Attendance information for parents

It is inevitable that your child may occasionally be absent from school. Authorised marks will only be given for illness and medical appointments. A visit to the doctor or dentist will usually be authorised for one session (half day). The Welsh Government and School discourage holidays taken during school term time and holidays will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

Legislation requires the school to seek a reason for all absences. Therefore so that your child may be given the correct absent mark, it is vital that you inform us of the correct reason for your childs absence. Please inform us either by:

letter
holiday form
phone call (we have an answer machine that will record absences)
informing the class teacher/teaching assistant.

As I am sure you will agree, regular and punctual attendance is very important for the children to gain maximum benefit from their education. The school therefore has to monitor not only pupil attendance, but also the punctuality of children. Children who arrive after 9.00 am are recorded as being late in class registers and children who arrive after 9.30 am when the registers close, are regarded as being absent for the morning session for recording purposes.

Every day your child is absent from school they may fall behind in

5 subjects and will miss 0.5% attendance from school.

    Attendance
    Present
    Absent
    Lessons missed
  


    100%
    190 days
    0 days
    None
  

    97.4%
    185 days
    5 days
    25 lessons
  

    95%
    180 days
    10 days
    50 lessons
  

    80%
    152 days
    38 days
    190 lessons
  

Attendance	Present	Absent	Lessons missed
100%	190 days	0 days	None
97.4%	185 days	5 days	25 lessons
95%	180 days	10 days	50 lessons
80%	152 days	38 days	190 lessons

Fixed penalty notice informaton

Lliswerry Cluster Information on Fixed Penalty Notices linked to unauthorised absence:

Following Welsh Government Legislation, Newport City Council has adopted a Code of Conduct which allows the Local Authority to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to the parents of pupils who miss five school days or ten school sessions which are unauthorised.

Please note that protocols and procedures in relation to Fixed Penalty Notices will be enforced from January 1st 2016.

Issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice:

A Fixed Penalty Notice can only be issued in cases of unauthorised absence;
Fixed Penalty Notices will be restricted to one notice per parent of a pupil in an academic year;
In cases where there is more than one poorly-attending pupil in a family, Notices may be issued for more than one child;
There will be no restriction on the number of times a parent may receive a formal warning of a possible Fixed Penalty Notice.

Fixed Penalty Notices may be considered appropriate when:

At least 10 sessions (5 school days) are lost due to unauthorised absence during the current term. These do not need to be consecutive;
Persistent late arrival at school, i.e. after the register has closed, in the current term. Persistent" means at least 10 sessions of late arrival;
Truancy, where the child has come to the attention of the Police or public during school hours for being absent from school, without an acceptable reason.

Fixed Penalty Notices are currently set at 60 and must be paid within 28 days. Non-payment within this timeframe results in a total Penalty of 120. Non-payment of fines will result in prosecution.

Unauthorised absences are those which the Local Authority does not consider reasonable and for which no leave of absence has been agreed by the school. These include:

Holidays during school time
Parents keeping children off school unnecessarily, e.g. for company, shopping, birthdays,
hair appointments, dancing shows, looking after other children etc.
Truancy before or during the school day
Absences which have never been properly explained
Children who arrive at school too late to receive a mark i.e. after the register has closed.