Attendance

Parents and carers are expected to communicate with school promptly (before 8:30am) to inform if their child is going to be absent due to illness or other reasons and maintain daily contact during the period of absence.

Absences must be reported by:

1. Edulink
2. Contacting the school office on 01945 585237
3. Emailing attendance@thomasclarksonacademy.org 

If we do not receive an explanation for an absence a text message will be sent from the Academy or a telephone call will be made. A home visit may occur as a follow up action. The absence will be recorded as unauthorised.

Absence follow-up – First Day Response

Should a child be absent from school without a valid reason, a text message will be sent and a telephone call may be made by a member of the school’s attendance and welfare team. If a valid reason is not obtained on the first day of absence or any subsequent days of absence, a home visit may be completed.

Make sure your child arrives at school on time by 8.20am at the latest as lessons start promptly at 8.30am. Any student who arrives after 8.30am is late.

If your child arrives late to school they may receive a sanction. If your child arrives after the register has closed (9:00am), this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence for that session unless evidence is supplied that the lateness was due to a medical appointment.

Persistent lateness is monitored and affects the overall attendance figure for each student.

Safeguarding and Absence

Contact will be made firstly to the children who are deemed at high risk of a Safeguarding Issue. The

Attendance/Welfare Officer will be made aware of these children through liaison with the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). The DSL will provide regular updates of whom these children are.

Home visits

Parents and carers should be aware that home visits are completed by all Brooke Weston Trust schools as a standard procedure when children are absent from school. Should schools have any safeguarding concerns for a particular child, home visits will be completed to these families in the first instance. Home visits allow school staff to see the child and discuss the absence with parents and carers, as well as being able to offer support if required. 

If there are unexplained/prolonged periods of absence or an identified safeguarding concern, this may require school to contact external agencies

Parents and carers must request any planned leave of absence for exceptional circumstances in writing prior to the intended absence of their child. Requests will be reviewed, and a decision made as to whether the absence will be authorised or unauthorised.

Leave during term time forms can be collected from the main office. Please ensure that these are completed as far in advance as possible to the planned leave.

In line with Department for Education (2024) regulations, holidays or absences for leisure and recreation would not constitute as exceptional circumstances.

As per the National Framework for Penalty Notices (2024), parents and carers may be issued with a fixed penalty notice or legal sanction if a pupil is absent due to unauthorised leave during term time.

Please complete this form below if you are planning on taking your child out of school for a planned holiday or absences for leisure and recreation. 

Click here for a term time absence request form.

Referral for Term Time Leave:

Any parent who takes a child out of school for term time leave for 10 consecutive sessions (5 days) or more, not authorised by the school (under exceptional circumstances rule), may receive a Penalty Notice. 

Schools may also request prosecution, in exceptional circumstances where a parent takes a child out of school during term time for an extended period (20 days or more).

Failure to ensure a child’s regular attendance at school is a criminal offence. If with support from the school's attendance officer and/or the Local Authority, your child’s attendance does not improve, the Local Authority will consider one of two actions under section 444 of the Education Act 1996:

• Penalty Notice. We can give each parent a fine of £60, which rises to £120 each if you do not pay within 21 days. If payment is not received within 28 days from the issue of the penalty notice, we may prosecute you for the offence of 'irregular attendance'. You could then be subject to a fine of up to £1,000 on conviction.
• Prosecution in the Magistrates' court. Both parents could get a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or a jail sentence up to three months each. The court may also give you a Parenting Order.

Please see below the communication from Cambridgeshire County Council regarding the new Penalty Notice guidelines starting from 19^th August 24- 

Changes to Penalty Notices from 19th August 2024:

Requests for Absence

Requests for absence should be made by parents in line with the school’s Attendance Policy. This will be in written form with the date of the proposed absence and as much detail as possible about the reason for the absence. As is currently the case, Headteachers may still only authorise absence that they consider to be an unavoidable and exceptional circumstance. The school will reply to parents to advise them whether the absence will be authorised or not.

Term Time Leave

If a pupil takes unauthorised term time leave for 10 consecutive sessions or more (generally 5 days) they will be subject to a penalty notice. The fine for a penalty notice is increasing - to £80 per parent, per child. This increases to £160 if paid after 21 days but within 28 days for pupils who are of statutory school age. If a penalty notice remains unpaid, parents may be the subject of court proceedings for failing to ensure the regular school attendance of their child and this could result in a fine of up to £2,500 and/or a term of imprisonment of up to 3 months per parent.

For second offences of unauthorised term time leave (10 consecutive sessions or more) within a three-year rolling period, the fine is a flat £160 per parent, per child.

For the third offence in a three-year rolling period, the referral will be automatically considered for prosecution in relation to Section 444 Education Act 1996.

These fines will apply to term time leave taken after 19^th August 2024. Previous penalty notices from the last 3 years will be taken into account when a period of term time leave is taken after the 19^th August 2024. Therefore, if parents have already received one penalty notice in the last three years, they will get a fine of £160 per parent per child for their next one. If they have received two or more in the last three years, they should expect to be referred for prosecution.

The offence will apply to each child individually. Both parents are liable for the offence. The Education Act considers each 'responsible adult' as a 'parent'. 

Read more here.

Attendance Support

We recognise that for some children, there may be challenges in attending school. Should a parent or carer feel that their child is experiencing difficulties in attending school, we warmly invite families to speak with their respective school where a meeting can be organised to talk through these challenges and agree further actions/support.

Our Team
Parents and carers are invited to contact the academy if they wish to discuss their child’s attendance further or seek additional support.

• Our academy Attendance Lead is: Kaye Adams

• Our academy Senior Leader for Attendance is: Alex Salmon

Attendance Correspondence

Brooke Weston Trust Schools have worked together to devise a set of attendance procedures which are adhered to if a child presents with attendance and/or punctuality concerns. Please see the Attendance Strategy and BWT policy for support. 

Guidance from the Local Authority Cambridgeshire County Council regarding attendance:

The Department for Education has issued new statutory guidance for attendance called Working Together to Improve School Attendance. This comes into effect on the 19^th August 2024. It details what schools, parents and Local Authorities should do to improve pupils’ attendance at school.

There are some important changes to attendance management from the 19^th August 2024 which will affect the support parents and pupils receive from schools, and the legal sanctions that are used in certain circumstances.

Schools are legally obliged to provide support and intervention for pupils who are at risk of persistent absence (90% attendance or below). This will take the form of meetings with parents, school-based interventions, and the offer of support from outside agencies and professionals.

Schools are very keen to identify the barriers to attendance that families face and will welcome opportunities to overcome these barriers together. However, when a child's attendance falls outside of the parental legal obligations to send their child to school, there are legal pathways that must be followed.

If a student feels unwell they must report to Student Services who will consider the situation and contact will be made with the parent/carer. The student will only be allowed to go home if they are collected by an adult, who is named on the student's contact list.

Please note: if a student has already phoned home, without following the In School Protocol, the absence will not be authorised.

Further information on medical illnesses, please look at NHS website for further information.

Here at Thomas Clarkson Academy our approach promotes recognition of personal and collective achievements, fostering positive environments and developing intrinsic motivation. Recognition may be in the form of verbal conversations; celebrations; postcards; or text message communication.

Through our rich curriculum offer, we strive to instill values within our pupils which support them to be come successful citizens of the future and promote that school attendance is a key component to this success.