School Attendance Policy

[Shallishanti123]

My DC's school have sent out their newsletter saying term-time absences/holidays will not be authorised... which is fair enough.

However, this paragraph is a little odd:
Can we remind everyone that your child will be recorded as late if they are not in
their classroom for 8:55am. If your child arrives after registration closes, staff will
have no choice but to put a U code in the register, which is an unauthorised
absence. Multiple code U’s could trigger a prosecution under the Education Act.

Now I have no problem with them cracking down on lateness, but to actually mark a late child as an unauthorised absence seems very strange - the child is not absent, they are late. Is this normal?

Hmm, I work in a school office and we would mark them L for late.

Seems a bit drastic!

Sorry for the odd layout and the bold fail - I copy/pasted it... and don't even get me started on the "multiple code U's"

My children (touch wood) have never been late, but I am now worried that if we are then they'll be classed as absent.

If a child isn't present when the register is taken, then are absent.

There is (L) for late whilst the register is open (normally about 20 -30 mins after the start of the school day) and U (late after the register closes) which means they pitched up after the register closed. The U is an unauthorised absence.

depending on the stage of education, if for instance you are 20 -30 minutes late each day, your child would miss all their phonics input and really start to struggle and fall behind so I think its fair. I cant imagine a school prosecuting, but I think education welfare would help (our school have paid for breakfast clubs, got taxi's sorted etc)

It was normal in my school

And fucking irritating

Dd was between 5 and 10 minutes late once a week for about 8 weeks

They put on her school report that she had been ABSENT for 4 days of schooling and had to work on her attendence

Infuriating

she had missed between 40 mins and an hour and 20 MAX not 4 whole days!!!

Im still really annoyed about it

Yes, it's normal.

If they are late, then it's recorded as 'late' (the L that pp refers to). If they are so late that register has actually closed, that L becomes a U. This is normal practice.

Persistent lateness haaays n shing EWO wouid be looking in to.

Senior school if that maes a difference

repeated lateness is a big problem for schools. it disrupts the whole class.

I agree it's draconian wording, to act as a deterrent. For a one off lateness they wouldn't do this.

It disrupted tutor in dds case

No lessons were affected

But im not bitter..nope, nope, nope

And then in year 11 her attendance dropped like a stone and school were very kind about it...so swings and roundabouts in her case

Blimey, bad typing and a predictive keyboard which hates me today.

I meant to say that 'Persistent lateness has always been something an EWO would be looking in to'

Im still really annoyed about it

I can tell...

Thanks for the wine shrodingers

It was a few years ago but they put it on her report

Pages of how lovely and hardworking she is and then a snotty comments about 4 days absence...when she didnt have 4 days absence!!

I keep those reports!! Obviously i tippexed out the offending comments and recopied so you cant tell ....but stil!!!

Right im going now...apologies for the merail

The same absence codes are used across England. There are details here: www3.hants.gov.uk/absence-and-attendance-codes.pdf

I was constantly late for school because the school bus was crap. It's not always the child or parents fault.

L would be the code for late, but before the register is closed.
The code U is correct for ‘Late after the register has closed’ which is generally half an hour after it’s taken. This can be different for different schools, but I would expect it to be stated in the school’s attendance policy. 8.55 seems a bit early for the registers to close, unless the school opens by 8.30.

‘U’ is not the code for Unauthorised absence, which is O, but it is true that persistent lateness after the register has closed can trigger action from the local authority, which could be a Parenting Order, an Education Supervision Order, a School Attendance Order or a fine.

there isnt one code for unauthorised absence. There are a number of unauthorised absence codes which are looked at by an EWO visit:

G (holiday not agreed/in excess of agreed ) N (reason not provided) O (absent without authorisation) and U (late after register closed)

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739764/Guidance_on_school_attendance_Sept_2018.pdf

Dd was between 5 and 10 minutes late once a week for about 8 weeks

Why?

Thanks everyone - it makes sense now. It read to me like a U was the same mark they would give for actually not being at school at all.

The doors open at 8.45 and close at 8.55. It's a primary school.

itsgood

Physio

It was bloody miles away but the consultant would only recommend one that he was hapoy with for children

I got her there as soon as it opened as going later would have meant that she would literally have missed hours of actual lessons rather than getting there at the very end of tutor

If your child was going for Physio, wouldn't that be classified as M (medical)?

Around 80% of ours come in by bus. If there is an issue, the bus company phone in. The lateness is recorded, but also the fact that it was due to the bus and not the student.

It's a bit tight to code U after ten minutes. I work in a secondary school that registers at 8.30am. We would use late probably until around 9-9.30. After that it would be U.

No they didnt do that mabel

They knew it was physio as i sent them a letter

I didnt realise they could do that

It was probably too late by the time her report came

So i just tippexed and seethed and photocopied and seethed

@Malbecfan we don't mark late for children who are delayed due to school transport. The way we look at it is that the child and family did their bit by being at the bus stop on time. If the bus breaks down or there are unusual traffic problems such as an accident then we code as present.

We have this system too.

If you try to minimise your child's absence from class by booking a doctor's appt that will get them into school 5 mins late you get an unauthorised absence but if you book an appt midway through the morning and they miss an hour their attendance record is unblemished! It's madness.

My son missed out on his 100% attendance certificate because the school phoned and insisted I take him to the doctors because he had cut his finger just before lunch. I tried to argue that it looked fine but they would not have it.

I took him to the nurse at the surgery but all he really needed was a plaster. I got him back to school 10 mins after they had closed afternoon registration so they marked him as absent. He was gutted!

It’s all about how often it happens, isn’t it? Child is 20 minutes late once or twice (bus breaks down, car battery is flat etc) it’s not a big deal. Nothing will happen.

Last year I had two children in my class who regularly arrived 40 minutes after the doors opened. At least 3 days a week. I often use that time to catch up on things that the children didn’t quite get the day before or a bit of extra one to one work. These children always missed that and I did ask that support was put in place to get them in on time.

At our school if you let them know in advance that it’s a medical appointment, then they mark it as authorised. That seems fair enough. Other than that, if you’re late you should be marked as such.