Attendance and Punctuality

At Queen's Park CE/URC Primary School, we know that it is vital that our children attend school regularly and punctually to achieve best life outcomes. We want our children to become the best versions of themselves; academically, socially and morally as they prepare for their next stage of their education and good attendance is key to this.

We have an culture of attendance being everyone's responsibility at Queen's Park CE/URC Primary School. We firmly believe that working together is key to improving attendance and is the responsbility of all members of our school community to encourage and maintain good attendance.

We expect all our children to achieve at least a 97% attendance percentage each year.  However, we know that there can sometimes be exceptional reasons why children cannot attend school, such as illness.

We have a very experienced attendance team who track and monitor attendance data in order to offer invidualised support plans to our families and to raise everyone's awareness of attendance in school. We have clear processes and systems in place to monitor attendance and to provide support. We ensure clear communication will all our families regarding their child's attendance. 

We take a support first approach when concerns in a child's attendance declining become apparent however we understand that all children and families are different so we aim to build positive working relationships with our families and personalise our support plans to meet the needs of each individual family. 

At Queen's Park, we will listen, understand, empathise and provide support when children are unable to attend school – however we will not tolerate poor attendance and will always be proactive in helping our families through our support first approach.

Below you will find our parent friendly attendance strategy. This gives you important information about the support we offer for attendance and our clear processes for the actions we take should we become concerned regarding your child's attendance.

Our Attendance Team 

Mrs Leadbetter is our Senior Attendance Champion in school and has leadership responsibility for our attendance in school. 

Mrs Mullins is our Attendance Officier and oversees the day to day monitoring of our attendance, including working with our families to provide support (inclusive of home visits). 

Mrs Hughes is our Pastoral Support Assistant and works with children to collect their own views in relation to attendance. She also runs weekly attendance celebration groups for children of families who are on support plans for attendance.

Miss Bailey is our Deputy Headteacher and is responsible for the strategic leadership of attendance in school alongside Mrs Leadbetter.

Mrs Leadbetter  Senior Attendance Champion	Mrs Hughes  Pastoral Assistant	Miss Bailey  Strategic Lead for Attendance	Mrs Mullins  Attendance Officer

Important Changes to the Law - from September 2024

A new National Framework for Penalty Notices for school absence, including unauthorised holiday absence, is being introduced following changes to the law. These new Government regulations came into effect from 19 August 2024, and does affect when penalty notices are issued in St Helens.

 What are the changes?

1. There will be a new national threshold of 10 unauthorised sessions for any reason (equivalent to 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period for when a penalty notice must be
2. The new rules mean you will no longer be able to take your child out of school for one week’s holiday without a penalty notice being issued.
3. There will be an increase in the penalty fine from £60 to £80 if paid in 21 If the fine is not paid by the first 21 days, it will rise to £160 if paid within 28 days of being issued.
4. If a second penalty fine is issued to the same parent for the same child within a 3-year rolling period, the fine will automatically rise to £160 with no option to pay the lower rate of £80.
5. If a parent then commits a third offence in a 3-year rolling period, the local authority will need to consider other enforcement options available to consider other enforcement options available to them.

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