Why is regular school attendance so important?

We work closely with children and parents in connection with attendance so that each child can achieve their full potential. By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. Once your child is registered at school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly and on time.  If your child fails to do so, you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted. You also need to think about the negative impact upon the following:

• their learning
• their friendships
• their self-esteem and confidence

At Tollgate Community Junior School, every child is known, valued and supported to flourish within our richly diverse community. We believe regular attendance is essential to pupils’ academic, social and emotional development.

Good attendance begins with pupils feeling they belong. When children feel safe, connected and valued, they want to be in school every day.

 

 

We monitor the attendance of every child in the school. We work with and support those children and their families who are not attending school without sufficient reason. 95% attendance may sound good, but in reality it means that your child misses:

• one half day each fortnight
• two weeks every school year
• over three-quarters of a school year in a school career

 

Term Time Holidays

As a school we cannot authorise holidays in term time, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

If you are planning a holiday in term time please click the link below and complete the form to ask for permission. Please remember unless there are exceptional circumstances it is very unlikely that we can authorise the absence from school during term time.

If the request for absence during term time has been declined and you still decide to take your child out of school then you will receive a fixed penalty notice from East Sussex County Council.

 

Fixed Penalty Notices

Permission must be requested and secured before taking any planned absence during term time. If permission is not secured and absence is taken without permission, the Local Authority will issue each parent(s)/carer(s) with a penalty notice, for every absent pupil. The first penalty notice issued to parent/carer 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/carer in respect of the same pupil, within 3 years of the date of issue of the first penalty notice, is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.

A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent/carer, in respect of the same pupil, within 3 years of the date of issue of the first penalty notice. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action can be taken, including considering prosecution under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.

Please note that money from fines is not paid to the school.

 

Punctuality & Timekeeping

Timekeeping is also important in the education of your child. If your child is persistently late, they are missing out on important learning opportunities and having a less settled start to the day than their friends.

 

 

Working with our families

Our families know the school's commitment to raising attendance and we regularly share information about the impact of missed school.

We work together with our families to understand the specific barriers to attendance so that we can put a plan of action together so that each child can thrive.

Families are expected to:

• Make sure their child attends every day on time
• Call the school to report their child’s absence before 9am on the day of the absence and each subsequent day of absence, and advise when they are expected to return
• Provide the school with more than 1 emergency contact number for their child
• Ensure that, where possible, appointments for their child are made outside of the school day
• Keep to any attendance contracts that they make with the school and/or local authority

We expect our families also to seek support, where necessary, for maintaining good attendance, by contacting Lisa Brockman, Family Liaison Officer.

 

How we celebrate and promote attendance

We run a range of initiatives to promote attending school regularly, such as:

Otty the Otter Our Attendance Mascot, Otty, reminds us that we are like a raft of otters who always want to stay together. Otty visits the class with the best attendance each week.	The Golden Tie In the class with the highest attendance, children are given the chance to wear a special Golden Tie to match with Otty over the course of the week.	Year Group Challenge Classes celebrate having the best attendance in the year group on a daily basis with a special trophy passed from class to class.
Where's Chester Monday morning opportunity for a special class visit!	Weekly Attendance Rewards Both for small groups who are focusing on improving attendance and for the highest class attendance.	Termly Attendance Raffle Celebrating both those who are 'Excellent' attenders and those who have made significant improvements.