Attendance
Attendance at St John's
In law, every parent of a child of compulsory school age has a duty to ensure that their child receives full-time education (section 7 of the Education Act 1996). Parents of a registered pupil whose child fails to attend school regularly are committing an offence under section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. In April 2017, the Supreme Court held that attending school “regularly” means attending in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school, not “sufficiently frequent attendance”. This means that a child must attend school on every day that the school requires them to, and failure to do so may mean that an offence is committed.
At St. John the Baptist, we are committed to meeting our obligations with regard to school attendance through a whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:
- promoting good attendance;
- reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence;
- ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled;
- acting early to address patterns of absence;
- building strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support in place to attend school;
- promoting and supporting punctuality.
Changes to penalty notices
From 19th August 2024, a maximum of two penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a rolling three-year period.
A first penalty notice is £80 if paid within 21 days, rising to £160 if paid within 28 days.
A second notice within the three-year period is charged at the higher rate of £160.
If there is a third offence within that period, the local authority will consider other action, such as prosecution, rather than issuing another penalty notice.
Where this guidance refers to a parent, this generally includes:
- all natural parents, whether they are married or not;
- all those who have parental responsibility for a child or young person;
- anyone who has day-to-day responsibility for the child (i.e. the person the child lives with and who looks after them).
For more details, please read our Attendance Policy.
