Attendance

Persistent Absence

Any child with attendance of 90% or below, regardless of the reason for any absences and whether these are authorised or unauthorised, is considered to be a persistent absentee by the Local Authority. The proportion of pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions in school has doubled since before the Covid pandemic, although this does vary as a result of geographics and school phase i.e. primary school/secondary school. 

Frustratingly, a common cause of persistent absence in many schools is term time holidays which are, of course, entirely avoidable. However, there are many other reasons why a child may be persistently absent from school and there is a wide range of support for families that may be affected by one or many of these.

Barriers to Attendance for Pupils with Medical Needs and/or SEND

Children with health conditions and/or SEND often have higher absence rates for legitimate and unavoidable reasons. If your child has a medical need and/or SEND and is required to attend medical appointments regularly then as long as appointment evidence is provided, absences for this reason will always be authorised and supported by academy staff. Where at all possible, we ask only that appointments are made towards the end of the day in order that your child is present in school for as much core learning as possible.

Barriers to Attendance for Low Income Families

On occasions, a child's absence from school can be as a result of challenges within the home. With an increasing number of children now eligible for free school meals, sometimes the challenges of low income families paying for bus fares or having to walk long distances to school, providing food and snacks and clean uniform every day is increasingly difficult as the cost-of-living crisis persists. At Leigh Academy Langley Park, our door is always open for a confidential conversation about how we may be able to support any family facing financial hardship. If you don't tell us about it, we simply won't know how best we can support your family and whether there is anything we can put in place to make things just a little bit easier.

Late Arrival to School

At Leigh Academy Langley Park, the morning registers close at 08:55. Your child(ren) can arrive on site any time from 08:30, allowing a 25 minute margin before they are marked late to school with the corresponding authorised L attendance code. This is because we completely understand that everyone is late on occasion due to bad traffic, roadworks, sleeping through an alarm or perhaps a wardrobe malfunction or lost car key! Only those pupils arriving after 09:15 are given a U code, an unauthorised late mark which will impact their attendance. 

Whilst we have seen the number of pupils arriving after this time reduce considerably since 2022, with the number of U codes issued dropping by around 50%, from 290 to 150, there have still already been 50 individual U codes issued so far this academic year and many of these are when a child arrives just a few minutes after 09:15. Please do try and bring your child to school on time everyday as being late can not only significantly impact their attendance but it can get the day off to a bad start, be embarrassing for your child to arrive to class once their peers are already seated and engaged in learning activities and create bad habits and expectations for the future. You may wish to adjust your morning/bedtime routine, limit TV viewing and/or screen time in the mornings and prepare lunches and uniform the night before - all of these things may help you to leave the house on time each day.

It is definitely important to remember that for your child, attending school is not only about learning. Pupils with high absence rates often find it more difficult to connect with their peers or face increased difficulties with social and emotional development. If your child is persistently absent from school for any reason and you feel a conversation with our Family Liaison Officer and Pastoral Lead, Mrs Carter, would be beneficial in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch to see how we may be able to support you and your family.