Attendance and Punctuality at Old Basford School

Parent Information from Mrs Spilsbury (Safeguarding and Attendance Officer)

Old Basford School follows the Nottingham City attendance protocol.  All pupils are expected to achieve at least 96% (or above) attendance over an academic year. The DFE (Department for Education) now class any child with less than 90% attendance as a persistent absentee. 

In order to achieve 96%+ attendance - a child can not have more than 8 days off school in an academic year.

A child who misses 19 days or more of school in an academic year will have an attendance of 90% or lower - this is classed as a persistent absentee. (Meaning this is equivalent to a child missing a day of school once a fortnight all academic year.)

If a child's attendance is below 90% during an academic school year; and if 10% or more is unauthorised - school are required to make a referral to the Education Welfare Service.  

A letter will be sent to the parents of children with less than 90% attendance to advise that their attendance will be monitored for improvement at any point during an academic year.  

​A child's education, opportunities and their future do suffer from poor attendance.

Day to Day

Parents/Carers are responsible for getting their children to school on time.

Pupils are expected to arrive between 8:40-8:45 in order to be in class by 8.50am ready for  learning at the beginning of the school day. 

If a pupil is unable to attend school, parents/carers should contact the school office before 9.00am by either:

• telephoning 0115 9785505
• sending a message through the Arbor App
• emailing admin@oldbasford.nottingham.sch.uk
• in person - popping in to the school office at the start of the day

 If a child is not in school by 9.30am as a school we have a duty of care to ensure that all children are safe and the protocol stated below will be followed.

The government requires that all schools must have at least 3 (up to date) contact numbers for each child.

If school does not have a satisfactory reason recorded for a child's absence by 9:30am the following protocol will take place:

• a text will be sent by the school office to the named first contact on a child's records

If we have still not received a reason for absence:

• a follow up telephone call or text will be made by the school attendance officer.

If we still have not received a reason for absence:

• The school can carry out a home visit with 2 members of staff.

It is the parent/carers responsibility to make sure a satisfactory reason is given or the absence will be marked as unauthorised.

Parents are invited to call or meet with the attendance officer (Mrs Spilsbury) to discuss individual health concerns or other reasons for excessive absence.

Medical Appointments
To keep your child's attendance above 96% (DFE expectation) - parents/carers are reminded to, where possible, make medical appointments outside of school time.  If this is not possible, all children must attendance school either side of their appointment time. Proof of medical appointments will be required.

Leave of absence requests

For all leave of absence requests parents/carers are required to complete an absence request form from the school office with as much notice as possible. (6 weeks for holidays see below)

Holidays

The DFE has firmly stated that children should be in education full time and that holidays during all term time are not permitted. 

Therefore Old Basford School do not give permission for any holidays during term time. All holidays will be recorded as unauthorised and a penalty notice will be requested from Nottingham City Council.

If a parent/carer still chooses to take their child out of school for a holiday - school require at least 6 weeks notice - please collect a form from the school office.

Children Missing Education (CMIE)

Early intervention is necessary to identify the existence of any underlying safeguarding risk and to help prevent the risks of a child going missing in future. Staff should be aware of their school’s unauthorised absence and children missing from education procedures and Attendance Policy:

• Parents are expected to contact school on the first day of absence
• School will contact parents if no reason of absence has been given to school, initially by School Comms text, if there are attendance, welfare or safeguarding concerns this will also include a telephone call
• School Comms text and phone call if no contact has been made, on the previous day, additional emergency contact numbers will also be called
• Potential home visit if no contact is made, and contact made with any additional agencies who are working with the family (who may be in a better position to visit the family)
• Referral to CMIE if information is gained that the family have moved out of area
• Referral to CMIE if child has not returned after 10 days with no contact from the family after efforts made by school, if we believe the child should or may be removed from roll whether the onward school is known or not
• The Children Missing Education (CME) Officer within the Education Welfare Service will work closely with the school to try to identify the child’s current whereabouts/destination
• Both parties will then agree an appropriate time and category to remove the child from the school roll.  This includes those children and young people who are expected to move swiftly into appropriate provision; this is in line with The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016
• After 20 school days of absence and efforts by both the school and CME to find the child prove unsuccessful, the CME Officer will consult the school to discuss whether to remove their name from the school roll. The final decision about removal from a school roll remains with the Headteacher following consultation with the Local Authority via CME
• The school should create a ‘lost pupil’ record on the national Lost Pupil’s Database School to School (s2s) to assist future schools and Children Missing from Education Officers to identify and locate children
• It is the duty of both the Education Welfare Service and school to collaborate in finding the pupil before deleting them from the register
• For further information please contact the CME Officers directly - cme.educationwelfare@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

All other requests for leave of absence

School is here to support families in exceptional circumstance - please always contact the attendance office.

Your can download a copy of Old Basford School's Attendance Policy below