Attendance and absence

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Parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring that children of compulsory school age (i.e. 5 to 16 year olds) receive a suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. It is the responsibility of the LEA to ensure that parents meet these responsibilities. Attendance enforcement is usually carried out by the LEA Education Welfare Service who provide an important link between schools and families.

Head teachers are required to tell the LEA if a pupil fails to attend regularly or has been absent for a continuous period of ten days and the absence is treated as unauthorised. Heads can, of course, notify the LEA earlier if there are areas of concern.

Pupil registration

Head teachers are required to maintain two registers:

an admission register (known as the school roll)
an attendance register (unless all pupils are boarders)
the admission register shall contain a list of all pupils at the school.

Head teachers are required to ensure that an attendance register for all pupils on the school roll is taken twice a day; once at the start of the morning session and once during the afternoon session. For each pupil, the register must be marked either as present, engaged in an approved educational activity away from the school site or absent. If the pupil is absent, the register must say whether or not the absence has been authorised by the school. (Details on the marking of registers can be found in Circular 10/99 Social Inclusion: Pupil Support.)

Authorised or unauthorised absence?

Authorised absence is absence with permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes instances of absences for which a satisfactory explanation has been provided (e.g. illness).

Unauthorised absence is absence without permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences. The categories of authorised and unauthorised absence are explained in Annex A of Circular 10/99 Social Inclusion: Pupil Support.

Responsibilities of parents

Parents have the prime responsibility for ensuring that registered pupils of compulsory school age attend school regularly. If a child does not attend regularly, parents should work closely with the school and any assigned Education Welfare Officer to resolve the problem. From 1 March 2001 parents found guilty of school attendance offences could be subject to a penalty of up to £2500 and/or a period of imprisonment for up to three months.

Head teachers can encourage a good working relationship with parents by regularly publicising the arrangements for notifying absence and the schools policy towards authorised absence in the home-school agreement.

A DfES leaflet Is your Child Missing Out School Attendance: Information for Parents Ref PPY181 (Rev 2002) (DfES Publications) is available for schools and LEAs to distribute to parents. It is published in English and 17 community languages.

School policy

Monitoring and controlling school attendance should be a key part of the school objectives. Head teachers should ensure that a clear policy on attendance is in place, which is known to staff, pupils and parents. The policy should be reviewed periodically and staff, pupils and parents should be reminded of its contents.

There are many reasons why pupils miss school without permission. Consequently, there is no one solution to the problem of absenteeism. Head teachers should consider the initiative that is best for their school, taking into account the pupils individual circumstances. For example setting reward schemes, such as certificates, school trips and breakfast clubs. Other helpful initiatives include:

installing electronic registration
implementing first day contact with parents of children who are absent from school without prior knowledge
encouraging attendance checks, scheduled or unscheduled, which is effective in monitoring post registration truancy
having a senior member of staff responsible for attendance
pupil passes confirming authority to be out of school (helpful in Truancy Watch/Truancy Sweep areas).

Benefits of a whole school approach to tackling absenteeism are that:

responsibility for promoting school attendance is shared by everyone in the school, rather than being left to particular individuals or groups
developing an attendance policy touches all aspects of a schools life, and relates directly to the schools values, ethos and curriculum
opportunities arise for cost-effective networking and joint training involving groups of schools or difference professional groups
rigorous collection and analysis of data about attendance enables schools to check their progress against measurable outcomes.

If a pupil is absent without explanation when the register is called, school staff should contact the parents the same day wherever possible. A declared policy of first day contact makes it clear to pupils and parents that absence is a matter of concern and will be followed up.

Family holidays

Under education law parents may request absence for pupils from school due to a family holiday. It is for schools to determine whether or not they agree to a family holiday during term time. Schools may authorise absence for this purpose for up to 10 school days in any school year. In exceptional cases schools may agree to a lengthier period.

In considering any request for holiday absence, schools should look at individual circumstances and take account of:

the age of the pupil
the time of year proposed for the trip
its nature and parents' wishes
the overall attendance pattern of the pupil
the pupil's stage of education and progress.

Police powers

Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the police now have powers to remove truants found in public places and to return them either to their schools or a place designated by the Local Education Authority, as part of truancy sweeps organised by the Local Education Authorities.

Recording Absence Figures

Each year, every school is required to submit to the DfES details of the level of absence within their school. Schools are required to inform how many half days were missed due to authorised and unauthorised absence. For more information see the National Absence Tables available on the DfES website.

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