Absence Procedures

Absence Procedures

The name and contact details of the school staff member pupils and parents should contact about attendance on a day to day basis is:

Sapphire Davids

attendance@springmeadow.essex.sch.uk 

01255 504528

We thoroughly monitor all absences, and the reasons that are given.

If a child is absent from school the parent must follow these procedures:

• Contact the school on the first day of absence before 9am. The school has an answer phone available to leave a message if nobody is available to take your call, or you may call into school personally and speak to the office staff
• Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9am
• Contact Mrs Neal (Pupil Wellbeing Mentor) if you require advice or support.
• Ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible and you provide any medical evidence, if requested, to support the absence

If your child is absent we will:

• Telephone or text you on the first, and every subsequent day of absence, if we have not heard from you however it is your responsibility to contact us
• If we are still unable to get hold of you, we will call the other contacts on your child/ren’s records that we hold in school. (For this reason it is important that we have at least two, but ideally three, contacts and that you  inform us about any changes). 
• If we have not had contact from you and we have not seen your child/ren for 3 days, a home visit will be made by school staff to ensure the safety of you and your child/ren.  We will leave a letter to let you know that we have visited.  (If serious safeguarding concerns exist, a home visit may be made earlier than 3 days of absence).
• If we have still not heard from you and we have not seen your child/ren for 5 school days, then a second home visit will take place.  If we still cannot make contact then we will report the pupil/s as Missing in Education and refer this to the Local Authority Attendance Compliance Team.  At this point the local Police and Social Care may also be contacted as we have a duty of care to ensure that the pupils on our school roll are safe. (If serious safeguarding concerns exist, a second home visit may be made earlier than 5 days of absence).
• When staff complete home visits, if they cannot make contact with you and your child/ren, then they have the right to ask neighbours if they have seen you.  Again, this is to ensure the safety of your child/ren.   No personal details will be shared and confidentiality will be maintained at all times.  Essex Local Authority Attendance Compliance Team fully endorses this approach as part of our Safeguarding duties. 
• We will always work in a supportive way with all our school families and try to find a way to help and support getting your child/ren into school.

If absence continues:

• We will make contact if your child/ren have unauthorised absences recorded because you have failed to phone in or give a reason for the absence.
• We will write to you if your child’s attendance falls below 96% or where punctuality is a concern.
•  If your child/ren have 8 sessions (a session is half a day) of unauthorised absences recorded, then you will be asked to attend a meeting so that we can discuss any support that we can give you as well as making you aware of the legal proceedings that can follow if the number increases to 10 sessions of unauthorised absences.
• We will create a personalised action/support plan to address any barriers to attendance
• We will ask you in to school to discuss the situation with our Pupil Wellbeing Mentor, Senior Leader with responsibility for Attendance or Headteacher if absences persist
• We can and will contact outside agencies, for example medical care, social emotional support, family support agencies if it is felt that this support is needed to help improve attendance for the child/ren.
• We will refer the matter to the Local Authority to request a formal School Attendance Meeting for relevant sanctions if attendance does not improve or deteriorates following the above actions.