Attendance
Dear Parents & Carers,
RE: Important Update – Changes to Education-related Penalty Notices
Information for Parents
You may be aware that the Department for Education has recently announced national changes to penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence in term time. These changes came into effect on 19 August 2024.
The changes to be aware of are:
- Penalty notices 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[1]. This may include absences as a result 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 (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).
- Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds.
[1] A school week is any week in which a school meets at least once.
At St. Mary’s, we take an extra week off in the summer term so that parents can book a holiday at cheaper rates because most other schools are back. However, there have been many holidays still taken during the school year when children should be at school. Sadly, there have also been cases we are aware of where parents have told school that their child is ill and when their child has returned they have revealed to us they have actually been on holiday. School will fully follow Lancashire guidelines and will not authorise any holidays during the school year for either of the scenarios above, whether we have been made aware by parents or not, and fines will be issued by Lancashire. Only in very exceptional circumstances will authorisation be given for a holiday during term time. We fully believe that 13 weeks and bank holiday weekends gives plenty of opportunities to book holidays throughout the school year.
Absences do have a lasting effect on learning. Missing a week of school means your child will miss around 25 hours of learning or 25 lessons at school. No matter how hard we try, this is very difficult to make back up and we cannot teach children if they are not at school. Obviously, genuine illness cannot be helped, and happens to all children, but the gaps created in their knowledge through being absent means that they will not meet their full potential and quickly fall behind other children in class.
Next year, if your child’s absence drops below 90% or is in danger of dropping below this, it is classed as persistent and school will be in touch to discuss how this can be improved – this may include a meeting or a home visit to see how we can support you. If there is no improvement in the short term, school will then look to the Lancashire Authority and other agencies to work with the family. This could include parenting contracts, or in more extreme cases, parenting orders, penalty notices and ultimately prosecution.
Your child has a legal right to attend school – please help to ensure that this happens every day they are fit and well. Thank you for your understanding.
