are unable to answer, please leave a message and if required we will call you back.
In case of emergency we need a minimum of two up to date contact numbers at all times so please ensure you inform us of any changes especially to mobile telephone numbers. (As a school we request a minimum of two emergency contact details be provided so that if the first contact cannot be reached we have a further contact point.). If we find a contact number to be out of use or discontinued we will contact you via email or letter to update our records, in the case of emergency, where no parental contact can be obtained, we may have to contact Social Care of the Police for support.
Requests for exceptional circumstances leave of absence must be completed online (https://www.belmont.harrow.sch.uk/exceptional-leave-during-term-time) and can only be authorised by the Headteacher. Please note, no term time holidays will be authorised. The request will be maintained on file.

If a pupil is absent we will

Telephone and ping parent/carer on the first day of absence if we have not heard from them by 10am.
We will initially contact the primary contact recorded for the child and then call or text subsequent contacts for an explanation of absence.
If no response is received for the unauthorised absence when school make contact, a member of school staff will call the second recorded contact on our schools’ systems. If there are any safeguarding concerns on record, contact will be made with the family as soon as possible.
If a pupil’s absence rate falls below 97% parents/carers will be informed by letter. The table below explains the contact points we will have with parents/carers:

Letter One	Sent to parents whose children have attendance below 97%
Letter Two	Sent to parents whose children have attendance below 95%
Letter Three	Sent to parents whose children have attendance below 92%
Letter Four	Sent to children whose children have attendance below 90%

If a pupil’s absences are increasing and we are not aware of a good reason the parent/carer will be invited, via letter, to meet a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
If absences persist the Safeguarding Team will refer the matter to Harrow Children’s Services.

Understanding types of Absence

Belmont School has a statutory duty to record every absence that a pupil takes from school and this is why it is important that parents/carers advise school about the cause of any absence, preferably by email or phone on the first day and every subsequent day of absence.

Unauthorised Absence

An absence is classified as unauthorised when a child is away from school without the permission of the school. Therefore, the absence is unauthorised if a child is away from school without good reason, even with the support of a parent/carer.

The Law does not give any entitlement to parents to take their child on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must be in truly exceptional circumstances. Headteachers cannot grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The School expects family holidays to be taken out of school term times. All such absences in term time are deemed as ‘Unauthorised Absences’.

Requests for term time leave for family matters and holidays must be made prior to making any travel and accommodation bookings. Parents/carers must complete a request form, available from the school office. The school will then decide on each case. As stated above, holidays during term time will not be authorised.

This type of absence may lead to the use of Penalty Notices or other sanctions from the Local Authority. From September 2018 Belmont School has been able to issue warning letters (in accordance with the Local Authority Code of Conduct) to parents where their child has accrued 10 sessions (equals five days) of unauthorised absence in any one term. The warning period will cover a period of 20 consecutive school days. If the child has any unauthorised absence, during this warning period of 20 days, the school will refer the case to the local authority requesting a Penalty Notice be issued.

Persistent Absence

Pupils are defined as persistent absentees by the Department for Education (DFE) if their attendance falls below 90%. This is for any absence whether authorised or unauthorised. The DFE expects schools to intervene well before pupils reach a level of persistent absence.
Whilst we understand that pupils can be absent from school because they are ill, sometimes they can be reluctant to attend. If a pupil is reluctant to attend or a parent/carer has concerns, it is important that contact is made with the school as soon as possible to gain support and to work together to gain a resolution.
Parent/Carers are asked to contact the Office Team in the first instance.

Lateness

Poor punctuality is not acceptable. If a pupil misses the start of the day they can miss work and late arriving pupils disrupt lessons, it can be embarrassing for the pupil arriving late and can encourage future absence. Our school day starts from 8:30am, teachers have activities and lessons ready for your child from this point in the day.

Minutes Late Per Day	How Many School Days/Weeks Missed In 1 Year
5 minutes late	3.4 school days missed a year
10 minutes late	1.4 school weeks missed a year
15 minutes late	2.6 school weeks missed a year
20 minutes late	2.8 school weeks missed a year
30 minutes late	4 school weeks missed a year

How we manage lateness -Process for Belmont School

The school day starts and registers are taken as soon as the children are in the class by the class teacher and pupils receive a late mark if they are not in their class by that time. School recommends that pupils arrive at their allocated time, learning starts at this time.

If a pupil arrives late to school parents/carers will receive a ping message to inform them of their child’s late arrival.
Late arrival to school following the close of registers at 9:00am, is classified as an absence though the child will obtain a health and safety present on site mark. If a pupil is persistently late after the official close of the register, the school may request the local authority issue a Penalty Notice Warning Letter.

If a Parent/Carer has any problem getting their child to attend school on time they should contact the Senior Leadership Team who will offer support to resolve the problem.

People Responsible for Attendance Matters at Belmont School

All school staff, parents/carers and pupils need to work as a team to support the attendance and achievement of pupils. This continued support therefore is vital in making every pupil’s journey through school a success.

Removal from Roll

From the 1st September 2016 changes were introduced to the Pupil Registration Regulations 2016. These amendments affect all non-standard transitions; this is whenever a child of compulsory school age leaves a school before completing the school’s final year.

As a school we are now required to:

Inform the local authority in every circumstance when deleting a pupil’s name from the admission register
Inform the local authority of the pupil's destination school and home address if the pupil is moving to a new school.
Provide information to the local authority when registering new pupils, including the pupil's address and previous school.

If your child is leaving our school parents are asked to:

Give the attendance officer comprehensive information about their plans, including any date of a move and your new address and telephone numbers, your child’s new school and the start date when known, school office will provide you with an ‘exit roll’ form for you to complete.
If pupils leave and we do not have the above information, then your child is considered to be a child missing in education. This requires schools and local authorities to then carry out investigations to try and locate your child, which includes liaising with Children’s Services, the Police and other agencies. By giving us the above information, these investigations can be avoided.

https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/back-into-school/resources-for-families/