Attending school everyday gives your child the best chance of success.

Did you know that if a child has 90% attendance they will miss 4 weeks of learning every school year? This amounts to one whole academic year of lost learning across their school life!

Children with 80% attendance will miss 8 weeks of learning every school year. This is 2 years of lost learning across their school life!

Can your child afford to miss out?

Research shows that children who are not in school regularly are:

• More likely to become involved in, or become a victim of crime and anti-social behaviour.
• More likely to fall behind due to the strong link between attendance and achieving good school results.
• Less Likely to achieve 5 good GCSEs (grade 9-5) compared with those with less than 8 days absences.
• More likely to have increased levels of anxiety due to inconsistencies and uncertainty in their routine.
• More likely to have low self-esteem due to finding learning increasingly hard and having missed out on key information.

What happens if your child does not attend school regularly?

If your child fails to attend school regularly—even if they miss school without you knowing—the local authority may take legal action against you.

Forest View will notify you if your child’s attendance level is a concern and look to work with you to put in place steps to improve it. If attendance continues to require improvement or is below 90% then the school may initiate an attendance improvement meeting (AIM).

The AIM is the start of a legal process. It is important that you engage with the school and work with the support provided to meet the agreed targets. These targets will be reviewed and progress evaluated at a review meeting. If insufficient progress is made then you may be referred to the local authority for legal intervention.

If your child’s attendance is low then you run the risk of being issued with a penalty notice or being prosecuted in court. If this happens:

• Parents can be fined up to £2500 or imprisoned for failing to ensure that their child attends school regularly.
• Magistrates can also impose a Parenting Order, which means that the parent has to attend a counselling and guidance programme, usually a parenting class.

Illness Guidance

Being ill may prevent your child from coming to school, but, if they can get out of bed and play or enjoy TV/video games, they should be in school.

If you do feel that your child is too ill to come to school then you should notify the school immediately and then on everyday that they will be off school for. Parents should notify the school of any absence by 9.30am on the day of the absence.

If your child’s attendance is already poor or if they are off for a prolonged period due to illness then we may ask that you provide a doctor’s certificate to verify absences.

Leave of Absence and Holiday Requests

The Government states that leave of absence is not permitted during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Taking leave of absence without prior consent will result in unauthorised absence. The school will always refer any unauthorised leave of absence that takes place over 5 school days or more to the local authority so that a penalty notice can be issued.

Family holidays will very rarely be considered as ‘exceptional circumstances’ . The school will treat any request for leave in the same way that an employer would when considering compassionate leave.

Full details of the school’s attendance procedures can be viewed in the attendance policy which can be found on our website