Attendance and Holiday in Term Time

New Government legislation came into effect September 2023 to ensure that children attend school regularly so they get the most out of their school experience, including their attainment, wellbeing and wider life chances.  Improving pupil attendance at school is "everyone's business."

At Bishops Itchington Primary School we believe it is important that every child should be entitled to the same opportunities school offers including - educational benefits, social and emotional learning and feeling part of the school community. 

As a parent/ carer you are legally responsible for making sure your child/children attends school regularly.

It is important that you and your child/ children develop a positive attitude to school attendance and punctuality so that they do not miss out on the opportunities at school. These qualities of reliability are also important in adult life. 

Poor attendance disrupts a child’s education. This causes a lack of continuity and progression in schoolwork and can establish patterns of behaviour which may lead to long-term truancy. Missing school prevents children from building essential learning blocks of skills and knowledge and prevents them from making educational links leading to poor progression and anxiety.

With effect from September 2023 Bishops Itchington Primary School in partnership with Warwickshire Attendance Service (WAS) has adopted a strict arrangement for the authorisation of absence taken during term time. Authorisation will only be granted in exceptional circumstances for religious or unique personal reasons by the headteacher on a case by case basis. In the absence of leave being granted and absence occurring, consideration will be given by WAS to impose a fine as detailed here –

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/pupilnonattendance

We greatly appreciate parental support to reduce the total amount of days lost due to absence.  We are committed to working in partnership with you to enable your child to reach their academic targets and to support their social development and for this to happen, we need to keep individual attendance as high as possible and we all need to play our part.

If a child achieves 80% attendance, this means that they have missed approximately 40 days of education over the academic year, averaging 1 day per week.  If a child's attendance equates to 80% over their time in secondary school, they will miss more than a full year of education. Excellent attendance is 100% and acceptable attendance is 97.5%.

Your child's progress

Evidence shows that children with poor attendance are unlikely to succeed academically and are more likely to be NEET (not in education, employment or training) when they leave school.

If children are taken away for a two week family holiday every year and have an average number of days off for sickness and appointments, they will have missed the equivalent of a year off school by the time they are 16.

There is a clear link between poor attendance at school and lower academic achievement. (improving attendance at school - Charlie Taylor pub. DfE 2012.)

Previous interpretations of the regulations where Headteachers could grant pupils leave of absence of up to 10 days for the purpose of a two week family holiday in term time has been interpreted by some parents as a right to an automatic two week term-time holiday.  This is not acceptable and the rules have been strengthened to prevent this happening in the future.  For this reason the Government brought in new guidance in 2013, tightening the time off in term-time.  Headteachers are no longer permitted to authorise absence for holidays taken during term time.  They are only permitted to grant leave for exceptional circumstances.  If you think you have exceptional circumstances, please talk to us without delay and before arrangements are entered into or money committed.  If exceptional circumstances are accepted, the Headteacher and the School Governors will determine how much absence will be authorised.

All unauthorised absences are automatically referred to Warwickshire Attendance Service where a fine may be issued.