School Attendance Update-September 2025
School Attendance Update-September 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this letter finds you well. As the Trust Attendance Lead, I want to begin by thanking all our families who have consistently supported good school attendance. Your commitment ensures your children benefit fully from school life. We know that pupils with good attendance tend to enjoy better wellbeing and achieve more in school than those who frequently miss days. Excellent attendance gives children the best chance to thrive – in their learning, their friendships, and ultimately their life chances beyond school.
Why Attendance Is So Important: Regular school attendance is crucial for your child’s wellbeing, achievement, and wider development. Being in school every day helps them stay on track academically and keeps them engaged with their teachers and friends. It also helps build good habits like punctuality and responsibility that will serve them throughout life. In short,everyday counts. Even a few days of absence can quickly add up and significantly impact learning and exam results. Thank you again to all parents/carers who send their children to school consistently – your support makes a huge difference, and we celebrate those students who achieved high attendance last year.
Government’s Attendance Expectations: You may be aware that the Department for Education (DfE) has introduced a new National Framework for school attendance and penalty notices, effective from 19th August 2024. This is designed to improve consistency across England in how schools and local authorities respond to absences.
Please note the key changes:
- Rolling 3-Year Tracking of Absence: Unauthorised absences are now tracked on a cumulative three-year basis. If a child has 10 or more unauthorised sessions (equivalent to 5 full school days) within any 10-week period, schools must consider issuing a fine. This 10-week window “rolls” across terms and school years, so absences don’t reset at year-end. Importantly, any penalty notices or unauthorised holiday from last school year will carry forward under the new rules. In other words, an unauthorised absence recorded in 2023/24 remains on record for 3 years.
- Higher Fines & Escalation for Term-Time Holidays: The fine for unauthorised school absence (such as an unapproved term-time holiday) has increased for the first time since 2012. From August 2024, each penalty notice is £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, rising to £160 if paid within 28 days. These rates apply nationwide. If a second fine is issued for the same child within a 3-year period, it will automatically be at the higher £160 rate with no reduced amount. There is also a limit of two fines in any three-year period per parent for the same child. After that (i.e. at a third offence), schools can no longer issue a penalty notice – instead, authorities will move to other legal interventions such as parenting orders or prosecution in court. In court, parents could face much steeper fines (up to £2,500) or other sanctions, so it’s crucial to avoid reaching this stage. Please also be aware that by law Headteachers cannot grant any leave for family holidays during term time except in truly exceptional circumstances, nor can they authorise absences after they have occurred.
We understand that these Government rules may sound strict. Please remember: our Trust’s aim is always to support families and avoid fines wherever possible. We, like the vast majority of schools, view fines as a last resort after all other support steps have been exhausted. The national framework itself emphasises that schools and councils should work with you first – to understand any barriers and help improve your child’s attendance – before considering any formal measures. In fact, 89% of fines nationally are for term-time holidays, not routine illnesses. Our priority is to work in partnership with parents so that issues can be addressed early and you are never put in a position of facing a penalty unnecessarily.
What You Can Expect from All Our Schools: Across every school in our Multi-Academy Trust (from Reception through Sixth Form), we follow a clear, supportive process to promote good attendance. The goal is to intervene early with help, long before any legal action is needed. Here is our shared approach that you can expect in every school:
- Clear Attendance Stages & Early Alerts: We continuously monitor each student’s attendance and have defined trigger points for concern. If your child’s attendance begins to dip (for example, approaching the persistent absence threshold of 90%), you will receive early warning notifications (phone calls or letters) from the school. This is to keep you informed and to signal that we need to work together to prevent a further slide. Every school in the Trust uses a consistent staged system of letters and meetings as absence levels reach certain points.
- Supportive Contact and Meetings: Our first response to attendance worries is support, not punishment. School staff (Teachers, Heads of Year, or Attendance Officers) will reach out to discuss any challenges you or your child are facing. We will offer advice and can arrange face-to-face meetings to create an Attendance Action Plan if needed. The aim is to identify and address issues – whether they’re health-related, academic, or personal – and put in place help (e.g. adjustments in school, counselling, mentoring, etc.) to improve attendance. We want to reassure you that we’re here to help, and we understand that sometimes there are genuine difficulties.
- Formal Warnings (If Problems Persist): If attendance does not improve despite initial support, the school will issue formal written warnings or invitations to attendance panel meetings. These letters will clearly explain the concern and what needs to change, and they serve as a more serious notice that absence has reached an unacceptable level. We’ll continue to work with you, but it’s important to be aware that ongoing poor attendance may lead to involvement from the Trust’s Education Welfare Officer (EWO) or equivalent. The EWO works with the school and family to provide specialist support and will monitor the situation closely. You might be asked to sign an attendance contract or agree to certain targets at this stage.
- Last Resort – Legal Action: In the unlikely event that a student’s attendance fails to improve, even after all the above steps, we will have no choice but to refer the case for legal intervention as a last resort. This could mean the local authority issuing a penalty notice fine, or in severe cases, initiating prosecution for non-attendance. Our sincere hope is to never reach this stage with any family. Legal action is only considered when there is persistent, ongoing absence with no improvement despite all offers of support. We would much rather work together to find solutions long before this point.
Please note that this supportive, staged approach applies to all students from Reception age through to Sixth Form. Good attendance is just as critical for a 5-year-old in primary school as it is for a 15-year-old preparing for GCSEs or a 17-year-old in sixth form. The law requires regular attendance once children are of compulsory school age (5 to 16), but our Trust’s ethos is to instil good habits and provide support right from the start of schooling and to continue that through post-16 education. Every year of education builds on the last, and we want every child – regardless of age – to have the best chance of success by being in school, on time, every day.
In summary, we are committed to working with you to ensure your child attends school regularly, and to navigate any difficulties together. The new Government measures are there to underscore the importance of attendance, but our focus remains on encouragement and support. We will continue to recognise and celebrate good attendance, and more importantly, to help those who are struggling with it. If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact your school – we are here to help.
Thank you for your ongoing support in this matter. By reinforcing the value of education through good attendance, you are opening the door to a brighter future for your child. Let’s continue to work in partnership to make sure every student in our Trust can achieve their full potential.
Yours sincerely,
Niall Brennan
Trust Attendance Lead,
Central Region Schools Trust
