IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE LAW: PENALTY NOTICES FOR UNAUTHORISED ABSENCES
A new National Framework for Penalty Notices for school absence, including unauthorised holiday absence, has been introduced following changes to the law.
These new Government regulations came into effect from 19 August 2024.
What are the changes?
- There will be a new national threshold of 10 unauthorised sessions for any reason (equivalent to 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period for when a penalty notice must be considered.
- The new rules mean you will no longer be able to take your child out of school for one week’s holiday without a penalty notice being issued.
- There will be an increase in the penalty fine from £60 to £80 if paid in 21 days. If the fine is not paid by the first 21 days, it will rise to £160 if paid within 28 days of being issued.
- If a second penalty fine is issued to the same parent for the same child within a 3 year rolling period, the fine will automatically rise to £160 with no option to pay the lower rate of £80.
- If a parent then commits a third offence in a 3 year rolling period, the local authority will need to consider other enforcement options available to them.
- Please be aware that Education Penalty Notices can also be issued if your child persistently arrives late for school after the close of registration at 9.30am (10 U codes within a rolling 10 school week period)
Every School Day Counts!
We place great emphasis on excellent attendance! To be successful at school and take advantage of all the amazing opportunities that school can offer, your child should aim to attend school for 100% of the time and arrive on time to school and lessons every single day. In order to support your child in attending 100% of the time and reaching their full potential we request that whenever possible medical appointments are made outside of their school day, as losing time during the school day will impact upon their overall attendance figure and also hinder their progress.
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Please report your child's absence via ARBOR: We encourage all parents/carers to use Arbor when reporting absences - please use the link for information:
-Logging absences on the Parent Portal and Arbor App – Arbor Help Centre (arbor-education.com)
Absences: (information for Parents/Carers)
If your child is too ill to attend school, we ask that parents/carers contact school on the first day of absence wherever possible before 8.35am on 01942 728651 or send a message to school via Arbor. We ask to receive updates from parents/carers until your child returns to school. If we do not receive an explanation for a child's absence, parents/carers will be contacted via text and/or by phone requesting a reason for the absence. Until we have been updated with a viable reason for the absence, it will be recorded as Unauthorised.
Is my child is too ill to attend school? NHS Advice
Requesting Time out of school during term-time
By law, you are legally responsible for ensuring your child receives full time education, and government legislation states that schools are unable to authorise any term time holidays as outlined below.
Parents can be fined for taking their child on holiday during term time without consent from the school (see the Education Penalty Notice Information Below). There will be gaps in your child’s learning and education, that will impact upon their progress in the long term, making it difficult for them to catch up on work when they return.
The school closes for 70 days during the year, providing plenty of opportunities for holidays to be taken when it has the least impact upon your child’s education. Any parent wanting to take a holiday during term time should apply in writing to the Headteacher, Mr Dumican. Each application will be considered on an individual basis and you will be informed by letter, of the outcome. However, we should inform you that it is highly unusual for leave of absence to be granted for holidays during term time. Any holiday or leave from school, taken without the headteacher’s permission, will be unauthorized and legal action may be sought from the Local Authority.
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Where can I get support to help my child attend school?
Children may struggle to attend school for a wide range of reasons. If your child is struggling to attend school, we can help to support you with this by exploring the reasons and discussing what help can be put in place to overcome the barriers they are facing. If the barriers to your child’s attendance are in school – such as they are having friendship problems – we can help you with this.
Our Attendance Officer is: Miss Diane Kelly and Attendance Admin Assistant is: Mrs Jayne Joughin.
To contact: Email: attendance@arrowsmith.wigan.sch.uk
There is a lot of help available from various sources (see links below), but we would always ask that you speak to us in the first instance.
- Children and Young People - TLC: Talk, Listen, Change (talklistenchange.org.uk)
- Embrace (embracewiganandleigh.org.uk)
- Start Well (wigan.gov.uk)
- Back to School - Everything you need to know about school attendance
- How to Support your Child's Mental Health
The link to our Attendance Policy is below, but this table shows the different stages of the Attendance 'triggers' and what support will be implemented to help your child to become a 'Good' or 'Regular' attender.
Attendance Policy
Term Time Absence Request Form
Education Penalty Notice
Completing work at home
If a student is absent from school for 5 or more days, their class teacher will assign them tasks to complete at home. To make things more convenient for students and staff, the platform of Seneca will be used to assign and complete the tasks.
What is Seneca? Access via their website: Seneca
Seneca's online platform can be thought of as an effective and engaging, interactive learning and revision guide that can be used for free forever! Summaries, notes, videos and lots of different types of practice questions are all found on the Seneca platform. The system is also completely adaptive, so your child's learning experience will be tailored to suit their individual needs.
Teachers will email the details of the tasks to pupils and guardians via Arbor
All tasks can be accessed in the 'Assignments' section of the menu
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