Attendance

There have been some changes to procedures and rules with regards to attendance in school from August 2024. Please note these are set by the Department for Education and are not Clifton Primary School policies. We are however asked to enforce these along with all other schools nationally.

The changes to be aware of are:

• The code for authorised holidays has been removed entirely and can no longer be used on registers. So, all holidays during term time will be unauthorised absences.

• Penalty notices (fines) issued for offences that take place after 19 August 2024 will be charged at a new rate of £160 per parent per child. This can be paid at £80 if paid within 21 days.

• Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3- year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.

• The threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered is set at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period. This may include absences because of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years.

• A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd offence another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).

We appreciate that these guidelines are significantly more severe than those in the past. As always, we will do everything reasonably possible to work with families to ensure strong attendance and give our children the best possible life chances.