Parent Information for Supporting Attendance

We have now began the Eskdale 'Attendance Streak'. This initiative champions good attendance by celebrating the number of days your child can go without an absence from school. There are Prize Draws, rewards, treats and special incentives on your child's journey to excellent attendance. All children from Reception to Year 6 take part. While there will always be occasions where children are absent from school, they can restart their 'Streak' on their return! Who can achieve the longest streak? How far can your child go?

Attendance is EVERYONE'S responsibility

We need everyone involved, which is why it's important that schools, students and parents work together to ensure attendance is encouraged throughout every school year. The key to finding easier solutions for physical, mental or emotional barriers to attending school is talking about things early. Where these barriers cannot be resolved, it is important that the partnership working enables children to freely access their right to education, as they should, in other appropriate ways.

Commitment to Best Practice

Eskdale Academy are committed to developing our practice in supporting attendance to improve. We offer a range of support, recognition of efforts and encouragement to promote the positive benefits of attending school. 

Most absences happen for genuine, exceptional and unavoidable reasons and as a trust we follow a support first approach that is trauma informed/aware. This includes using guidance on exploring absence reasons, both physical and emotional (often referred to as Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)) to support knowledge and understanding of a child’s absence reasons and any distress related to being within the school environment.

Prepare your child for success!

Enrolling a child at Eskdale Academy comes with a legal responsibility to encourage and ensure they attend regularly. Ensuring the above happens helps them create successful learning, both in school and in life. The primary school phase is a key time to develop positive habits. When your child starts in the 'Reception Class’, it is inevitable they will encounter illness (due to mixing with new children and therefore, new bugs/viruses) however, this is a great time to reinforce a good ‘bounce back’ mindset on recovery.

Regular school attendance helps to:

• Establish positive life habits

• Learn social skills

• Strengthen friendships

• Increase the amount of learning opportunities available

• Encourage curiosity

• Achieve their life-long learning potential.

Importantly, the above also helps your child to feel more emotionally connected to their school community (which we know is important because ‘belonging’ is a basic human need to feel happy). As they move through their school career, the above sets them up for a strong future.

Talk to us!

Talking to us when you or your child have worries or concerns about school, or other things that impact them or school, helps us to understand and respond helpfully. We want to support as early as possible before 'worries' develop into 'problems' or 'barriers', which often take longer and are more complex to resolve.

General Absence

If your child is absent, always stay connected whilst your child is absent. This helps us ensure the register is recorded accurately and helps us to put support in place where required.

Then, when your child is well enough to return to school (or access education for long term medical needs), speak to your child’s teacher to find out how your child can catch up and what you can do to support them to do so, without putting undue pressure on them.

• Also speak to pastoral staff if you need to obtain non-academic support for your child

Please note: No Absence will be authorised if it is for the purpose of Holiday, Recreation or Leisure. This is in line with DfE Statutory Guidance Aug 2024.

Supportive Process

We will always try to keep you informed of your child’s attendance level and any concerns regarding absences. We believe that conversations are always best and most effective.

Medical evidence will not be routinely requested but wherever you are able to do so easily, it is always appreciated and helpful to provide any form of supportive information. This can be as simple as having open and honest conversations with us, but is can also be:

• Appointment cards or text message screenshots (confirming appts where GP advice is necessary)

• Prescription notifications, or antibiotic or medication packaging.

• Hospital letters, texts or emails if they are involved.

• Emergency travel information/bookings or other info supporting an exceptional circumstance.

Providing the above means we can authorise as much absence as possible, offer early help quickly (especially if a medical issue or concern requires additional support or a whole family plan) and it prevents unauthorised absences being recorded which could cause escalation later.

Medical and SEND absence

Our ethos is always to trust parents' decisions on their child wellness to attend school, initially authorising absences due to illness or other exceptional reasons. BUT… If there is a concern due to the frequency, reasons or patterns of absence, we have a duty to explore and offer support by law.

This means that authorisation will not be automatic in these situations. Where illness can be, and is treated at home, we will work with you to support this to avoid unnecessarily using GP/Medical Practitioner services. Supportive information helps us to demonstrate why absences have been authorised, especially where an ongoing illness or situation may affect future attendance.

Where your child has a medical or SEND practitioner involved, we will work together with everyone as each person or agency has a specific roll in supporting the process and your child or family.

The law states schools must put Individual Health Plans (IHP) in place where a child has specific medical needs; the above helps us to fulfil this duty. NB. An IHP is not the same as an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan).

An IHP is specifically about what medical support and Reasonable Adjustment is required for that medical condition to enable the child to access their education.

The law also states that schools/academies must report all children to the Local Authority if they have been absent for more than 15 days due to a medical need so that consideration for access to education under section 19 of the Education Act can be done.

Also, all children who have been absent from school unauthorised for 10 consecutive days must be reported to the LA, and the school/academy must advise why they are not progressing towards legal action (because it’s unauthorised).

This is why supportive information is so important – it not only helps us to authorise absence, meaning your child doesn’t get reported to the LA, but it also means we can support without considering legal action, which is generally best for all

Supportive Process

When an unmet need has been identified, we will offer early interventions. This may be via an Early Help Assessment (EHA) to support sharing of information with wider services that could support, and/or an Attendance Contract to explore what support is required and ensure everyone is working together as per statutory guidance.

All the above also helps to gather information for considering if an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) is required too. This is part of the ‘Assess Plan Do Review’ process which schools are required to evidence when applying for additional SEND/Education/Health support.

To explore absence and offer the right support it’s often helpful to meet with you face to face, especially if conversations have not worked or more in-depth discussion is needed.

Our staff are trained to ensure these discussions are supportive and reassuring. They are not a ‘punishment’ and they do not mean prosecution is likely, they are to prevent any such action being needed.

The discussions will be aimed at talking through the situation, increasing understanding and awareness, exploring what support, actions or reasonable adjustments may help, and agreeing an action plan to support your child, and if needed, the whole family.

They are to ensure we are all working together to find the right support for you and make the right changes. Yes, they may feel a little challenging at times, as we may be discussing things that are sensitive or need to change to reach the desired outcome for your child, but their aim is a positive outcome.

Where more formal support may be required, or support from a wider network of people, we will offer you an Attendance Contract to draw that support together. They are generally a 3-6 months process but can be shorter or longer.

As above, these are also part of a support approach. Attendance Contacts were introduced by the DfE in August 2024 as part of the ‘support first’ approach to attendance. An EHA (Early Help Assessment) may also be offered alongside the above, or the above may be integrated within an EHA Team Around the Child process.

Absence and Safeguarding

Persistent and Severe Absence from school is a safeguarding matter, along with where a child is suspected to be a ‘Child Missing Education’ (CME) (e.g., whereabouts unknown, or with no alternative appropriate education in place).

Where there is a concern about a child’s attendance, it must be brought to the attention of parents, (& students, where age allows) and any relevant external agencies so that collaborative partnership working can commence.

As of August 2024, there is a legal requirement to ensure a child’s Social Worker or Youth Offending Officer is informed of all unexplained absence.

Partnership working involves the whole child, therefore along with parents/carers, students and schools/academies, this often needs to also include health services, support services, crime prevention and community policing.

Although sharing of information is always done sensitively and proportionately within the requirements of GDPR and Data Protection, where a safeguarding concern is present, which may mean a child is potential risk of harm, information will be shared as appropriate.

Normal practice would be to ensure this is done in partnership with you as the parent, but occasionally (almost rarely) information must be shared without permission; this is because SAFEGUARIDNG overrides GDPR. ‘The child’s welfare is paramount’ – Children’s Act 1989

If your child is avoiding school

If you are concerned about the health of your child (mental or physical) please seek support from the NHS 111 service or your GP where needed.

 

Putting Absence into Context

Every child achieving 100% attendance would be amazing, but we know that’s not realistic, but aiming for a 96% attendance is highly achievable for most students.

Where additional barriers to attending exist, aiming to achieve the highest possible level is key, and it’s important we work together to minimise absence and keep access to education open.

Even at 96% attendance, a student will have missed 45hrs of learning and even this level of absence has potential to affect achievement.

90% attendance equals to approx. 19 days (4 weeks) absence from school per year. That equates to missing 97 lessons in one year!

At Eskdale Academy, we strive to best prepare children for their secondary education- where their attendance will continue to impact upon their progress.

90% attendance every year for 5 years of education, would mean half a year’s learning will have been missed.

The practical impact of this at exam time would be like doing a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle with 50 of the pieces missing.

Research by the DfE has historically shown that:

•For every 17 days of absence (approx. 91% attendance), it’s common for a child to drop one GCSE grade in MOST subjects.

•35% of those with attendance between 80-90% are unlikely to achieve five good grades (9-4) at GCSE including English and Maths…BUT recent research shows, every extra week they do makes a difference!

Data from the Children’s Commissioner found: •Only 5% of children who missed 50% of school (Severe Absentee) went on to get a grade 4 or above in five GCSEs including English and Maths, which could limit opportunities in later life.

•Only a third (36%) who attended 90% of the time (still persistently absent) got at least five good GCSEs.

•But 78% of students who were rarely absent from school achieved 5 good GCSEs or more.

What does all this prove?

The more a child is in school (or accessing education) the higher the chances of academic success.