Behaviour, Attendance & Welfare

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It is very important that your child attends school. Here is some information about attendance at St Peter’s. We feel that it is helpful for you to understand the legislation that we are expected to uphold.

Therefore, please note the following points:

School starts at 8.30am, this is when the register is taken by Tutors. Students who arrive after 8.30am will be signed in late (L) and if your child arrives after Tutor registration has closed at 9:00am, this will be marked as an unauthorised late (U). The Attendance Officer will issue a detention depending on reason for late. Detention will take place on the same day, in their Year Secure & Boost room. This will last 20 minutes and upscaled to an hour the next day if not attended. Parents will be informed via their email that is linked to classcharts.

If your child is unable to attend school you should contact the school on each day of absence, explaining the reason for the absence. This can be done via our app SCHOOL GATEWAY, leaving a message on the SCHOOL ANSWERPHONE OPTION 2 or emailing attendance@spexe.org and if unable to use the latter, than a phone call to reception. If your child does not attend morning registration, you will receive an automated text from school. Please respond to this promptly as this is to ensure that you know your child hasn’t arrived at school and is an important part of the school’s safeguarding procedures. If the school does not hear from you this will automatically be marked as unauthorised until a valid reason is given.

If your child is off sick for three days or more then you will be asked to provide medical evidence for absence. If evidence is not received then these absences may be unauthorised. If your child has five or more days unauthorised then you may be liable to a fine of £60 or £120. It is very important that all absences are authorised by the school.

As from the 1st September 2013, all schools are unable to authorise any requests for absence relating to holidays in term time. This has been brought about by an amendment to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 which has removed reference to holidays and the ten day period.

These changes reinforce the Government’s view that every minute of every school day is vital and that pupils should only be granted authorised absence by the school, in exceptional circumstances e.g. illness, exclusions, or due to exceptional circumstances.  This view has recently been reinforced by Ofsted who in a recently published report on a Devon school reported, “Pupils clearly enjoy being at school. However, overall attendance is no better than average and this is in part due to some pupils being taken out of school for holidays during term time by their parents, in spite of the fact that the school has a clear and published policy that makes it clear that such absence is unauthorised. This absence has an impact on pupils’ achievement. As a result, the overall judgement for behaviour and safety is good rather than outstanding”.

We would remind parents that unauthorised absences may well result in the instigation of parental responsibility measures which could be a penalty notice, or a fine of up to £2,500 and/or a term of imprisonment of up to 3 months.

We hope you will support the school by ensuring that your child obtains the maximum benefit from their time at school by attending punctually for the 190 days each year that the law requires, unless prevented from doing so by an unavoidable circumstances.

Absence request form are available to download or from the school office and should be returned to the Attendance Officer in Reception. Any work missed must be made up.

You will be sent a registration certificate with your child’s full report. This will show all attendance information, including percentage attendance.

Our Attendance Officer is Ms Terri Walker. She will answer any queries you have about attendance and offer help with attendance problems. It is vital that you make contact as soon as possible if your child is having attendance problems.  As a school we want to help and support. Please telephone 01392 204764, make contact via School Gateway APP or email  attendance@spexe.org.