Nottinghamshire Schools Portal

School attendance policies

In line with Working Together to Improve School Attendance  it is an expectation that each school has a clear school attendance policy which all leaders, staff, pupils, and parents understand.

An effective whole school culture of high attendance will be underpinned by clear expectations of parents and pupils, robust procedures, and clearly understood responsibilities of school staff.

To ensure all leaders, staff, pupils, and parents understand these expectations, all schools are expected to have a clear, written school attendance policy based on the expectations set out within the Department for Education guidance. School Attendance Guidance Training Webinar - Setting an effective school attendance policy

As a minimum, a school attendance policy should detail:  

• The attendance and punctuality expectations of pupils and parents, including start and close of the day, register closing times and the processes for requesting leaves of absence and informing the school of the reason for an unexpected absence.
• The name and contact details of the senior leader who is responsible for the strategic approach to attendance in school.
• Information and contact details of the school staff who pupils and parents should contact about attendance on a day-to-day basis (such as a form tutor, attendance officer etc) and for more detailed support on attendance (such as a head of year, pastoral lead or family liaison officer etc).
• The school’s day to day processes for managing attendance, for example first day calling and processes to follow up on unexplained absence.
• How the school will promote and incentivise good attendance.
• The school’s strategy for using data to target attendance improvement efforts to the pupils or pupil cohorts who need it most.
• The school’s strategy for reducing persistent and severe absence, including how access to wider support services will be provided to remove the barriers to attendance and when support will be formalised in conjunction with the local authority.
• Details of the National Framework for Penalty Notices and the point at which Fixed Penalty Notices for absence and other legal sanctions will be sought if support is not appropriate (e.g. for an unauthorised holiday in term time), not successful, or not engaged with. From 19 August 2024, school attendance policies must make clear that when a school becomes aware that the national threshold has been met (5 days/10 sessions over a 10-school week rolling period), they school will consider whether a penalty notice can and should be issued or not.

The Policy should also clearly explain the role of Governing Bodies in relation to improving school attendance.

The guidance is clear that improving attendance requires robust governance arrangements. The expectation is that all governing boards should:

• take an active role in attendance improvement,
• support their school(s) to prioritise attendance,
• work together with school leaders to develop a whole-school attendance culture.

Policies should also outline how Governing Boards and Senior Leaders will regularly review attendance data and improvement efforts at board meetings.

Governing body meetings should include:

• Thorough examination of recent and historic trends and patterns,
• Benchmarking against comparator schools within the local authority, region and nationwide,
• Paying particular attention to pupil cohorts and to groups that face entrenched barriers to attendance (this should be specific to the school’s context but may include vulnerable groups such as pupils who have a social worker, are from a background or ethnicity where attendance has historically been low, have a long-term medical condition, have special educational needs or disabilities or are eligible for free school meals),
• Working with school leaders to set goals and outline areas for support and challenge.