Young people benefit most from their education when parents and school staff work together to ensure that they attend school regularly and on time. Young people whose attendance is good do better academically, make the most of extra-curricular opportunities and have a greater chance of maintaining good relationships with friends.

Please work with us to ensure good attendance for the benefit of your child. We believe that birthdays, shopping, looking after siblings, outings, and lack of school uniform are not acceptable reasons for missing days. Out of school requests will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances and are strongly discouraged.

What to do if your child is ill

There are still times when a young person cannot attend school, for example when ill. If this happens, please call our Attendance Officer 01509 412385 (extension 226), or e-mail attendance@humphreyperkins.org.uk explain why he or she is unable to attend and how long the absence is likely to last.

If your child does not attend and you do not contact us, we will make contact with you as soon as possible to ensure your child is safe.

Action for poor attendance

We monitor attendance every day and will contact parents when attendance is a cause for concern, which may trigger attendance procedures (see Pupil Attendance Policy).

Good attendance is extremely important at Humphrey Perkins. There is a proven link between good attendance and good GCSE results. We want to support all our pupils to have the very best attendance. We do this by rewarding good attendance.

In addition to this we cannot support unauthorised absences. We therefore refer any unauthorised absences e.g. holidays taken during term time to Leicestershire County Council. This may result in a fine of up to £120.

A Parent’s Guide for Good School Attendance

At Humphrey Perkins we want all children to have a positive experience of school life and be able to reach their full potential. One way in which parents can help their child to do this is by ensuring they attend school every day. As the parent, you are responsible for ensuring that once your child is registered at a school that they attend regularly and punctually. Starting good habits earlier on is much easier than trying to change poor attendance habits, battling with your child to attend school and struggling to get out of the door on time. Be organised, have a plan, be consistent and involve your child.

Good school attendance habits are best started early. Children learn from those around them and you as parents set the standards and expectations for your child. Showing your child the importance of attending school every day not only helps your child to settle quickly when starting school but helps them to keep and sustain friendships and enjoy the school environment.

If your child raises anything that concerns you regarding coming to school, it is much better to raise it with the school, usually with the class teacher, at the earliest opportunity. Allow the school the opportunity to address any concerns or difficulties. This often can help put your mind at rest, knowing that your child is ok and is doing well in school.

School absence falls into one of two categories:

• Authorised - those absences which schools can give you permission for.
• Unauthorised – those absences which schools do not give permission for.

Examples of absences which we are unlikely to authorise can include:

• Inadequate clothing for school
• Child being used as a carer
• Problems with transport
• Non-urgent medical treatment
• School refusal or truancy
• Days off for birthdays, shopping trips
• Family Holiday
• Sickness of a parent or other family member

Whilst as a parent you may think you are able to give your child permission to be at home, you cannot. The only person who can give permission for a child to be absent from school is the school's Headteacher.

Most childhood sickness that prevents school attendance will be classed as authorised absence. However, if your child is frequently absent from school due to sickness, the school can ask that you provide medical evidence or they may have to stop authorising the absences. This does not mean that the school do not believe you or your child, but that they want to do the best for you by ensuring your child attends school as much as possible, providing extra support such as accessing the school nursing team if needed. As a parent you can help keep your child's level of absence down by sending them into school every day and arriving on time. In many schools the registers will close ½ hour after the beginning of the start of the school day. Arriving after this time will mean your child is marked as having an unauthorised absence and this could lead to a fine being issued.

Help support your child and your school by keeping absence rates down. Children who are frequently absent are usually those who fall behind and find it hard to keep friendships, which can lead to them being unhappy in school.

Since September 2013 Headteachers have only been able to grant a leave of absence for exceptional circumstances. As a rule of thumb a family holiday or travelling abroad is not considered to be an exceptional reason.

Reduce absence due to medical reasons by making non-urgent medical appointments for your child outside of school hours. Always let us know the type of illness your child has that prevents them attending at the start of the school day. Staff will guide you as to whether your child needs to be absent from school all day and when they should be expected to return.

Why is high attendance important to my child's education?

As a parent/carer you want the best for your child. Having a good education is an important factor in opening up more opportunities in adult life. Did you know that:

• A child who is absent a day of school per week misses an equivalent of two years of their school life.
• 90% of young people with absence rates below 85% fail to achieve five or more good grades of GCSE and around one third achieve no GCSEs at all.
• Poor examination results limit young people’s options and poor attendance suggests to colleges and employers that  these students are unreliable.
• Poor school attendance is also closely associated with crime a quarter of school age offenders have truanted repeatedly.
• At least 1 million children take at least one half day off a year without permission.
• 7.5 million school days are missed each year through unauthorised absence.

GCSEs may seem a long way off for you and your child but all absence at any stage leads to gaps in your child’s learning. This in turn can:

• mean that they fall behind in work
• affect their motivation
• affect their enjoyment of learning
• lead to poor behaviour
• affect their desire to attend school regularly
• affect their confidence in school
• mean they miss out on the social life of school and extra-curricular opportunities and experiences.
• affect their ability to have or keep friendships.