Our Mission

At Kensworth CE Academy we believe good attendance is vital for a child to achieve their full potential.

We aim to promote good attendance by providing a safe and motivating environment for all children.

We are committed to working together with parents/carers to break down any barriers a child or family may have to accessing their education.

Parents/carers and school both have a legal duty for attendance. It is a legal requirement for every child to access regular education.

If you need support with your child’s attendance, please reach out to a member of the attendance team or inform your child's class teacher.

Frequent Asked Questions

What is PA?

PA stands for ‘Persistently Absent’.   This is when your child’s attendance is below 90%

What is the risk of PA?

Risk of PA is when your child’s attendance is at risk of dropping below 90% - we aim to offer early intervention support at this stage.

What is an EPN?

EPN stands for ‘Education penalty notices’.  EPN’s are issued for unauthorised absences, this includes term time holidays.

What happens if I choose to go on holiday and pay the fine?

EPN’s have now been capped nationally at two fines within any 3-year period. After this, other action like a parenting order or prosecution must be considered, this could mean a fine of up to £2500.

What is an unauthorised absence?

A child being kept off school unnecessarily or without good reason. Term time holidays are not a justified reason to take your child out of school.

What happens if I keep my child off, and don’t contact school?

School will call home to try and obtain a reason for absence.  If no reason is provided, school may carry out a visit to your home.  This is to check on the welfare of you and your child.

Attendance Team

Punctuality

Any time your child arrives for school after 9:00 am they will be recorded as late. Should the lateness exceed 9:10 am this will be recorded as "late after register closes" and is recorded as an unauthorised absence for the morning session.  You can let us know your child is going to be late by contacting our school office using the contact details above.

Absence

Should your child be too unwell to attend school, please contact the school office on the details above to report their absence before 09:00 am on the first day of illness and then all subsequent days.

If children have vomiting and/or diarrhoea they need to stay at home for 48 hours following the last episode. This is to limit spread of infection to others.

Expected Absences from School:

Should you know in advance that your child will not be present on a school day you should complete a Leave of Absence form which can be downloaded here.

Medical Appointments: 

Please provide the school office with a copy of the appointment letter and provide all the details of the absence. For example, the time and date of the appointment, where the appointment is, what time your child will be collected and/or returned to school.

Persistently Absent or at risk of becoming Persistently Absent

We want to avoid children becoming ‘persistently  absent’ (below 90%).

Interventions will be put in place when your child's attendance becomes ‘at risk’ of falling below 90% which may include meeting with parents to discuss the situation, agree a way forward and put support in place.

If you child’s attendance falls below 90% and they fall into the Persistently Absent category, you may become liable for fines or school attendance referrals.

Holidays during Term Time

Please note that any holidays taken during term time cannot be authorised and do not qualify as ‘exceptional circumstances’.

You can be fined if your child has a total of 5 days (10 school sessions) of unauthorised absences in 10 school weeks, for things like:

• being late after the register has closed
• truancy
• taking a holiday without permission from the school
• or if a headteacher isn’t satisfied for the reason for missing school more

Over a rolling 3-year period the sanctions are:

• 1st offence – £160 reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days
• 2nd offence – £160
• 3rd offence – Court hearing and up to £2,500 fine, or up to 3 months in prison and a criminal record.

Every minute counts

‘90% attendance’ or ‘only 5 minutes late’ may sound like small issues, but the amount of learning missed is huge!

Make each day count.