IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Parent Fines for missing school from September 2024.

What you need to know...

Every moment in school counts and days missed add up quickly. Evidence shows that pupils who have good attendance enjoy better wellbeing and academic progress than those who don't.

There are only a few circumstances where a child is allowed to miss school, such as illness or where the school has given permission because of an exceptional circumstance.

However, if your child is absent from school without a good reason, local councils and schools can intervene and you may be issued a fine (also referred to as a penalty notice).

From September, a new national framework will be in place and all local councils will have the same rules in place for when they need to consider issuing a fine to a parent for children missing school.

When will a fine be considered?

• Marsh Green Primary School will always attempt to work in partnership with you to help you improve your child’s attendance. However, if this isn’t effective or the absence is for unauthorised term time holiday, you may face paying a fine.

• Under the new national framework, all schools will be required to consider a fine when a child has missed ten or more morning and/or afternoon sessions for unauthorised reasons, in a rolling period of ten school weeks.

• The threshold can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence. For example, four sessions of unauthorised absence in term time plus six instances of unauthorised late marks.

• The period of ten weeks can also span across different terms or school years. For example, six sessions missed in December (Autumn Term) and four sessions missed in January (Spring Term).

• Please note that local councils will also retain the discretion to issue a fine before the threshold is met. This could include where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking several term time holidays below the threshold or for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events.

How much could I be fined if my child is not attending school?  

• The fine per parent per child for unauthorised school absences across the country will be £80 if paid within 21 days or £160 if paid within 28 days.

• If a second fine is issued for the same child within any three-year period, the fine per parent per child will be charged at the higher rate of £160.

• To illustrate, in a situation where two siblings are enrolled at the school and both siblings have ten sessions of unauthorised absence across the rolling ten-week period, each parent will be charged £80 if the fine is paid within 21 days.

• After 28 days, if the fine is not paid, you may be prosecuted for your child’s absence from school.

• Fines per parent will be capped to two fines within any three-year period. Once this limit has been reached, other action like a parenting order or prosecution will be considered.

• If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500.

How can you be sure parent fines are fair?

• Fines are a last resort and parents will initially be offered support to help improve their child’s attendance.

• The vast majority of fines for unauthorised absence are issued for term time holidays.

• If your child is facing barriers to school attendance due to special education needs or disabilities (SEND), schools, local councils and wider services are required to work together to provide the right support in the first place.

What if my child needs to miss school? 

Your child must attend every day that the school is open, unless:

• Your child is too ill to attend that day.
• You have asked in advance and been given permission by the school for your child to be absent on that day due to exceptional circumstances.
• Your child cannot attend school on that day because it is a day when you are taking part in religious observance.
• Your local authority is responsible for arranging your child’s transport to school and it is not available on that day or has not been provided yet.
• You are a gypsy/traveller family with no fixed abode, and you are required to travel for work that day meaning your child cannot attend their usual school.

What happens if my child misses school without a good reason? 

We will endeavour to support you to improve your child’s attendance, before any action is taken. However, if action is then deemed necessary, this can include:

• Issuing a fine – the local council can give each parent a fine. If you do not pay the fine after 28 days, you may be prosecuted for your child’s absence from school.
• Seeking an Education Supervision Order from the family court – if the council thinks you need support getting your child to go to school but you’re not co-operating, they can apply to a court for an Education Supervision Order. A supervisor will be appointed to help you get your child into education. The local council can do this instead of, or as well as, prosecuting you.
• Prosecuting you – this means you have to go to court. You could get a fine, a community order or a jail sentence up to 3 months. The court could also give you a Parenting Order.

Why is attendance important? 

• For most pupils, the best place to be during term-time in is school, surrounded by the support of their friends and teachers.

• This is important not just for your child’s learning but also for their overall wellbeing, wider development and their mental health.

At Marsh Green Primary School, we believe that children cannot learn effectively if they are absent from school. High attainment and progress are dependent on excellent attendance. Therefore, we aim to ensure that all pupils take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them and we maintain standards by promoting high levels of attendance and punctuality.

Legal situation

All parents and carers have a legal duty to ensure that their child receives an education. Failure to ensure your child’s regular attendance is a criminal offence. The Education Act 1996 clearly states that the prime responsibility of parents and carers is to ensure that their children attend school regularly.

In addition, the Department for Education statutory guidance on school attendance parental responsibility measures sets clear expectations for what is expected from parents and carers regarding attendance of their child in school. If a child’s attendance falls below 90%, they are considered to be persistently absent.

Attendance target for all pupils

At Marsh Green Primary School, we have a target of 96.5% attendance and above for all pupils, which allows for children to have occasional days off if they are too unwell to attend school.

.

Benefits of regular attendance

• Your child has access to a full curriculum.
• Your child has access to daily high-quality teaching.
• Your child builds strong relationships with their peers and adults in school.
• Higher potential for learning gaps to be bridged.
• Opportunities for your child to be pushed to exceed expectations.
• Helps your child learn the importance of coming to school and learning.

Impact of low attendance

• Missed learning creates learning gaps that increase when further days are missed.
• Children can develop low self-esteem due to gaps in their knowledge and learning.
• Children can develop low self-esteem due to a lack of opportunity to develop strong relationships with their peers and adults in school.
• Children are unable to access the complete curriculum.

Strategies for promoting good attendance

• Termly attendance celebration assemblies are led by the Attendance Manager and Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher.
• Weekly raffle tickets are given by the class teacher for 100% attendance and perfect punctuality. These are put into a raffle for a bicycle at the end of the summer term (one for KS1 and one for KS2).
• In the Summer term attendance celebration assembly, badges and certificates are awarded for bronze, silver and gold level attendance. Attendance Teds and badges are also awarded for 100% attendance for the whole year.
• Attendance charts in each classroom indicate which children have earned a raffle ticket each week.
• We recognise the winning class for attendance and punctuality in our weekly celebration assembly.
• Class attendance is regularly reported and celebrated in the school newsletter.
• Teachers play an active role in promoting our shared value of excellent attendance and punctuality.
• The Attendance Manager builds excellent relationships with parents to promote excellent attendance and communicate issues quickly, so that expectations are clear from the outset.

Holidays during term time

The school will not authorise any holiday to be taken during term time.

Any term-time leave must be for exceptional circumstances only, which must be backed up by evidence supplied by the parent or carer. Please see our Attendance Policy for more detailed information.

Absence

In the case of your child being unwell and unable to attend school, please telephone the school office and speak to the Attendance Manager. If we do not hear from you, the Attendance Manager will telephone you to enquire about your child’s whereabouts. A period of absence of 5 days or more will require medical certification. Any incident of sickness or diarrhoea will necessitate your child remaining off school for 48 hours from the last bout of sickness or diarrhoea.

Please be aware that absence due to illnesses or appointments may not be automatically authorised. Your child's attendance record and the specific circumstances of the absence will be taken into consideration at these times.

We do acknowledge that there will be certain occasions where absence from school is necessary for religious observances and individual family circumstances.

Lateness

It is important that children are punctual for school, and need to arrive ready for learning before registers close. After this, they will be marked as late and need to sign in at the main office. Lateness can prove detrimental to children’s learning and wellbeing; even short delays can swiftly add up to much lost learning time.

Details of our school opening hours can be found here.

Concerns about attendance

Where there are concerns about the attendance pattern of a child, the Attendance Manager will discuss the matter with our BDSIP Attendance Advisor in their fortnightly meeting (BDSIP is an organisation that provides attendance support to schools in Barking and Dagenham and works with the school to support families to ensure that their children attend school every day). Appropriate action may then include a letter home, an invitation to a meeting or a home visit.

More detailed information can be found in our school’s Attendance Policy.