Attendance

Attendance and Absence Information for Parents and Carers

At St Leonards CE Primary Academy, we believe regular attendance is vital for your child’s success. As a parent or carer, you are responsible for ensuring your child receives a full-time education.

Why Regular Attendance Matters

Missing school affects not only your child but also their classmates. Children who do not attend regularly:

• Often do not perform well in exams
• Find it harder to maintain friendships
• Are more likely to get involved in crime
• Miss out on opportunities in further education and work

Did you know?

• 90% attendance means missing half a day every week
• Over one school year, this adds up to 4 weeks of lost learning
• Over 5 years at primary school, this equals half a year missed!

Your Role in Supporting Attendance

• Only keep your child off school if they are genuinely too ill to attend.
• Please book medical appointments and holidays outside school hours whenever possible.
• Inform us promptly about any absence.

If you are facing difficulties with attendance, please contact us. We want to work with you to support your child.

Supporting Pupils with Additional Needs

We understand that children with long-term medical conditions, mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) may face extra barriers to attending school. We are committed to working compassionately with families to provide tailored support.

Absence Authorisation and Evidence

• Absences can only be authorised by the school.
• Usually, a parent’s contact explaining the absence is accepted as evidence.
• If attendance falls below 90%, we may ask for medical evidence (e.g., appointment cards or prescriptions) for repeated absences due to illness.
• Without satisfactory evidence, absences will be marked as unauthorised.

Examples of Unauthorised Absences

The following reasons are not acceptable for absence and will not be authorised:

• Birthdays of your child or family members
• Shopping for school uniform
• Haircuts
• Closure of a sibling’s school for staff training (INSET)
• Parents or siblings being unwell
• Illness where the child is well enough to attend without medical advice
• Leave taken during term time without school permission
• Head lice (please inform the school; we handle this confidentially)

Medical and Dental Appointments

Please try to make appointments outside school hours. If this is not possible, ensure your child attends school before and after the appointment. Provide appointment cards as evidence.

Need Support?

If you have concerns about your child’s attendance, please contact our Pastoral Officer, Mrs Parnell: 01424 422950 aparnell@stlens.org

If attendance drops, we will send a letter home and invite you to discuss any difficulties. We aim to support every family and take a consistent approach because we want the best for your child.

Deciding When to Keep Your Pupil Off School

We understand that deciding whether your pupil is too unwell to attend school can be difficult. For detailed guidance, please refer to the NHS advice: Is my child too ill for school?

Reporting Absence

If you decide to keep your pupil at home due to illness, please inform us on the first day of absence by 8:30am or as soon as possible. You can report your pupil’s absence by:

• Leaving a message on our attendance line: 01424 422950
• Calling the school office during opening hours
• Sending an email to the school office
• Sending a message via the Arbor app

Please include your pupil’s name and the reason for their absence.

Medicines at School

Pupils who are well enough to attend school should do so, even if they need to take prescribed medicines during the day. Our staff are able to administer prescribed medication under the following conditions:

• The medicine must have a pharmacy label with your pupil’s name, dosage instructions, and frequency.
• You must complete a medicine administration form, available from the school office.
• Please discuss any medication needs with the school office staff before sending medicine to school.

If you have any questions or need further support, please contact the school office.

Arriving on Time at St Leonards CE Primary Academy

Ensuring your child arrives at school on time is really important. Learning begins as soon as pupils arrive, so being late means missing valuable learning opportunities.

School Gates and Arrival Times

• The school gates open at 8.35am.
• All pupils should be in school by 8.45am, when the gates close and the register is taken.

If your child arrives after the gates have closed, please bring them to the main office to sign in. This will be recorded as a late mark on their attendance record. We ask for your support in helping your child arrive on time each day to avoid missing important learning.

Why Does Punctuality Matter?

• Missed minutes = missed learning = missed opportunities.
• Pupils who arrive late miss essential instructions at the start of lessons, which can affect their progress regardless of ability.
• Arriving late can also make your child feel unsettled and disrupt the whole class and teacher.
• For pupils in Reception and Key Stage 1 (ages 4–7), being late means missing phonics sessions—these are vital for developing early reading skills. Without these skills, accessing the wider curriculum becomes much harder.

By arriving on time, your child won’t miss out on these important lessons and will start the day feeling confident and ready to learn.

Thank you for helping us make punctuality a priority. Together, we can ensure every pupil has the best possible start to their school day.

What is Persistent Absence?

Persistent absence means that a pupil’s attendance falls below 90% during the academic year. This is the equivalent of missing 19 or more school days—about one day every two weeks or six days each term.

To put this into perspective, the average attendance across the country means pupils miss no more than 10 days in a year.

If your child reaches this level of absence, the school will classify them as persistently absent. At this point, our Pastoral Officer will contact you to arrange a meeting. This is an opportunity to discuss the reasons for your child’s absences and to explore how we can support you and your child to improve attendance.

Under the Education Act 1996, the Local Authority has a legal responsibility to ensure that all children of compulsory school age receive an education. While we work closely with families to provide support, legal enforcement may be used as a last resort if attendance does not improve.

If you have any concerns about your child’s attendance or need support, please contact us—we are here to help.

• Term 1 - 3.5 days off from September until October half-term holiday will make your child persistently absent
• Term 2 - 7 days off school from September until the Christmas holiday will make your child persistently absent
• Term 3 - 10 days of absence from September until February half-term will make your child persistently absent
• Term 4 - 12.5 days of absence from September until Easter holiday will make your child persistently absent
• Term 5 -  15.5 days of absence from September until February half-term will make your child persistently absent
• Term 6 - 19 days of absence over the full academic year (September to the end of the summer term in July) will make your child persistently absent

Fines

• The first penalty notice issued to the parent for that pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days reducing to £80 if paid within 21 days. Where it is deemed appropriate to issue a second penalty notice to the same parent for the same pupil within 3 years of the first notice, the second notice is charged at a flat rate of£160 if paid within 28 days. A third penalty notice will not be issued within a 3-year period. Therefore, in cases where the threshold is met for a third (or subsequent) times within those 3 years, a penalty notice cannot be issued, and alternative action will be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions

Hastings Attendance Charter

The academy has signed up to the Hastings Attendance Charter. This is a Hastings wide charter for promoting attendance for children and young people.

The charter is a collaborative approach to promote good attendance at school across Hastings.

School leaders and governors who have signed this Charter agree to work together to implement it.