Attendance update from the Department for Education
Our ref: ER/MT
19 July 2024
Attendance update from the Department for Education
Dear parents/carers,
The Department for Education (DfE) has produced a document called, ‘Working together to improve school attendance,’ which applies from 19 August 2024. As you will be aware, there is a lot of pressure on schools from the government to improve attendance, quite rightly, as excellent attendance is so crucial for academic achievement; future opportunities; well-being; friendship etc.
We have produced a detailed document, summarising the main guidance for both schools and parents, which we will send to you in September. However, we wanted to highlight government changes to thresholds for penalty notices, for example, for term time holidays, as these will apply from 1 September 2024, to help ensure consistency across the country.
The threshold for issuing a penalty notice is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks (please note, each day has 2 sessions – morning and afternoon).
Only 2 penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a 3-year rolling period and any second notice within that period is charged at a higher rate:
The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.
Schools have very clear guidance on when penalty notices should be issued and when a leave of absence may be granted. The DfE states that it does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.
Given this guidance, we would again like to emphasise the importance of excellent attendance and how important it is to not take children out of the academy during term time. It is our job to build strong relationships with you, as parents and carers, listening to and understanding barriers to attendance and working in partnership with you to remove them. We will ensure that we do this through our updated policies and procedures for the autumn term.
Yours faithfully
Mrs E RickettsPrincipal
