Unauthorised Absence - Primary School

[Baby_Sham]

Hi. I have a question that I need quickly answered, so would be very grateful to anyone that can help - teachers, Education workers etc.

If a child misses morning registration on two occasions (no point in explaining the reason as it makes no difference) does that go down as two marks of unauthorised absences or do they count each morning misses as a half day so it equates to one unauthorsied absence?

Thanks.

[2sp_]

I'm pretty sure it would be counted as two absences.

[ummmm]

Our school registers them as 'late'

Unauthorised absence is when they have the whole day off without a letter of explanation.

[pixie373]

Ours registers mornings and afternoons. If a child is off for one school day, it counts as two absences. In your example, would also count as two

[Baby_Sham]

Hmm. I've had a letter sent home in my daughters bag, like an end of term thing, that says she was late on two mornings. It then says on the bottom 'Totals 2 unautorised absences', but I can't see how this is, as they have morning registration and afternoon registration?

[2sp_]

Did she make it into the morning sessions late or did she just go in after lunch?

[ummmm]

Obviously schools differ. With mine, if they are late, they have to register in and it will go down as late, not absent.

[daffy654]

2 absences, you can incur two in one day by missing both morning and afternoon registration.

[Baby_Sham]

She arrived at 9.05 on the one morning and 9.15 on the second. I would have thought these would have totaled one unauthorised absence and not two, so her 'total unauthorised absenses' would be one?

I appreciate that all schools are different and I've tried to call the EWO at my local council but he's left for the day so I can't speak to him until Monday. I need him to confirm it for me before I go arguing my case with the school headmistress.

[2sp_]

Sounds really harsh to mark her down as being absent when she's only been a few minutes late each time.

[ummmm]

But she wasn't absent, she was late.

[pixie373]

Ours register lates separately. If she was signed in after registration, i would have thought they would call that a "late" rather than "absent"

[Baby_Sham]

Well that's what I think. Basically, to cut a long story short, I requested 3 days holiday so we could attend a family wedding in France. She asked me to provide proof of the church booking and a copy of the wedding invite. I was able to provide the invite but I could not provide the church booking as I did not want to ask the bride and groom for this. She has marked it down now as 3 days unautorised which I thought was really unfair but accepted.
She has today sent this letter home to say that those 3 days plus the two I am talking about here (two mornings) equals 5 and she will be referring it to the EWO who will decide whether or not to fine me.

I truly believe this is personal as I was part of a group of mothers who last year started a petition for the right to equal rights after this headmistress had two weeks off during term time to go on holiday. Obviously I can't prove this, but everyone I've spoken to agree's that it seems unfair.

I spoke to the EWO before I took my child to this wedding and he looked at her attendance and said that "even if I did go and it was marked as unauthorised they wouldn't be able to impose a fine as she would not have missed 5 days in total"...?

As above, I have tried phoning to speak to him but can't do so until Monday.
I am now stressing out about this.

[2sp_]

First of all, don't get stressed and let this spoil your weekend.

Do you know of any other child that has been late this term? Could you find out if they were marked as absent or late?

[Baby_Sham]

I know it probably seems trivial to others, but I really am stressed out about this now and it will worry me all weekend. That's a great idea though and I know of a Mum I can ask. Thank you.

[pixie373]

It sounds very harsh to me,babysham. I'm not sure if there's a minimum number of days before you can be fined? It might be worth finding out that, as well as speaking to other mums. She sounds a bit of a cow, tbh

[Baby_Sham]

I spoke to the education welfare officer for the school before I took my child out for the 3 days. He said even if it went down as unauthorised it would still not warrant a fine as her absences (which he checked on his system) would not add up to 5, which is the amount of times they can be 'unauthorised' before it gets passed to the council to issue a fine.

I took her out for the 3 days as he had told me this was the case and now all of a sudden she's saying that the two late mornings mean she's had 5 unauthorised absences.

[factor-fiction]

This should help
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/behaviour/attendance/a00216341/advice-on-school-attendance
Statutory register have to be taken at set times

"By law, schools are required to record in the attendance register - once at the beginning of the morning session and once in the afternoon - whether the pupil is present, absent, engaged in an approved, supervised educational activity off-site, or unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances as defined in regulation 6(5) ....

[factor-fiction]

And this.
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/advice%20on%20school%20attendance%202013.pdf

A pupil arriving after the register has closed should be marked absent with code U, or with another absence code if that is more appropriate.

[Baby_Sham]

Thanks for that. I appreciate the help and advice.
Would you please mind helping me to understand something, whilst I have you.

The letter says "Under Section 444(A) of The Education Act 1996, the local authority may issue penalty notices to parents of children with 5 unauthorised absences from the school".

I can see no mention of this on the education act, nor on my local councils website.

I have looked at the school's policy document regarding this and it says:

"Accumulated unauthorised absences of 10 sessions may result in a Fixed
Penalty Fine issued directly from ***** Council.
N.B. 2 sessions = 1 day"

When I spoke to the Education Welfare Officer, he told me that even if she did mark our holiday as unauthorised my child would still not have enough absences for them to issue a fine. Since I've just read this, I now remember he did actually say it had to be ten unauthorised absences, not the 5 I mentioned above.

I can't think straight at the moment and can't work out, from the info taken from the letter and policy document, who is right/wrong.
If I am wrong then I will accept that, but I can't see how it equates to 5 unathorised absences, let alone ten sessions.

I work it out as 8 sessions?

[pixie373]

Yes, is 8 sessions if they include lates as absences. I believed it was ten or more absences, but wasn't sure enough