Attendance

We encourage and reward good attendance. Every student’s good attendance is vital as it has a clear link with progress and attainment.  At Lawnswood we aim for 100% attendance, students must be in school every day.

Students who attend less than 90% in a school year are labelled as persistently absent by the government. Persistent Absence from school is statistically proven to lower exam results by at least one grade. If you have a school attendance of 90% for 5 years at high school you have the equivalent of 3 months off school.

As a school we will support families when their child's attendance falls short of our expectations, this may mean involving the Educational Welfare Service and Leeds City Council Children’s Services.

If you are experiencing any difficulties affecting your child's attendance please do not hesitate to contact their year manager in the first instance. 

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Term Time Holidays

The Government changed the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations in relation to term time holidays on 1st September 2013.

As a result, Head Teachers can no longer allow any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. This means that holidays in term time will not be authorised and will be marked as an unauthorised absence in the school register.

Unauthorised absences may result in a Penalty Notice being issued under the provisions of the Education Act 1996 (as amended) which means that you could be fined for your child’s absence.

Note: Payment of a Penalty Notice (from September 2013), if paid within 21 days, is £60 per parent/carer, per child. If you do not pay within 21 days the fine is increased to £120 and you have a further 7 days to make this payment in full.

Non-payment of a Penalty Notice within the total 28-day period could result in the commencement of criminal proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.

The issuing of Penalty Notices relates to any unauthorised absence. Authorisation of absence is at the Head Teacher’s discretion and if your child is absent for any reason such as illness, you may be required to provide school with evidence of the absence such as a medical appointment card or prescription. Information on penalty notices is also available on the Leeds City Council and DFE websites.

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The best way to achieve good attendance and punctuality is to keep the routine going: coming to school on time every single day.

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Attendance %	Absence per week/fortnight	Absence per year	Absence over 5 year period
95%	Half day	2 weeks	Quarter of a year
90%	Half day weekly	4 weeks	Half a year
85%	One and half days fortnightly	6 weeks	Three quarters of year
80%	One day weekly	8 weeks	One year
75%	Two and half days fortnightly	10 weeks	One and quarter years
70%	One and half days weekly	12 weeks	One and half years
65%	Three and half days fortnightly	14 weeks	One and three quarter years
60%	Two days weekly	16 weeks	Two years
55%	Four and half days fortnightly	18 weeks	Two and a quarter years
50%	Two and half days weekly	20 weeks	Two and half years

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The table below highlights how important punctuality is.

Daily lateness	Equates to...
5 minutes late	3 days lost per school year
10 minutes late	6.5 days lost per school year
15 minutes late	10 days lost per school year
20 minutes late	13 days lost per school year
30 minutes late	19 days lost per school year

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Research shows that if a student misses 17 days in a school year, he/she falls one whole grade below expected results in their GCSE examinations across ALL subjects.

Attendance affects attainment: fact

Having analysed GCSE results and attendance, the facts are:

Percentage attendance within a year	How students performed
0-50%	9 grades are below targets
60-70%	8 grades are below targets
70-80%	6 grades are below targets
80-85%	4 grades are below targets
85-92%	3 grades are below targets
Over 96%	2 grades are above predicted targets