Attendance
At Oasis Academy Don Valley we take attendance and punctuality very seriously. We expect all pupils to attend school regularly and to arrive at school on time and ready to learn.
Our robust systems for monitoring and improving attendance give pupils the best possible chance of success both academically and socially.
We provide support for families through our Attendance and Pastoral team. Please speak with a member of the team if there are issues you would like to discuss that are impacting on your child’s regular attendance.
Our Executive Principal and Attendance Champion is Miss Nichola Smith. You can contact her on 0114 220 0400.
Breakfast Club is available every morning for your child to join us between 8:00am-8:30am. This will be at a cost of £2 per pupil and must be paid in advance at the time of the booking. Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate any children arriving after 8:10am.
After school activities
Primary After School Activities
We are delighted to be able to offer a range of fun and exciting after school activities. Each activity will commence at 3pm and finish by 3:45pm, unless otherwise specified. We would ask that parents arrive promptly to collect their children from the main school gates. Please ask at Reception for an up-to-date list of activities.
Secondary After School Activities
We are delighted to be able to offer a range of after school and enrichment activities which also includes study sessions. Each activity will commence at 3pm and finish by 4pm, unless otherwise specified.
Uniform – add a link to the website section on uniform
Academy day – add a link to the website section on uniform
Our strategy for supporting good attendance
At Oasis Academy Don Valley, we have a graduated response to attendance. A graduated response draws on more detailed approaches, more frequent review and more specialised expertise in successive cycles in order to match interventions to an individual pupil or young person’s needs to improve their habit of attending school.
There are 4 waves to the response:
Wave 1 – attendance being everyone’s business
Wave 2 – early interventions for support
Wave 3a – expert support
Wave 3b – local authority involvement
What happens when attendance is good?
At Oasis Academy Don Valley we aim for 100% attendance but set our target at 97%.
We have a number of rewards on offer when attendance is excellent. We understand, for some students, the many different barriers to attendance that can cause difficulties in attending school every day, so we therefore reward improved attendance.
What happens if attendance needs to improve?
Using our graduated approach, we aim to identify attendance issues early so that support can be put in place as soon as possible. For this to be most effective, we expect parents/carers to work with us to put support in place.
Attendance and your legal responsibility as parents
You have a legal responsibility to make sure that your child attends school regularly. If your child is not attending school regularly the Attendance Officer will contact you to arrange a meeting to discuss any concerns that you may have. We have a duty to report unauthorised absences to the local authority and the parents of pupils who have a record of persistent and/or unauthorised absence may be fined or have legal action taken against them.
Punctuality and your legal responsibility as parents
Being on time for school establishes good habits for the future. Being late for school has a significant impact on learning time and will ultimately affect the attainment your child due to the disruption it causes.
The level of support increases for students encountering specific challenges with their attendance. This will be dealt with at Wave 3a where specialist support from within the academy will be offered. If this does not work, the local authority will be involved at Wave 3b.
Our aim is always to work with parents/carers in order to improve a student’s attendance as quickly as possible.
Authorised and unauthorised absence
If a student is absent from school, it is vital that their parent lets school know as soon as possible to give a reason either over the telephone or in person at the gate or office. All absences from school can result in a telephone call and/or a home visit.
If absences are not reported to school, a message will be sent out to parents asking them to inform school of the reason. If no contact is still made from home, a home visit will be undertaken by one of the attendance team.
Appointments during term time
Please contact us on the first day of absence if your child is ill and will not be attending. In order to maximise individual achievement, parents should avoid making routine appointments for children during the academy day or taking family holidays during term time.
If a child has an appointment, parents need to tell the office in advance and bring in proof.
If the appointment is in the morning the child should come to school and get their mark first and return to school after the appointment. If they don’t return for the afternoon session, the absence should be recorded as unauthorised.
Term time holidays
We do not authorise holidays during term time; however, in very exceptional circumstances the Executive Headteacher may authorise term time leave. The Executive Headteacher will make a decision based upon the individual circumstances of each case and will take into account current attendance and attainment levels. The Executive Headteacher's decision is final and families who take term time holidays without the permission will be referred to the local authority’s multi-agency support teams, who will initiate proceedings for a fixed term penalty fine.
What if my child’s attendance continues to go down and isn’t improving?
1. There is a national threshold of 10 unauthorised sessions of absence for any reason (equivalent to 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period for when a penalty notice must be considered.
2. The 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. The fine will be £160, if paid within 21 days, it will reduce to £80. This fine is per parent and per child.
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 meets the criteria above for a third time (number 1.) in a 3-year rolling period, the local authority will need to consider other enforcement options available to them.
This guidance came into effect from 19th August 2024 and it relates to unauthorised absence.
|
Half Terms |
Sessions absent (am, pm) |
Time in days |
|
1 |
7 or more sessions |
3.5 |
|
1+2 |
14 or more sessions |
7 |
|
1-3 |
20 or more sessions |
10 |
|
1-4 |
25 or more sessions |
12.5 |
|
1-5 |
31 or more sessions |
15.5 |
|
1-6 |
38 or more sessions |
19 |
We understand that there will be times when a pupil will require time off school. It is the school’s decision whether this is authorised or not.
Please note that we require medical evidence for all illness absence over 3 days.
Keep to a minimum the amount of time your child is off with illness, it is OK to return on a Friday.
What can you do to help?
· Do not take holidays during term time.
· Make sure that your son/daughter comes in to school every day unless he or she is genuinely ill. Remember we will administer medicines if prescribed by a doctor and you give your consent.
· Explain to your child how important attendance is.
· Establish good bedtime and morning routines.
· Always let the school know each day that your child is absent from school.
· Please book dental or medical appointments out of school hours.
· Contact the Attendance Officer for advice and support on improving attendance.
Persistent Absence
All parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child attends Oasis Academy Don Valley on a regular and punctual basis. It is a criminal offence under Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act to fail to secure regular attendance of a registered pupil at Oasis Academy Don Valley.
Regular attendance at school is essential to ensure uninterrupted progress and to enable children to fulfil their potential. The Department for Education has published data on their website that clearly shows the link between attendance and attainment. It also highlights the impact on a child’s education if attendance is not consistently above 95% throughout their schooling.
Any pupil who misses 19 days or more of school and has attendance below 90% is classed as persistently absent. This figure is not acceptable, and it will be expected that the family will work relationally with the academy and local authority in order to improve their child’s attendance. These families will be regularly tracked and invited into school to attend meetings informing them how to improve their child’s attendance. If a parent shows support and starts to show improvements to their child’s attendance, then they will be monitored. If attendance continues to drop and support isn’t followed, unfortunately this will give the school no further option than to contact the local authority to process fixed penalty fines.
If you wish to find out more information regarding attendance, please follow the link below for Sheffield City Council
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/schools-childcare/attendance-guidance-parents
Severely absent pupils
A pupil becomes a severe absentee if they miss 50% of their schooling across the academic year. Absence at this level is doing considerable damage to a child’s educational prospects. The school will be working closely with families whose child is fitting this figure, and the family may be referred to social care for educational neglect. The Designated Safeguarding Lead will be involved in this process.
Educational neglect
Schools have a statutory duty under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Regular school attendance is predominately the responsibility of parents and carers. Primary aged children where school attendance is 75% or less over an academic year (three terms) halves their possibility of achieving the recognised average level for a child at the end of Key Stage 2.
Signs of Educational Neglect:
· Parents consistently failing in maintaining schooling or identifying provision for their child.
· Parents failing to engage in school meetings to address attendance concerns.
· Parent unable to provide substantiated reasons for absences from school.
· Parent failure to engage in statutory or non-statutory interventions to improve attendance.
· Parents fail to prevent children from becoming persistently absent (below 90% attendance) and/or severely absent over a period equal to an academic year (9 months / 6 half-terms).
· Parents “can’t” rather than won’t enforce boundaries and routines.
· Child refusal to attend school / adhere to parental boundaries.
· Impact of adverse childhood experiences or multiple moves (school / addresses).