Attendance at Langley Mill Infant School
At Langley Mill Infant School we believe attendance is everyone’s responsibility and the only way to improve attendance is to work collaboratively with our children and families.
We are mindful of children absent from school due to mental or physical ill health or their special educational needs and/or disabilities, and we will provide them with appropriate, additional support when required.
Our Family Support Worker and Attendance Lead (Miss Crossley) is always on hand to support both children and families to improve their attendance by working with you on an individual basis to ensure we are meeting the child’s needs.
Why is attendance important?
A child’s attendance can have a huge impact on their progress, both in terms of personal development and academic progress. To achieve their full potential at school, children must attend regularly and arrive at school on time. If a child misses just two weeks of school across the year, they are missing 65 hours of learning, and it can be very difficult to catch up.
If a child is late 10 minutes every day for a week, they will have missed 50 minutes of learning that week. That is almost one hour of missed learning a week.
How attendance works
The school day is split into two sessions, with two registration marks per day – one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Attendance is recorded per session; this means that if your child is unwell in the morning but feels better in the afternoon it is beneficial to bring them into school. Their attendance will be boosted and, more importantly, so will their education.
School starts at 8.55am. The bell will ring at 8.50am and staff will greet the children and lead them into class. All classes have an hour for lunch between 12 noon and 1pm. School finishes at 3.25pm for all full-time children. Children will be dismissed from their classroom doors. This equates to 32.5 hours of school time.
Illness
If a child is ill or has a valid medical reason for not being able to attend school, school must be contacted before 9am on each day of the absence so we can keep a record and assess whether we can authorise the absence.
If we have not had any contact to explain the absence, we will call the family or send a safe and well text. If we are unable to speak to anyone, we may do a safe and well home visit. If we are still unable to make contact, we will consider informing other agencies such as the police, social care or a health visitor. Absences that we are not informed of, will be recorded as unauthorised.
Leave of absence requests during term
In August 2024 the School Attendance Regulations 2024 came into force. These regulations make it clear that Headteachers should not grant approval for any leave of absence during term-time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Leave of absence requests are very rarely authorised and the following information must be considered:
- An absence request must be completed and received by school at least 10 school days before the first requested day of absence.
- If there are extremely exceptional circumstances, evidence should be provided to help the authorising process.
- Penalty notices are issued for unauthorised absence, poor attendance or reoccurring lateness.
- Penalty notices will be issued even if attendance has previously been good.
- Leave of absence requests for family holidays will not be authorised.
- Requests for holidays for family weddings or to see relatives are not deemed to be exceptional circumstances.
First time Penalty Notices are currently £80.00 per child per parent if paid within 21 days or £160.00 per child per parent if paid after 30 days. Penalty notices that are repeated or unpaid may result in legal prosecution.
Should you still decide to take your child out of school for a holiday, we still require you to complete a Leave Of Absence Request Form, which is available as a download at the bottom of this page or from the school office. You can return the form to the school office or email it to info@langleymill-inf.derbyshire.sch.uk with the subject heading Leave of Absence Request Form.
Further information
For further information, please use this link to access our Policies page, where you will find our most up-to-date Attendance Policy, or view the documents listed below:
