Attendance

Our approach

Being in school, on time, every day gives children the best opportunity to achieve, thrive and stay safe. That is why our school attendance goal is for all children to achieve 97% and above.

We work with families first, not fines first. If your child is finding it hard to get to school, tell us early and we will help. This page follows the Department for Education's statutory guidance “Working together to improve school attendance”.

Why attendance matters

90% attendance is not "good" attendance. It means around half a day missed every week, and roughly 19 school days, or nearly four school weeks, lost across the year. Lessons missed are rarely repeated.

- Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of school sessions.

- Severe absence means missing 50% or more.

- Pupils already have around 13 weeks of holiday a year, which is time for trips and appointments without missing lessons.

How we support attendance

If attendance becomes a worry, we will contact you and work out what is getting in the way. Depending on the barrier, support can include:

- a conversation or attendance support meeting to agree a plan together;

- a phased or supported return after a longer absence;

- pastoral, SEND or wellbeing support in school;

- a referral to external services where that would help.

Who to contact:

- Pupil absence team – pupilabsence@kjar.org.uk

- Miss Mulholland, Senior Attendance Champion (senior leader responsible for our whole-school approach to attendance)

Reporting an absence

If your child is going to be absent, let us know on the first morning, before 8.30am, and every day the absence continues unless we agree otherwise.

To report your child’s absence, you can use the following:

- Report it to us using the absence form - Link to student absence form

- Email – pupilabsence@kjar.org.uk

Please tell us the reason, so we can record the absence correctly and check your child is safe.

If we do not hear from you, we will contact you to make sure your child is safe. Unexplained absence may be recorded as unauthorised, 10 or more sessions of unauthorised absence are reported to the local authority, we want to work with families before this happens.

Medical and dental appointments

Please try to book routine appointments outside school hours or in the holidays. Where an appointment must fall in school time:

- tell us in advance and, where you can, share the appointment card, letter or text;

- your child should attend school before and after the appointment wherever possible.

Authorised medical appointments are recorded using the national attendance code for medical absence. We will always look at each case individually.

Term-time leave and holidays

There is no right to take a child out of school during term time. By law, leave in term time can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 make clear that the wish or need for a holiday is not an exceptional circumstance.

- Requests must be made in advance using our Leave of absence form – Click here to download our Term Time Leave request form

- Unauthorised term-time leave may lead to a penalty notice (see below).

Penalty notices

Penalty notices are issued by Hertfordshire County Council, not by the school. We may ask the local authority to issue one where absence is unauthorised and support has not worked or is not appropriate, for example a term-time holiday.

Attendance, SEND and wellbeing

We hold the same high ambition for every pupil, with support adjusted to individual needs. If your child has SEND, a medical condition, or anxiety-based barriers to attending, please talk to us early so we can put reasonable adjustments in place.

How we use attendance information

Good attendance is a safeguarding matter as well as an educational one, so we keep a close eye on patterns and respond quickly. As required, we share attendance data with Hertfordshire County Council and the Department for Education.

Useful links

- Attendance policy – see policies page

- DfE Guidance for parents - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance-information-for-parents

- Family resources and support - Resources for families | Children's Commissioner for England