School attendance

The Education Act 1996 requires parents to ensure their children of compulsory school age receive efficient full-time education suitable to their age, ability, aptitude, and to any special educational needs they may have.

Most parents do this by registering their children at a school.

Where a child is registered at a school the parents are legally responsible for ensuring they attend school every day that they are able to.

The Education Act considers a parent as anyone who has parental responsibility for a child or who has day to day care of a child.

A child is compulsory school age from the prescribed day following their 5^th birthday

The prescribed days are; 1 September, 1 January and 1 April

For example, if your child turns 5 on the 27 March 2020 then they will be compulsory school age from the 1 April 2020

All children then remains of compulsory school age until the final Friday in June in the academic year in which they turn 16.

Section 576 of the Education Act 1996 defines “parent” as:

• A person who has parental responsibility for a child or
• Has care of a child

Having care of a child or young person means that a person who the child lives with and who looks after the child, irrespective of what their relationship is with the child, is considered to be a parent in education law.

Your child's absence is only acceptable if:

• leave has been authorised by the school
• your child cannot attend school due to illness, injury or other unavoidable causes
• Any day exclusively set aside for religious observance by the religious body
• the local authority have failed in their duty to provide transport.

Children can attend school under normal circumstances with minor symptoms. Parents have to make a judgement on when a child is really too unwell to leave the house and needs to stay at home and rest.

However, if a child has frequent absences schools have a responsibility to verify if the level of absence is necessary. If you are unsure whether to send a child into school or not you can send them in and let the school know your concerns so they can monitor the situation and send the child home as appropriate.

You should follow your child’s individual school Attendance policy for frequency of calls during any illness that results in absences from school.

If you are unable to get a medical appointment outside of school time you should send your child into school wherever possible either side of the appointment.

• Good school attendance starts with good home routines, ensure your child gets to bed at the right time and is not in front of an electronic screen an hour before they should be going to sleep.
• Always contact school staff for help at the earliest opportunity.
• Never cover for your child’s absence this only empowers a child to do what they want to do and prevents you from controlling the situation, tell the school exactly why the child is not coming into school.
• Accept help offered and respond to the advice given.
• Accept referrals to explore different strategies
• If you don’t understand anything or are not happy with what is happening you need to tell school staff or Education Welfare Officer so that we can try to answer your questions or concerns.
• Attend all the appointments given where possible or if you can’t attend, contact the education welfare officer (EWO) or professional to rearrange.
• Be positive about the school to your child even if you have concerns. Concerns need to be raised and addressed with school staff but never run a school down in front of your child.
• Listen to your child, spend time with them to give them space to talk about what is concerning them and reassure them that there is no problem too big or too small that they can’t talk about, we have to work harder at this with teenagers than younger children and it is often best to engage a teenager in an activity to create the space for them to open up.
• If you feel your child is anxious contact your GP and/or school nurse to discuss this. 
• Take a parenting class, parenting is the hardest job in the world and the most rewarding

Further support:

• Wellbeing in Education
• The Parent Hub
• Psychology and Therapeutic Services
• Children's health and children's centre services

If your child attends school after the register is closed they will receive an unauthorised late mark for that session which is considered an unauthorised absence.

Your schools attendance policy should detail the times at which the registers close.

If your child goes on holiday in term time or takes leave of absence without prior permission from the school, the absences will be marked in the school register as an unauthorised absence and may result in a fixed penalty notice being issued.

The Local Authority strongly encourages parents to take holidays or leave of absence for other reasons during the school holidays, rather than during term time.

Schools are closed for 13 weeks a year it should not normally be necessary for children to miss school for these reasons.

Any leave of absence requests should be made to the school and leave of absence granted in only the most exceptional circumstances.

Each school in Suffolk has an allocated Education Welfare Officer (EWO).

You can request the contact details of the Education Welfare Officer from your child's school, alternatively email schoolattendance@suffolk.gov.uk in the Email please state the school your child attends so the email can be forwarded to the correct EWO.